With the big updates only two days away, now is the time to make a backup of your "community" folder, and maybe even your "official" folder.  Before you tuck in for the evening after a great flight, put that hard drive to work and save your stuff!
I hope none of it is needed, but better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Blue skies to all!

3 minutes ago, Odepane said:

With the big updates only two days away, now is the time to make a backup of your "community" folder, and maybe even your "official" folder.  Before you tuck in for the evening after a great flight, put that hard drive to work and save your stuff!
I hope none of it is needed, but better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Blue skies to all!

I agree with the advice for an overall backup and have one planned for tomorrow night. But if using the great Addons Linker utility effectively, the Community folder can easily be emptied, and thus no issue.

Not sure what this is all about. I never did any backup or did i flush my community folder. Never had any issues after an update.

Just chill, install the update and enjoy.

Don't fall for those self fulfilling prophecies.

never made a backup of my Community folder. all you need to do is either rename or better to be safe, move it temporarily out of the MSFS folder so the installation program can not touch or overwrite it with a new empty Community folder. after successful installation of the update rename or move your original community folder back to what/where it was before. moving even the largest, whole Community subdirectory somewhere else on the same partition takes only a second, because no files get physically moved on the SSD/harddisk, only the directory entry changes. that's all.

Edited November 17, 20214 yr by turbomax

Back up your official folder? Really? Why? 

10 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

Back up your official folder? Really? Why? 

Paranoia. 🙂

53 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

Back up your official folder? Really? Why? 

Actually he is right! When the update rolls the update rolls!  No choice.  Restoring a backup will only trigger the update again!

1 minute ago, fppilot said:

Actually he is right! When the update rolls the update rolls!  No choice.  Restoring a backup will only trigger the update again!

Great point! Have a 'Like'.

the default aircraft frequently have specific files altered, sometimes not for the better (SU4, SU5 come to mind right off).  That would be the reason to backup the official folder in the event you need a specific file. 

Sorry my good intentions stirred up such toxic hostility.

3 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Not sure what this is all about. I never did any backup or did i flush my community folder. Never had any issues after an update.

Reasonable thought has it that after an update, if the Community folder was not cleaned out, issues were most likely caused by an addon still there that was no longer compatible following the update.  If that has indeed been the case then it appears too convenient to point the finger at the update. 

Now!  That comment is in no way to say that updates in-and-of-themselves have not caused issues.  Certainly on occasions updates clearly have caused issues.

Thence come hotfixes.

59 minutes ago, Odepane said:

Sorry my good intentions stirred up such toxic hostility.

your good intentions are very welcome!

I simply wanted to add an additional alternative. Before I backup MSFS, I would always backup Windows or the C:\ drive first instead. that is a lot more tedious to re-install manually. backing up the Community folder is optional.  

I just rename the community folder. The sim will just create a new empty one. Once the update is complete I delete the new one and rename the old one back.

Edited November 17, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

2 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

I just rename the community folder. The sim will just create a new empty one. Once the update is complete I delete the new one and rename the old one back.

Not quite sure what that would accomplish.. sorry..  The sim does not touch the Community folder, unless you remove it, as you are doing.

Making a backup of the Official folder on the other hand, might indeed come in handy.. as we have seen when they borked the Bonanza in the last update, and finding a couple of backup files was the fix.. 🙂

Edited November 17, 20214 yr by Bert Pieke

7 hours ago, Odepane said:

With the big updates only two days away, now is the time to make a backup of your "community" folder, and maybe even your "official" folder. 

Urban legend. Useless and potentially harmful.

The updates have never added files or modified files stored in Community.

As backing up the Official folder, mixing older files with the latest version of the sim, good luck, it sounds to me a good recipe to bring havoc in the sim.

There is no hostility in saying that, just saying that you are wrong . 
 

2 hours ago, turbomax said:

your good intentions are very welcome!

I simply wanted to add an additional alternative. Before I backup MSFS, I would always backup Windows or the C:\ drive first instead. that is a lot more tedious to re-install manually. backing up the Community folder is optional.  

what I do before an update, is to shape up a clay figurine, call it CTD and pierce it with needles. It works every time. Well, almost. At least it worked once.

Edited November 17, 20214 yr by Dominique_K

3 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

5 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

I just rename the community folder. The sim will just create a new empty one. Once the update is complete I delete the new one and rename the old one back.

Not quite sure what that would accomplish.. sorry..  The sim does not touch the Community folder,

it has touched the Community folder for me, once. I think all my Community content got lost because the install program created a new one, thereby deleting everything that was in my heavily filled original Community. renaming or moving the Community takes but a second and is 100% install-proof.

@Dominique_K

" to shape up a clay figurine, call it CTD and pierce it with needles. It works every time"

didn't know that, I'll have to try it.