Hi all, I need your help as I messed up my complete P3Dv5 installation and I do not want to start from scratch but I do not know how to have everything ordered again. Let me explain, what I did (I know now that this was not very intelligent to do...):

1. I wanted to see if my Aerosoft products using the add-on.xml method work in v5. For this, I added a discovery path entry to my Aerosoft addon folder (D:\Aerosoft) to the add-ons.cfg under \ProgramData. This worked, P3Dv5 asked me to enable those addons inside this folder and I clicked yes.

2. Now that already several addons got an v5 installer, I removed the discovery path from the add-ons.cfg, but somehow this does not remove the addons in the folder D:\Aerosoft from being loaded. Why?

3. This small error resulted in having now double entries in both the scenery library tab as well as in the addons tab inside the P3Dv5 menue. In the scenery tab, they are greyed out as they use the add-on.xml method. In the addon tab, they are equally listed and there I could remove the checkmark. I did...

4. P3Dv5 then starts calculating and rebuilds the scenery cache and a message pops up telling me that I have to restart P3D for certain changes to have an effect. I did.

5. After the next start of P3Dv5, everything was messed up. Surprisingly, in the addons tab, the addons I unchecked were checked again while others were unchecked, a total mess. The same mess was in the scenery library: some of the sceneries based on the add-on.xml method were suddenly unchecked while those sh* sceneries in D:\Aerosoft were active again.

6. I then tried to activate again everything in the addons tab. But this simply does not work. Each time I check or uncheck something in the addons tab and click on "OK", the scenery cache is rebuilt and another mess is present, with other addons being checked or not. Completely irrational.

7. Last thing I did: I tried to fix the mess with the LorbySI Addon Manager, but the behaviour is very similar there: things I uncheck under "general addons" are checked again after a restart and things I did not touch get unchecked or disabled in the scenery tab. A complete mess...

Now, my question: how do I get this solved? Where are those *ing files that define whether or not an add-on.xml based addon or scenery is loaded or not? Where is the file that controls whether or not an addon is checked in the addon tab inside P3Dv5? And last, why does removing the discovery path from the add-ons.cfg not result in deactivating and removing those addons out of P3Dv5? I am utterly confused. Is there a possibility to delete "generated files" that basically reverts my P3Dv5 to the situation before the very first add-on.xml is loaded so I can simply click again "yes" for all those addons?

Happy for any solution preventing a complete reinstallation of P3Dv5. Thanks for reading,

Regards
Chris

The discovery path tells P3D to look for add-on folders in that directory and during each start of P3D, to add a section referencing each scenery to one of the two add-ons.cfg files if it's not already there...I think it's the file located in a subfolder under C\Users\...\roaming.  That entry in the add-ons.cfg is what actually causes P3D to load the scenery, not the discovery path.

Once that initial discovery has occurred, you'll have to remove the scenery entry from the add-ons.cfg for it not to load.  And you also have to remove the discovery path or everything found there will just get added right back back to the add-ons.cfg file next time P3D starts.

You can remove a scenery from the add-ons.cfg file using Lorby-SI's addon manager by right-clicking on it in the scenery tab, and selecting "delete"  Unchecking it in P3D's scenery library will not delete it.  PAOM will then renumber all the other entries for you.  Very handy.

If you rename the add-ons.cfg file(s) and get rid of the discovery path, you should be back to a clean slate

 

 

41 minutes ago, AnkH said:

Hi all, I need your help as I messed up my complete P3Dv5 installation and I do not want to start from scratch but I do not know how to have everything ordered again. Let me explain, what I did (I know now that this was not very intelligent to do...):

1. I wanted to see if my Aerosoft products using the add-on.xml method work in v5. For this, I added a discovery path entry to my Aerosoft addon folder (D:\Aerosoft) to the add-ons.cfg under \ProgramData. This worked, P3Dv5 asked me to enable those addons inside this folder and I clicked yes.

2. Now that already several addons got an v5 installer, I removed the discovery path from the add-ons.cfg, but somehow this does not remove the addons in the folder D:\Aerosoft from being loaded. Why?

3. This small error resulted in having now double entries in both the scenery library tab as well as in the addons tab inside the P3Dv5 menue. In the scenery tab, they are greyed out as they use the add-on.xml method. In the addon tab, they are equally listed and there I could remove the checkmark. I did...

4. P3Dv5 then starts calculating and rebuilds the scenery cache and a message pops up telling me that I have to restart P3D for certain changes to have an effect. I did.

5. After the next start of P3Dv5, everything was messed up. Surprisingly, in the addons tab, the addons I unchecked were checked again while others were unchecked, a total mess. The same mess was in the scenery library: some of the sceneries based on the add-on.xml method were suddenly unchecked while those sh* sceneries in D:\Aerosoft were active again.

6. I then tried to activate again everything in the addons tab. But this simply does not work. Each time I check or uncheck something in the addons tab and click on "OK", the scenery cache is rebuilt and another mess is present, with other addons being checked or not. Completely irrational.

7. Last thing I did: I tried to fix the mess with the LorbySI Addon Manager, but the behaviour is very similar there: things I uncheck under "general addons" are checked again after a restart and things I did not touch get unchecked or disabled in the scenery tab. A complete mess...

Now, my question: how do I get this solved? Where are those *ing files that define whether or not an add-on.xml based addon or scenery is loaded or not? Where is the file that controls whether or not an addon is checked in the addon tab inside P3Dv5? And last, why does removing the discovery path from the add-ons.cfg not result in deactivating and removing those addons out of P3Dv5? I am utterly confused. Is there a possibility to delete "generated files" that basically reverts my P3Dv5 to the situation before the very first add-on.xml is loaded so I can simply click again "yes" for all those addons?

