Addon Linker Messed Up?

[Rocky_53 1,566]

OK, so I followed everyone's advice and good reviews about this addon, but somewhere I think I have screwed up. All seems good in the app, but for some reason I am still left with what looks like shortcuts in the community folder, but they still have files in them! Also, equally irritating is Orbx Central is no longer showing my addons as owned. I assume this is because when they were installed they were pointed to my Community folder in MSFS and not an external library folder (?) So how do I rectify this? So two issues which I am unsure how to rectify. Help would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

[hansb57 492]

With shortcuts it always seems if there are sub folders inside. But if you look at the community folder properties you see that it is 0 bytes.

 

[Matchstick 1,885]

A community folder full of shortcuts that point to real files is exactly what Addon Linker is meant to create.

MSFS is always going to look in the Community folder for addons but what Addon Linker allows you to create are Links in the community folder that look to MSFS just like ordinary folders but in reality point to real folders in other places.

[pmb 5,137]

13 minutes ago, Rockliffe said:

Also, equally irritating is Orbx Central is no longer showing my addons as owned. I assume this is because when they were installed they were pointed to my Community folder in MSFS and not an external library folder (?)

I have the ORBX addons installed into the simulator (not an external libary). If I buy a new one, I shift it to the appropriate Linker directory (mostly ordered according to countries).

When I want to manage ORBX addons, I activate all links in the LInker. If I now open ORBX Central, I see all ORBX addons I own as installed. Plus, if there are updates, the links relay them to the appropriate directories.

There may be other ways to do it, but that works for me.

Kind regards, Michael

Edited October 26, 2021 by pmb

[Rocky_53 1,566]

2 minutes ago, hansb57 said:

With shortcuts it always seems if there are sub folders inside. But if you look at the community folder properties you see that it is 0 bytes.

 

Hmm, precisely, but go into properties and it's showing 3.88Gb of addons?!

[Nemo 1,305]

39 minutes ago, pmb said:

I have the ORBX addons installed into the simulator (not an external libary). If I buy a new one, I shift it to the appropriate Linker directory (mostly ordered according to countries).

When I want to manage ORBX addons, I activate all links in the LInker. If I now open ORBX Central, I see all ORBX addons I own as installed. Plus, if there are updates, the links relay them to the appropriate directories.

There may be other ways to do it, but that works for me.

Kind regards, Michael

Hi Michael, not sure if I understood you correctly. You install an ORBX airport into the MSFS file system, which means you get a folder like "orbx-airport-abcd" in the community folder. But how do you connect this folder with the AddonLinker w/o physically moving it? I have a folder called "MSFS Addons" where I have all my downloads in separate subfolders like "NAM" "EUR" "Libraries" ... So I can choose in AddonLinker which folders and subfolders I want to have active. How can I adapt this system for ORBX add-ons?

Edited October 26, 2021 by Nemo

[bbking 80]

42 minutes ago, Rockliffe said:

Hmm, precisely, but go into properties and it's showing 3.88Gb of addons?!

IMHO this is correct. I have the same results. The link refers to the original location:

Kind regards Bouwe

[pmb 5,137]

35 minutes ago, Nemo said:

But how do you connect this folder with the AddonLinker w/o physically moving it? I have a folder called "MSFS Addons" where I have all my downloads in separate subfolders like "NAM" "EUR" "Libraries" ... So I can choose in AddonLinker which folders and subfolders I want to have active. How can I adapt this system for ORBX add-ons?

I do physically move it from the Community folder into the appropriate subdirectory under MSFS Addons (where all the addons physically reside and from where the linker makes the links). Sometimes I move them just  using Windows explorer, but sometimes using the "Move addon" function of the linker. It works both ways.

Now, If I want to fly in "Germany", I activate the Germany folder containing all Germany addons including those from ORBX using the linker.

Kind regards, Michael

[andy1252 3,766]

1 hour ago, Rockliffe said:

I am still left with what looks like shortcuts in the community folder, but they still have files in them

Hi Howard, this is correct. The linked entries look like shortcuts and will show all the files and space allocations of the linked files. But they're not physically in the community folder.

1 hour ago, Rockliffe said:

Orbx Central is no longer showing my addons as owned.

Two questions. How did you originally have your orbx stuff installed - in a library or in the sim? And either way, what did you do to them to get the linker to know about them?

cheers,

Andy

[Nemo 1,305]

5 minutes ago, pmb said:

I do physically move it from the Community folder into the appropriate subdirectory under MSFS Addons (where all the addons physically reside and from where the linker makes the links). Sometimes I move them just  using Windows explorer, but sometimes using the "Move addon" function of the linker. It works both ways.

