This is one of the most common questions from first-time commissioners, and the honest answer is: yes, manually — and most people who try it stop.
What OOTP can and cannot do
OOTP moves files two ways:
- Team exports: FTP only.
- League file download: FTP, or a plain HTTP URL.
There is no Google Drive integration, no Dropbox integration, no API. You cannot point OOTP at a Drive folder and have it work. If you use cloud storage, you are the transfer mechanism.
The manual approach
It looks like this:
- You sim, then upload the league file to Drive or Dropbox.
- You message everyone that it is ready.
- Each manager downloads it and drops it into their saved games folder by hand.
- Each manager plays, exports their team, and uploads that file back.
- You download every team file and drop them into your
import_exportfolder. - You run Import teams from local folder instead of from server.
It works. OOTP explicitly supports importing from a local folder for exactly this reason — the manual mentions it as the fallback "when FTP server problems force managers to send files through e-mail."
What it actually costs
Every manager must be reliable, every cycle. With FTP, a manager who forgets is a manager who did not export. With manual transfer, a manager who forgets is you chasing them, downloading their file, and placing it yourself.
You become the bottleneck. Sim night means downloading a dozen files and sorting them before you can sim.
Nothing in-game works. "Download latest league file" and "Export team via FTP" both fail. Managers lose the buttons the game is built around, and every new manager needs the manual process explained.
Cloud sync and save files do not mix. The "just put the whole save in a synced folder" variant is worse than it sounds. One commissioner who tried it with Dropbox put it plainly: "It was a super pain and we ended up giving it up after a few back and forth." Sync conflicts, partially written files, and two people opening the save at once will corrupt it. It can work for two people who coordinate carefully. It does not scale.
There is no league website. No uploaded reports means no standings page, no news, nothing to link your league to.
When manual transfer is genuinely fine
- Two or three managers who all talk daily. The overhead is small and you will notice immediately if something is wrong.
- A one-off or short league where setup time would exceed the league's lifespan.
- You are testing whether an online league is something your group wants.
For a real league with six or more managers running a full season, the manual overhead compounds every single cycle.
The middle option people miss
You do not need FTP for downloads. If you already have a website — many commissioners do — you can host the league file there and give OOTP a League File URL over HTTP. Managers get the in-game download button back, and you only need FTP for team exports.
See HTTP or FTP for league file downloads.
What proper hosting costs
| Option | Cost | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud storage, manual | Free | Every transfer, by hand, every cycle |
| Shared web hosting | $3–10/mo | Configure cPanel, FTP accounts, permissions |
| Your own VPS | $4–6/mo | Install and maintain an FTP server |
| Purpose-built OOTP hosting | from $5/mo | Nothing — folders and accounts are ready |
The gap between free and $5/month is one coffee. The gap in your time is an hour a week, every week, for a season.
If you want the configured version, SimHosts provisions the server, the folders, and both accounts in about two minutes.