Last spring I migrated my trading setup to a new VPS. Clean install, fresh MT5, logged into my broker — and stared at a blank terminal. Twelve charts, gone. My volume profile configurations, my session shading, my ATR bands, the exact color scheme I'd tuned over two years: all gone. I spent 45 minutes rebuilding the first four charts before I remembered I had a backup of the old VPS. What I didn't know, and what nobody had told me, was that MT5 never stored any of it "in the cloud." Templates and profiles live in files on your machine, and if you don't know which files, a migration wipes you out. That week I rebuilt my setup three times. This mt5 template and profile saving guide is the manual I wish I'd had — including how I now deploy my Volume Profile MT5 indicator across a dozen charts in under two minutes.
My Template Workflow After a Broker Server Move
These days, the first thing I do on any new terminal is build one perfect chart. EURUSD, H1. Volume Profile MT5 loaded with my session settings, ATR bands, dark background, grid off, the crosshair tuned. Then: right-click the chart → Template → Save Template → I name it DW-Volume-H1. That single file becomes the seed for everything.
New pair? Open the chart, right-click → Template → Load Template → DW-Volume-H1. Four seconds, and GBPUSD looks exactly like EURUSD did. I keep separate templates per timeframe because my H1 and D1 setups genuinely differ — profile lookback, indicator visibility, bar spacing. My naming convention is DW-[style]-[timeframe], and I never deviate, because at 2 AM during a server move you don't want to guess which "Template 7" was the right one.
Profiles are the bigger container. File → Profiles → Save As → London-Session. A profile remembers the entire workspace: which charts are open, their symbols, timeframes, and arrangement. Templates dress one chart; profiles remember the whole room. I keep three profiles: London-Session (8 majors), Gold-Focus (XAUUSD across 4 timeframes plus DXY), and Weekend-Review (D1 charts for journaling). Switching profiles takes two clicks and rearranges my whole terminal. When I moved brokers last year and the server change reset my workspace, the profile file I'd backed up restored everything in seconds. The broker MT5 server stability check is worth running after any migration, since a shaky new server can corrupt profile saves mid-write.
How Much Setup Time a Template Actually Saves
I timed myself, because I wanted to know whether this was actually worth the discipline. It is. Absurdly so.
| Variable | Meaning | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| Manual setup | Configuring one chart by hand | 11 minutes (my measured avg) |
| Charts | Charts in my workspace | 12 |
| Template apply | Loading a saved template | 0.1 minutes (6 seconds) |
| Template build | One-time perfect-chart build | 15 minutes |
The math: (11 × 12) − (0.1 × 12) − 15 = 132 − 1.2 − 15 = 115.8 minutes saved on a single rebuild. I rebuilt three times that week. That's nearly six hours of my life a template would have given back. The formula also tells you the break-even: with 11-minute manual setups, a template pays for itself the second time you use it.
Three Template Disasters I've Personally Caused
Disaster one: I saved my template but not my profile. The charts looked perfect — but the workspace arrangement, the symbol list, the four-chart gold layout? Gone. Templates save a chart. Profiles save the terminal. I learned the difference by losing half of it.
Disaster two: I built a beautiful template referencing a custom indicator, then deleted that indicator during a "cleanup." Every chart loaded from the template threw "indicator not found" errors and rendered half-dressed. The template doesn't bundle the indicator — it references it by name. Delete the indicator, break every template that uses it. Now I keep a _do-not-delete.txt list of indicators my templates depend on.
Disaster three is the subtle one: I applied my EURUSD template to USDJPY without thinking. The template carried over symbol-specific drawn levels — support lines I'd drawn at 1.0850 — onto a yen chart where they were meaningless clutter. Templates save drawings too. Now I keep a "clean" template with no drawings for cross-symbol use, and a separate annotated one per symbol. The cent account trading guide mentions a similar gotcha with EAs carrying magic numbers across symbols — same class of mistake.
