I'll deal with this when I get back home next weekend. No more betas for me moving forward, should have known better by now. Thanks for the input all.

57 minutes ago, Drumcode said:

I'll deal with this when I get back home next weekend. No more betas for me moving forward, should have known better by now. Thanks for the input all.

You are not the only beta victim here. 🤣 It took me full three days to reinstall MSFS and all add ons LOL. And yes unless Asobo change something I won't signing up for beta next one as well !

My biggest gripe on this is that when the auto-opt-out of the beta runs, it doesn't look to your current install but just offers to install the sim again in the default location.
For me that's just one giant big mistake. It should look to where the latest install resides and then offer to "update" to the stable version instead of re-installing the entire sim again.
I pointed the installer back to my own location and within a minute the switch was made, no re-install of the entire game. For those who skipped this offered step, a re-download/install is what happened.
Another thing which should not have been overwritten is the UserCfg.opt. All General settings where set back to default (all others like controls where untouched).

12 hours ago, flieger28 said:

 

It was stated many times that you have to leave the beta channel before 13th I think. Otherwise you are forced to leave the beta.

And if you don't pay attention or have installed the sim in the default path, you end up with problems 

This

11 hours ago, David Mills said:

 This forum represents the very best and brightest of the flight sim community.

Not so sure about this statement.....I'm a pretty average dude, and even I managed to figure it out.

11 hours ago, orchestra_nl said:

Less experienced users should not join beta's.

This

10 hours ago, crimplene said:

I had no problem at all with installing and leaving the beta. But I actually knew exactly what I was doing and renamed the folder containing the Community and Official folder before I started the installation process - a folder in a custom location, of course.. Everything smooth and over within a few minutes.

Same here

10 hours ago, Car147 said:

 I guess a lot never took any notice of these instructions.

This

16 hours ago, Drumcode said:

I downloaded the sim again, but all my addons while still being in the Community folder, aren't working.

I had the same problem, then I realised that after reinstalling I had a new community and official folder in the main directory, and they work. I know it shouldn‘t be like that and it might cause some problems in the future, but it‘s working and I‘ll leave it at that for now. I just made sure I only use Addon Linker so next time it won’t be such a hassle. 

And to all of you who said „you shouldn‘t join a beta if you have no clue what you‘re doing“ I can only say… you were absolutely right😅.

Edited January 17, 20224 yr by Shack95

I am a very experienced user, and I still managed to cause myself problems.

If you had MSFS installed in a "custom" location and got forced out of the beta, the 1st thing to do is figure out if the new (latest) installation went over top of your original installation or if you ended up with a 2nd copy of the sim in the default location in your AppData folder.

If you end up with a 2nd installation in AppData, it will start using a new Community folder that it created in the main install folder. This is the situation that I ended up in and was my own fault for not noticing that the installer was not pointing to my custom location. I was tipped off to the problem when I went into addon linker and activated 2 of my airports for a flight and ended up sitting at a default airport when my flight started. Addon linker was still pointing to the original folders and looked normal. When I looked into it I found the 2nd installation, as well as the 2nd Community folder. I simply deleted them. Everything went back to normal (including all of my settings) when I restarted the sim. It is important to note that I did run the update (in the correct folder) when the update was released, I just neglected to "Leave the flight" in the insider hub which resulted in me getting kicked out later on.

The point of my post is that before you take any corrective measures, analyze the situation to figure out if you have 2 installs before taking corrective action. If you do have 2 installs, just delete the new one (Official and Community folders) and restart the sim. The 2nd point of my post is always verify the install location before pressing the install button. MS really needs to fix the installer to use the correct, custom location every time. 

16 hours ago, Drumcode said:

I downloaded the sim again, but all my addons while still being in the Community folder, aren't working. Do I have to re-initialize anything?

Yes, you can fix your installation without downloading all again.