Now, If I want to fly in "Germany", I activate the Germany folder containing all Germany addons including those from ORBX using the linker.

Kind regards, Michael

Ok, understood. But then my ORBX Central indicates this add-on as not installed, and it will not be checked for available updates. Or do I miss something?

[Rocky_53 1,566]

50 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

Hi Howard, this is correct. The linked entries look like shortcuts and will show all the files and space allocations of the linked files. But they're not physically in the community folder.

Two questions. How did you originally have your orbx stuff installed - in a library or in the sim? And either way, what did you do to them to get the linker to know about them?

cheers,

Andy

Hi Andy, I see, even though in properties for both locations they are showing the files are there?  Sure, originally Orbx sceneries have been installed into the main MSFS library and not into a separate folder... so now I am perplexed as to how to get them to show up in the correct place so I have them shown as owned in my Orbx Central account (?)  EDIT: I was having a Fred Flintstone moment, sure, sorted the shortcuts  Ah, I see what I have to do, change the library destination inside Orbx Central. Done that and all seems good. All seems good. I've been away from simming properly for some time and my brain has turned to mush 😉

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Rockliffe

[pmb 5,137]

1 hour ago, Nemo said:

Ok, understood. But then my ORBX Central indicates this add-on as not installed, and it will not be checked for available updates. Or do I miss something?

Before opening ORBX Central, I activate all addons using the corresponding (green checkmark) Linker  button. This activates all links, and as a result, ORBX Central shows all addons I own as installed.

I've done this numerous times and it always worked.

Kind regards, Michael

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

7 minutes ago, pmb said:

Before opening ORBX Central, I activate all addons using the corresponding (green checkmark) Linker  button. This activates all links, and as a result, ORBX Central shows all addons I own as installed.

I've done this numerous times and it always worked.

Kind regards, Michael

I am sure there are different ways of doing this, but asking Orbx Central to install the addons into a separate library simplifies this situation..  Orbx now sees all the addons, all the time, and you can activate and deactivate the links via the Addon Linker at will.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Bert Pieke

[pmb 5,137]

20 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

I am sure there are different ways of doing this, but asking Orbx Central to install the addons into a separate library simplifies this situation..  Orbx now sees all the addons, all the time, and you can activate and deactivate the links via the Addon Linker at will.

This certainly works as well. This has the advantage of simplifying installation of new addons.

My method has the advantage organizing the ORBX addons according to countries and only activating those where I actually fly, which should help with loading times in view of the fact that I own nearly all ORBX MSFS addons.

Kind regards, Michael
 

[andy1252 3,766]

1 hour ago, pmb said:

My method has the advantage organizing the ORBX addons according to countries and only activating those where I actually fly, which should help with loading times in view of the fact that I own nearly all ORBX MSFS addons.

I already had an Orbx library set up before I got in to the addons linker, so I kept that as it was for Orbx Central. But now I also have entries in my own addons folder structure that are themselves symlinks to the actual files in the Orbx library. So when I activate a particular Orbx scenery now, the addon linker creates a junction in the community folder that connects to a symlink in my addons folder that points to the actual files in the Orbs library! Perfectly simple really <grin>. It also means that any updates to existing Orbx products can find the files they need in the Orbx library without me having to do anything. When Central does an update, it will find the files in its library ok, and create a new symlink in the community folder. As long as the folder name in the symlink is the same as before (and it usually is) all I do is delete this new symlink as the one I already have in my addons folder structure is still valid. If I install a new Orbx product, I then have to create my own new folder and symlink in my addons folder structure and then delete the link Central places in the community folder.

It might sound complicated, but it's not really, and it leaves me in the same situation as you - I simply activate any particular region or specific airport I want to visit before I load the sim, and Orbx handles its own updates without my involvement.

I also have folders for stuff bought from the MS Store, as well as default airports that I want to leave disabled normally (for example Liverpool John Lennon) because of conflicts with pay/freeware versions I have. The addons linker then enables me to remove everything from the community folder and then reinstate everything in the official folder whenever there's a sim update to do. Once the update is done I can then make sure all the official content is also updated, then de-activate all the official content I don't need via the linker. If you have a decent file manager (I use Directory Opus) then the fact that the files in the official folder are encrypted is not a problem - they can easily be copied out and the encryption turned off.

The Addon Linker is an absolute necessity for me. I can't imagine trying to run the sim without it.