Templates vs Profiles: What's Stored Where
This is the core of mt5 template and profile saving, and the part most tutorials gloss over. Here's exactly what each one holds.
| Aspect | Template (.tpl) | Profile |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One chart | Whole terminal workspace |
| Saves indicators | Yes, with their inputs | Yes, via the charts it stores |
| Saves EAs | Yes, with inputs (AutoTrading still needed) | Yes, per chart |
| Saves drawings | Yes — clean before cross-symbol use | Yes |
| File location | MQL5/Profiles/Templates/ | MQL5/Profiles/Charts/ |
One quirk worth knowing: templates are per-data-folder. If you run two MT5 terminals (portable mode, two brokers), each has its own Templates folder. I once "lost" a template for an hour before realizing I'd saved it in the other terminal's folder. Copy the .tpl file across and both terminals share it. The official MetaQuotes MT5 page and the MQL5 documentation both document the file layout if you want the full reference.
Volume Profile MT5: Input Fields I Bake Into My Template
My template's real payload is the Volume Profile MT5 indicator configuration. Here's what each field means and the values I settled on after months of tweaking.
| Input Field | What it means | Sample value |
|---|---|---|
| Profile mode | Fixed range vs. rolling session profile | Session |
| Rows / granularity | Price slices in the histogram | 100 |
| Value area % | Share of volume defining the value zone | 70% |
| POC line | Show point-of-control price line | true |
| Session start (server) | When the daily profile resets | 00:00 |
Because these inputs live inside the template, every chart I dress with DW-Volume-H1 inherits the identical profile configuration. No drift, no "wait, why does GBPUSD's value area look different" — because it can't. Consistency of tooling is an underrated edge.
$100,000 Account: One Template, Eight Pairs, Ten Minutes
Here's the full deployment I ran when I added a second $100,000 prop account and needed an identical workspace. Timed, step by step.
| Step | Action | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Copy .tpl + profile files from old terminal's data folder | 2 min |
| 2 | Paste into new terminal's MQL5/Profiles/Templates/ | 1 min |
| 3 | Open 8 pair charts, apply template to each | 4 min |
| 4 | File → Profiles → Save As "Prop-100k" | 30 sec |
| 5 | Verify each chart: profile, ATR, session shading present | 2 min |
Total: under ten minutes for a workspace that took two years to evolve. The prop account's risk rules are strict — 5% max drawdown — and having identical, pre-tested chart tooling on every pair means I never misread a level because "this chart looks different." The Asian session performance notes pair well with this setup, since I run a dedicated profile for the overnight session with wider profile lookbacks.
Template and Profile Questions, Answered
What's the actual difference between a template and a profile?
A template saves one chart — its indicators, colors, and drawings — as a .tpl file. A profile saves your entire terminal workspace: all open charts, their symbols and timeframes, and the window layout. Use templates to dress charts identically; use profiles to restore your whole setup after a crash or migration.
Where are MT5 templates stored on my computer?
In the terminal's data folder: MQL5 → Profiles → Templates. Open it via File → Open Data Folder in MT5. Profiles live in MQL5 → Profiles → Charts. Back up both folders before any migration — they're small, usually under 5 MB total, and they're your entire workspace.
Do templates save my expert advisors too?
Yes — an EA attached to the chart is saved in the template with its input values. But the EA file itself must exist in the new terminal, and AutoTrading must be enabled for it to trade. The template remembers the configuration, not the program.
Can I share a .tpl file with another trader?
Yes, just send the .tpl file — but the recipient needs the same indicators installed, or the template loads with errors. I always include a note listing the required indicators and where to get them. Built-in indicators work everywhere; custom ones don't.
Why did my template load without the indicators?
Almost always a missing indicator or a renamed one. Templates reference indicators by name — if the .ex5 isn't in MQL5/Indicators, MT5 skips it silently. Check the Experts/Journal tab for "cannot load indicator" messages; they'll name the exact file that's missing.
Do profiles sync between my home PC and VPS?
No — nothing in MT5 syncs automatically. Copy the profile folders manually (or use a cloud sync folder pointed at the data folder, carefully). I keep my Templates folder in a synced drive and copy it into each new terminal — 30 seconds that has saved me hours.
Will a template work across different brokers?
Yes for charts and indicators, with one caveat: symbol names. If broker A calls it XAUUSD and broker B calls it XAUUSD.pro, a profile referencing the old symbol opens blank charts. Templates applied manually to the correct symbol work fine regardless of broker.
How do I back up everything before reinstalling MT5?
Copy three folders from the data folder: MQL5/Profiles (templates + profiles), MQL5/Indicators (custom indicators), and MQL5/Experts (EAs). After reinstall, paste them back before first launch. Total size is usually under 50 MB, and it restores years of configuration in minutes.