Happy for any solution preventing a complete reinstallation of P3Dv5. Thanks for reading,

Regards
Chris

I had recently a perhaps a similar problem with double entries and P4AO. I suggest disable/remove that recovery path for aerosoft addons. Check your add-on.cfg  files (Roaming & Program Data) for duplicates, check the entries if they are active or not and control that they refer to the correct add-on.xml path. The latter may not be necessary.

15 minutes ago, w6kd said:

You can remove a scenery from the add-ons.cfg file using Lorby-SI's addon manager by right-clicking on it in the scenery tab, and selecting "delete"  Unchecking it in P3D's scenery library will not delete it.  PAOM will then renumber all the other entries for you.  Very handy.

If you rename the add-ons.cfg file(s) and get rid of the discovery path, you should be back to a clean slate

Thanks for your explanations, guys. One question remains: why does unchecking addons in the addons menue of Prepar3d v5 result in such a mess? If I uncheck some addons in this menue, P3D starts calculating something, then the message pops up that certain changes are only valid after a restart of P3D and the next time I start P3D, totally different addons are unchecked in the addons submenue. How can this be?

Specific example: I open the addons menue in P3D, I uncheck four sceneries from Aerosoft. The sim rebuilds the scenery cache, tells me that I have to restart P3D and after restarting, those four sceneries are again checked but four different sceneries from ORBX are unchecked instead. Then I checked ALL addons again in the menue, restarted P3D and now 10 or more addons are unchecked. And 10 different ones compared to the moment before...

I would swear that happened to me the other day. I unchecked specific scenery, but after restart, completely unrelated scenery got unchecked. I feel that was related with another issue I had. My Orbx scenery layering went bonkers after adding other scenery via the xml method and it completely broke the Orbx library Insertion point tool within Orbx Direct. It was showing one thing, but doing another. I ended up wiping all the scenery and nuking P3D. I basically started over. Wasted three days and nights of my time, but then again we are all under house arrest so, got plenty of time. 

Got to be honest, I've never really warmed up to the xml method and I'm still trying to figure things out after five P3D revisions. I miss the simple days of just reorganizing your scenery in the scenery library and it wouldn't budge, shift around, or do other weirdness. I'm still trying to understand the layering logic and why sceneries keep moving around and requiring P4AO to sort it. Very annoying. 

 

I also saw some strange behaviour when unchecking ORBX Addons via P3D addon menu.

• I opend and started the sim P3D V5 and  unchecked ORBX LC Germany north, south,and LC Europe,
• I saved/accepted this and closed the sim
• I opened the Lorbi addon organizer and saw that Taxi 2 Gate LFPG and OTHH where "unchecked" and the ORBX products, wich I unchecked via P3D where still active
• I closed the Addon organizer without saving
• I started P3D again and activated the ORBX products again
• I accepted the setting and closed the sim
• I opened the Lorbi addon organizer and saw that Taxi2Gate LFPG and OTHH where active again

My ORBX products are all installed via ORBX central newest version (incl Fastlane optin)

All the ORBX products are installed in a library and nothing is installed in the Root P3D folder

Anyone else seeing this?

Marcus

1 hour ago, AnkH said:

Thanks for your explanations, guys. One question remains: why does unchecking addons in the addons menue of Prepar3d v5 result in such a mess? If I uncheck some addons in this menue, P3D starts calculating something, then the message pops up that certain changes are only valid after a restart of P3D and the next time I start P3D, totally different addons are unchecked in the addons submenue. How can this be?

Specific example: I open the addons menue in P3D, I uncheck four sceneries from Aerosoft. The sim rebuilds the scenery cache, tells me that I have to restart P3D and after restarting, those four sceneries are again checked but four different sceneries from ORBX are unchecked instead. Then I checked ALL addons again in the menue, restarted P3D and now 10 or more addons are unchecked. And 10 different ones compared to the moment before...

This sounds like you may have either a circular dependency or duplicate packages somewhere, possibly caused by the discovery paths. 

One thing to be aware of is, that the add-ons.cfg files (both of them) should not be edited manually. That will interfere with the sim, especially when you alter the one in AppData\Roaming. That file is for autodiscovery only, and the sim manages it automatically. Any manual interference can trip it up. If you have to manipulate an add-ons.cfg file, it is the one in \ProgramData - and that one should only be accessed using the CLI.

I think that you probably have the same package defined as autodiscovery and as CLI - so the package definition is in BOTH add-ons.cfg files. That would happen when you add a discovery path. This will result in the packages being added to the add-ons.cfg in \ProgramData. Now you remove the discovery path - but the packages are still there! If you then drop the same package (or an updated version) in \Documents\P3D addons, then they are added to the add-ons.cfg in AppData\Roaming - and the same content (the same but not identical) is referenced twice, once from Autodiscovery in V5 and the other pointing back at your initial trial with the V4 packages.

Possible resolution: delete/rename the add-ons.cfg in AppData\Roaming. Clean out any remnants that shouldn't be there from the add-ons.cfg in \ProgramData. Now start the sim, activate the autodiscovery packages. Never touch the add-ons.cfg files again.

Best regards

Edited April 24, 20206 yr by Lorby_SI

Ok guys, with your help I got everything sorted and both my scenery library and my addons list are back to normal with only those things active that I want and in the correct ordering. Thanks a thousand times for this fast and quick help. Not going to mess around with the discovery path anymore ;-) (BTW: I did this before Lorby-SI AM was installed).