Make the InstalledPackagesPath-variable pointing again to your community folder. As described here:

All versions - Can I choose or change the installation path? (Install on the D: drive instead of the C: drive for instance) – Microsoft Flight Simulator Support (zendesk.com)

 

The best way that MS/Asobo (who as partners, share the responsibility) should have handled this would have been to release the actual hotfix as a supported, official hotfix as part of the official build and install, and within days rather than weeks and with specific, limited scope for the larger blunders like TIR.   As it was handled, it was not qualified to be termed a hotfix at all, and appeared to be very casually regarded by them in comparison to how other reputable software devs and publishers react in similar circumstances.

This is an important point because the year+ long trend strongly indicates, or more correctly, confirms, that this is not an isolated incident and will not be the last time we will be put in the position of dealing with suddenly compromised functionality of any number of random program features for no apparent reason.   Let us not kid ourselves over this. 

So the 4 weeks it took to generate a response in terms of a public beta fix, coupled with desperation of the user base and nudged along by some inexperienced advise from other users in the community (wasn't there a thread called "No Reason Not to Join the Beta" or something like that around here not long ago?) led to some unfortunate and avoidable predicaments.  We as users should expect better from any team claiming to publish a Game Of The Year, unless that recognition was unwarranted.  I don't think it's asking too much to see MS/Asobo demonstrate performance commensurate with that recognition. 

So how do we got there, if we can.  Is there any kind of vote for this already in progress over at the official forum so we can lobby for change?  If not, should we start one?

 

Edited January 17, 20224 yr by Stoopy

18 hours ago, Drumcode said:

I knew this was going to be a PITA, but yet somehow convinced myself to install the beta to get rid of the annoying TIR bug. I go on a holiday right before the New Year, just got back and wham, my installation is wiped. I downloaded the sim again, but all my addons while still being in the Community folder, aren't working. Do I have to re-initialize anything? Fuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a pity you forgot to get out of the beta before going on holidays. I also went on holidays but got out of the beta before leaving and when I came back it just updated without a problem.

6 minutes ago, Alvega said:

It's a pity you forgot to get out of the beta before going on holidays.

Ah, you know how that is. Kids, hectic holiday period, last minute errands... 

word not allowed .. i never thought i would see the day i agreed with Ricardo41 on anything. Oh well .. stranger things have happened. I did not join the Beta because i did not have the time to read through and fully comprehend the entire process in order to ensure my installation wouldn't get deleted at the end of the beta period (other obligations going on).  I'm sure for some the potential fixes were good enough to take the risk but everyone has to make their own value judgements i guess. 

I do however assign some of the blame to MS for its highly convoluted process. Its slightly humorous how the delivery platform of its partner (steam) is miles better in handling these things. Apart from paying only once for the benefit of installation on both  xbox/pc I'm starting to think that the MS store (and occasionally xbox) platform is not the way to go when it comes to installation for this sim.

 

2 hours ago, MDFlier said:

I am a very experienced user, and I still managed to cause myself problems.

I am not in a position to judge a single user's experience, but I keep observing quite a number of users whom I know as very experienced fell into that hotfix trap. Plus in others.

I suppose you can maintain an MS Store installation without a single flaw if you keep to all instructions to the smallest iota. However, we all are human, and the probability to run into a trap seems to me much, much higher with a MS Store installation than their Steam pendants, given there are loopholes all over the way.

Kind regards, Michael

This thread should  provide some humorous  reading now. 

 

8 hours ago, Lange_666 said:

My biggest gripe on this is that when the auto-opt-out of the beta runs, it doesn't look to your current install but just offers to install the sim again in the default location.
For me that's just one giant big mistake. It should look to where the latest install resides and then offer to "update" to the stable version instead of re-installing the entire sim again.

This is a symptom of the biggest issue - the team that is responsible for the update and release management process does not test or check it's own use cases, which creates more problems than they're worth (e.g. I'd assume it was them that recommended a custom install location in the first place). What is telling is most negative reviews on the Store and Steam relate to the install and update process...

2 hours ago, Stoopy said:

As it was handled, it was not qualified to be termed a hotfix at all

They never said it was a hotfix. Forum members kept calling it that, for some reason.