17 hours ago, Noel said:

Well said.  I was a bit careless, forgot to plan for it, but absolutely NBD to let the sim reinstall itself and all addons bought from the store.  Freeware Community folder entries all orginated from a download somewhere, and they went in the Win 10 Downloads folder, and so we selected them and copied them back into the CF. NBD, though of course it took many hours to complete.  Glad I have fresh install all is working great, and load times have reduced a bit it would appear.  I say NBD because largely this is a passive project--you DO NOT need to hang around your PC and respond to prompts unlike the harowing nonsense that was the Prepar3D reinstall.  Quite frankly I would not have the patience (nor memory!)  to ever do that ordeal again!

Glad you got it sorted. Some people mention that MSFS got removed behind their backs and thát should not have happened. At the very least there should be a message popup during start explaining that the sim needs to be reinstalled, giving you the opportunity to backup the files you need.

An more advanced way would be for the software to keep track of all the files involved in the beta and keep them safe in order to restore them when the beta is closed / unjoined. After that the sim can be updated the regular way. This will probably make the whole beta process more complex but is the best way to keep your customers happy while still allow them joining beta's.

I'm not sure how these things work under the hood, but reinstalls are not exclusive to MSFS -- following beta programmes or during the course of normal updates. This happens to other games on MS Store, Steam, and even PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Maybe it's something Asobo don't have control over and it's actually something to do with the store/host platforms themselves. As I say, it happens to other software, on every store, on every other hardware platform that I've read about. Maybe the only thing Asobo can do is warn people in the manner they did.

6 minutes ago, March Hare said:

Maybe the only thing Asobo can do is warn people in the manner they did.

That's right--no one here understands the details of why Asobo does what it does on something like this and that being said my basic assumption is that it's not random, not an accident and likely as to do with some of the possibilities you have surmised.  Quite frankly for me I'm sure the reason I filed the warning under 'non-critical' and so ended up having to reinstall, was that I am aware the reinstall process really is...NBD.  But as well, I only have about 12 addon installed, all but two thru the Store.  I still celebrate just how easy it is compared to the prior years of installing FSX/P3D and myriad addons each with its own installer, which indeed turns into a multi-day process with the need to set up each one.  I am beyond thankful 98% of all of my settings are retained thru reinstallations.

13 minutes ago, March Hare said:

I'm not sure how these things work under the hood, but reinstalls are not exclusive to MSFS -- following beta programmes or during the course of normal updates. 

I took part in a few betas of AeroflyFS2 on Steam and I never had to reinstall the simulator. It was just opting in/out of the beta. Also normal updates didn't require a reinstall. 

But this may not be representative, of course.

Kind regards, Michael

14 minutes ago, pmb said:

I took part in a few betas of AeroflyFS2 on Steam and I never had to reinstall the simulator. It was just opting in/out of the beta. Also normal updates didn't require a reinstall. 

But this may not be representative, of course.

Kind regards, Michael

I have never needed to reinstall during updates of this sim, either, but others have. And this certainly is true of other software, because I've seen these complaints for both post-beta and regular updates on forums.

We're the lucky ones.

I'm 99% sure that the beta had a goofy version number or something, so some files with the correct version had to be reinstalled over top of them. I believe that this is what I got early in the day when the new version came out. It was ~800Mb or so (there was also a very small one before that, most likely the installer). That all worked fine and it is the current installation I'm running. But allowing the installer to put 2 installations of this size on any machine is just not right. It ought to make you jump through hoops to do if you wanted to that.   

Edited January 17, 20224 yr by MDFlier

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

This thread should  provide some humorous  reading now. 

 

It's a rollercoaster of emotions 🤣

Personally I was not a victim of the reinstallation bug anyway, I moved the packages before installing the beta and opted out as soon as it became the current version.

All I  can say is SU8 - 2/22

ns

Edited January 17, 20224 yr by bean_sprout

21 hours ago, DylanM said:

Did you have the sim installed on a custom path? When the update runs you need to make sure you're pointing to that path (because it defaults to the standard one)

I bet anyone $1,000 this was what happened. Happened to me as well; I thought it was the sim's fault, it was my fault. 

1 hour ago, bean_sprout said:

All I  can say is SU8 - 2/22

ns

I'd curb the expectations down immediately. 🙂

22 hours ago, pmb said:

I made a Q&A topic on that whole MS Store mess:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/can-the-msfs-development-team-look-into-ms-store-installation-issues/490240

Feel free to vote.

Kind regards, Michael

 

 

 

I voted Michael, thank you for doing that.

6 hours ago, MDFlier said:

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. 

I updated MSFS yesterday (January 16).

MSFS is installed on a separate SSD and is located in "F:\MSFS" so when the update was presented it appeared as an update to local packages and was pointing to C:\Users\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsfot.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe instead of "F:\MSFS" as it always does. I figured that Asobo had a reason to update the Local Packages folder so I proceeded with the update overnight.  I followed your instructions and deleted the Community and Official folders, restarted MSFS and pointed the installer to my "F:\" drive.

The installation now appeared as 0/1.11Tb to be installed and the sim started up right away. I have version 1.21.18.0 installed and the only folder with today's date is the fs-base-nav folder while the other folders in the Official folder have 12/18/21 as dates.

I will be sure to point updates to my "F:\" drive in the future, what a mess.  

Regards,

Robert

Edited January 17, 20224 yr by HUSSAR

3 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

This thread should  provide some humorous  reading now. 

 

Looks like IT WAS a reason why not to jump into the beta ...😆

I have Steam and I could choose which version I wanted to fly with a mouse click throughout the Beta time, left the Beta same day as the update and started the regular version without any problems and updated to the new one when it was available.

19 minutes ago, Ixoye said:

I have Steam and I could choose which version I wanted to fly with a mouse click throughout the Beta time, left the Beta same day as the update and started the regular version without any problems and updated to the new one when it was available.

same here.

Count me in.  I have opted in for the beta because nothing was moving in a timely manner after the botched SU7 job and FS was no fun anymore with the ground always covered in clouds, IOW SU7 was already the last straw but now I faced the full reinstall challenge and read somewhere that it points to the default install location, so I tried to point it to its actual location on D: but it still wanted to install everything after it obviously wiped the old install in an instant. Every single time since SU4/5 the update process in FS is an increasing nightmare and it's time to pull the plug and make the only consequential statement I have as a customer:  I have removed MSFS and I won't be installing it (and the loads of content I bought) again unless MS+Asobo have gained a solid reputation of having sorted out their massive issues with customer experience, stability, quality control and keeping their promises.   That may as well mean "never".

 

This sim is supposed to make my day happier but the bigger part of the last year it's a massive mood killer on such a regular basis that keeping this appears to be a sign of insanity to me. Captain Nuts out.