switching mt5 to a different broker server - what breaks and what to watch out for
-
switching brokers and want to move my mt5 setup to the new broker's server. i have custom indicators, eas, templates, and saved chart layouts. trying to understand what survives a broker switch and what i'll need to redo.
-
the clean approach is to install a fresh mt5 for the new broker rather than trying to swap servers in the same installation. brokers often provide their own mt5 build with specific server configurations. your custom indicators (mql5 files) transfer completely - just copy the mql5/indicators folder. eas the same. templates and profiles also transfer via copy. what doesn't transfer: chart history (rebuilds from new broker's server) and any broker-specific settings.
-
the chart history rebuild is the main inconvenience. on your first login to the new broker server mt5 will download history from that broker, which can take a few minutes for all watched symbols. older history may not go back as far as your previous broker if they have different data retention. check that the historical data length you need is available before fully committing to the switch.
-
do custom indicators need to be recompiled for the new broker's mt5 version or do the compiled files transfer as-is?
-
compiled .ex5 files usually transfer fine between mt5 instances if the mt5 build versions are similar. if the new broker runs a significantly different mt5 build version you may need to recompile from source (.mq5 files). always keep the source files, not just the compiled binaries. if you only have .ex5 files from a third party you might hit compatibility issues on major version differences.
-
did this switch last year. the profiles and templates transferred perfectly. the one thing that didn't: saved workspaces that had positions shown from the old account obviously don't carry over (the new broker has different position ids). also check that your symbol names match between brokers - some use EURUSD, others use EURUSDm or similar variants which breaks indicator inputs that reference symbol names.
-
symbol naming difference is the sneaky one. if your ea or indicator has hardcoded symbol names it'll break silently. test every ea and indicator on the new broker demo before using it live. one afternoon of testing prevents a nasty surprise during live trading.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login