3 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

I had too many to count suggestions from Beta promoters, when I complained that my Track IR was broken, saying " why don't you just install  the beta??" . I stood my ground, and figured I would wait until the beta was officially  released, and it turned out to be a great decision. 

This was truly a learning experience.  FS2020 is actually easy to reinstall.  Your folder with all your settings is retained if you go into 'Add Remove' and uninstall the program. The big thing is you have to back up your community folder or make it a habit to back up your community folder.  When the sim has an issue do a backup then delete the community folder in your main FS directory (again it's backed up), go uninstall the application.  From there go to the Microsoft Store and reinstall it.  Reboot your machine, launch FS, point it to your old location and it's back up in record time.  Then just copy back your community folder and that's it.  Defrag your drive if you're not on a solid state.  Took me 20 minutes at the most to have my full sim back once I got around the patch waiting loop.  I had to do a complete shut down and then power back up.  From there it found what it needed and loaded up.

So all in all after years of FS9/P3D I never seen a turnaround like this for a sim with the amount of add-ons I have.  Yes things like FSDreamteams scenery may have to be reinstalled with their weird registration (haven't tried it yet as I'm in the middle of a defrag) but again FS2020's ease of use is amazing.  So with the frustration I got a chance to see how quick in a disaster situation I can bring the sim back.  If my computer died or I had a HD failure as long as I made regular backups of my community folder 20 minutes at the most is all that's needed (a HD failure would have me redoing all my FS settings as there's no folder to go back to).  Asobo botched this once again but just the same in a bind I now know what to expect with a reinstall.

Edited January 14, 20224 yr by Dillon

So now I have to install the ENTIRE game again? 

10 minutes ago, fakeflyer737 said:

So now I have to install the ENTIRE game again? 

See my post above, it's not as bad as it seems.  Getting around that 'patch waiting loop' means you'll need to completely shut down your PC and then load it back up after you deleted the sim through 'Add Remove'.  Don't delete your directory that FS was originally in as you'll need that once the sim reinstalls and it displays the folder location (you'll have to change it from the default it's showing).  Once it sorts itself out it's going to need that directory for all your old settings.  Then just copy back your community folder and that's it.👍

Edited January 14, 20224 yr by Dillon

This is what happens when people treat a beta as a normal update. Being a beta tester means you take risk with what you're beta testing. This is why people should never have told people that were effected by all the problems of SU7 just to install the beta.

You should never install a beta unless you're willing to be a guinea pig. You are testing software for a company which may have many faults, cause many problems, etc. and yes, may even include complete re-installs. While beta testing, your purpose is to give feedback to the software company so that they may fix bugs, iron out features, etc. Beta testing is not to overcome deficiencies, bugs, etc. but everyone treated it just as that. You may beta test something and never have any problems, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it is still beta testing. If you truly understand what being a beta tester is and still want to do it, then go for it. Just don't encourage others to run it as an upgrade, temp. fix to problems, etc.

Wow! Double Wow! So crazy that could happen. Yes, you are warned, but that is just over the top what has happened to some users, especially this far into the sim.

41 minutes ago, Dillon said:

This was truly a learning experience.  FS2020 is actually easy to reinstall.  Your folder with all your settings is retained if you go into 'Add Remove' and uninstall the program. The big thing is you have to back up your community folder or make it a habit to back up your community folder.  When the sim has an issue do a backup then delete the community folder in your main FS directory (again it's backed up), go uninstall the application.  From there go to the Microsoft Store and reinstall it.  Reboot your machine, launch FS, point it to your old location and it's back up in record time.  Then just copy back your community folder and that's it.  Defrag your drive if you're not on a solid state.  Took me 20 minutes at the most to have my full sim back once I got around the patch waiting loop.  I had to do a complete shut down and then power back up.  From there it found what it needed and loaded up.

So all in all after years of FS9/P3D I never seen a turnaround like this for a sim.  Yes things like FSDreamteams scenery may have to be reinstalled with their weird registration (haven't tried it yet as I'm in the middle of a defrag) but again FS2020's ease of use is amazing.  So with the frustration I got a chance to see how quick in a disaster situation I can bring the sim back.  If my computer died or I had a HD failure as long as I made regular backups of my community folder 20 minutes at the most is all that's needed (a HD failure would have me redoing all my FS settings as there's no folder to go back to).  Asobo botched this once again but just the same in a bind I now know what to expect now.

Solid point!

From how far we've come the new MSFS's filing system pertaining to addons is pretty darn amazing and something I'm extremely grateful for!
In the past having to rebuild a sim folder filled to the brim with addons would really make a simmer want to go jump off of a cliff instead. The registry entries, the reinstallations etc etc.MSFS's Community Folder makes addons a cake walk compared to what you used to endure in FSX/P3D with having to rebuild scenery configs/xmls. Simply drag and drop/copy paste addon folders into Community Folder and launch the sim.

The Community Folder method alone is to be thankful for, here I am sitting on 250GB worth of aircraft and scenery addons IN ONE FOLDER that can simply be copied/backed up or swapped out without interfering with the vanilla sim's file integrity!!!

Amazing!!!🍻

 

Edited January 14, 20224 yr by blueshark747

1 hour ago, Phantoms said:

This is what happens when people treat a beta as a normal update. Being a beta tester means you take risk with what you're beta testing. This is why people should never have told people that were effected by all the problems of SU7 just to install the beta.

You should never install a beta unless you're willing to be a guinea pig. You are testing software for a company which may have many faults, cause many problems, etc. and yes, may even include complete re-installs. While beta testing, your purpose is to give feedback to the software company so that they may fix bugs, iron out features, etc. Beta testing is not to overcome deficiencies, bugs, etc. but everyone treated it just as that. You may beta test something and never have any problems, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it is still beta testing. If you truly understand what being a beta tester is and still want to do it, then go for it. Just don't encourage others to run it as an upgrade, temp. fix to problems, etc.

I bet the majority of these "beta testers" haven't a clue as to what it is like to really beta test something. They just thought it was a way to get some bug fixes early, and that's it. 

Edited January 14, 20224 yr by Bobsk8

I backup my entire c:/fs2020 install folder not just the community folder.

ns

Ohhhhhhh noooooooooooooo   me too 🤬

• I carefully read all the MS warnings this time, Transferred my "packages" folder to another drive, etc. before joining the flight.
• Left the flight several days early, as suggested.
• MSFS wanted to reinstall something like 150gb of files, essentially a full reinstall.
• Pointed it to the relocated download folder, and after checking the files MSFS had me up and running in minutes.

It can be a traumatic process if you miss the steps, but disaster is far from a forgone conclusion, and there actually was ample warning, this time.

I have a non-standard installation, joined the beta, opted out of the beta, carefully followed all instructions. Result: a smooth and troublefree installation. 

Please tell me that those of you who are having to reload the entire sim are NOT putting it back at the default location....

Plus,  please, please, please..... use the MSFS Addon Manager for your community folder.   Those two simple things will future proof you from hours if not days of reloading.

Enough shaming,   that said, Asobo has got to find a way to keep this sort of thing from happening in the future.   No update, Beta or not, should destroy your entire installation and community folder.  We all should expect more from this developer than the current process.  The fact that they were warning us ahead of time means they were aware of what the outcome would be.....  Make a better update process should be high on their list.

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

I have a non-standard installation, joined the beta, opted out of the beta, carefully followed all instructions. Result: a smooth and troublefree installation. 

Yup same smooth and trouble-free installation. I heard about horror stories just like this thread for example and backed up my community folder, and my user settings but it turns out those weren't affected at all.  

 To put it into perspective, this is my first time trying the beta and the process was so smooth that when I opted out of the beta I didn't even need to download anything!  Like wait that's it? No issues at all?

I am using steam, and I installed my msfs folder on a different default drive which might explains why. 

 

2 hours ago, bszuch said:

Enough shaming,   that said, Asobo has got to find a way to keep this sort of thing from happening in the future.   No update, Beta or not, should destroy your entire installation and community folder.  We all should expect more from this developer than the current process.  The fact that they were warning us ahead of time means they were aware of what the outcome would be.....  Make a better update process should be high on their list.

I disagree.

The update process - while not entirely intuitive - is simple to follow and implement IF you follow instructions.

Double post due to connection error

Edited January 14, 20224 yr by Rudiii