Used msfs 2020 last week. Ran great. No issues. Tried to use it again today, and said I needed a

126gb update. Basically the whole sim needs to be downloaded.  Went to the folder where it is installed and there is only 8gb now in that folder when it used to be around 130gb. Checked apps in windows 10 setting and found it along with just 8gb again. Noticed I now have 408 gb available on my ssd where last week it was around 280gb. No doubt that msfs 2020 has removed itself from my drive. But why? Guess I have no choice but to do this huge update.  Must be a Microsoft “feature” to not only force updates, but wipe out perfectly good installs. Anyone have any suggestions to prevent this from happening again in the future?

Are you sure the installer is just not pointing to the wrong folder? 

I have the sim installed in E:\MSFS, but last week during startup it stopped at the installation screen and said I had to download everything again. I noticed that the folder path at the bottom of the screen was pointing at the C drive. As soon as I changed it back to the correct E drive it continued to load as normal.

12 minutes ago, SetSpeed said:

Anyone have any suggestions to prevent this from happening again in the future?

Did you opt into the beta? There is a long topic explaining that unless certain precautions were taken, the simulator might well be deleted.

10 minutes ago, Reader said:

Did you opt into the beta? There is a long topic explaining that unless certain precautions were taken, the simulator might well be deleted.

Thanks for the responses. I had indeed opted int the beta. That is likely what hapened.

First and last time I will ever beta test for microsoft.

Bigger issue is that ir takes all your addons with it and because MS won't allow you to back them up or move them out of the folder, it's taken a week to download and restore them all again.

Now why MS will not allow you to back up your addons, I really don't know.

I managed to 'take control' of the folder on my c drive containing the flightsim.exe to be able to access that, but not the main folder on my e drive, which leads to another point - Why when I install it to my fast e drive, does it put the exe file on my much slower c drive?

2 minutes ago, cianpars said:

First and last time I will ever beta test for microsoft.

Bigger issue is that ir takes all your addons with it and because MS won't allow you to back them up or move them out of the folder, it's taken a week to download and restore them all again.

Now why MS will not allow you to back up your addons, I really don't know.

I managed to 'take control' of the folder on my c drive containing the flightsim.exe to be able to access that, but not the main folder on my e drive, which leads to another point - Why when I install it to my fast e drive, does it put the exe file on my much slower c drive?

You can always backup your Official und Community folder. Just copy them to a backup drive. Next time you have to re-install MSFS just point the downloader to a directory with those two folders - Super easy, super fast, super secure.

And btw, it doesn't matter much, where the exe file is. It's all the data that has to be loaded. And you can easily define where that stuff has to be stored. Remember the looooong downloading process? You got the coice where to safe the data. 🙂

19 minutes ago, cianpars said:

Why when I install it to my fast e drive, does it put the exe file on my much slower c drive?

I installed MSFS content to G:\Microsoft Flight Simulator and then used Windows to move the game to the G drive.

This puts all of the files onto the G drive:

and the Community folder where it is easy to access:

leaving mainly links in the appdata folder.

Edited January 24, 20224 yr by Reader

2 hours ago, crimplene said:

You can always backup your Official und Community folder. Just copy them to a backup drive. Next time you have to re-install MSFS just point the downloader to a directory with those two folders - Super easy, super fast, super secure.

Yep, if you can spare the disk space, that's a great idea. And when your install gets messed up, just copy the folder back, and MSFS checks and accepts the files without the need to download any of them. I didn't even have to re-download when switching from MS Store to Steam in 2020 after my Gamepass $1 trial month, just copied (moved) the files over to the new folder.

Edited January 24, 20224 yr by pstrub

3 hours ago, espent said:

Are you sure the installer is just not pointing to the wrong folder? 

I have the sim installed in E:\MSFS, but last week during startup it stopped at the installation screen and said I had to download everything again. I noticed that the folder path at the bottom of the screen was pointing at the C drive. As soon as I changed it back to the correct E drive it continued to load as normal.

Exactly how it went for me, except I wasn't paying attention and let her rip. ☹️

2 hours ago, crimplene said:

You can always backup your Official und Community folder. Just copy them to a backup drive. Next time you have to re-install MSFS just point the downloader to a directory with those two folders - Super easy, super fast, super secure.

And btw, it doesn't matter much, where the exe file is. It's all the data that has to be loaded. And you can easily define where that stuff has to be stored. Remember the looooong downloading process? You got the coice where to safe the data. 🙂

I have done this successfully in the past. SetSpeed, you've got nothing to lose by trying it and you may save a bunch of time not downloading the whole sim again. However, it really isn't necessary.

Go into Windows settings and click "Apps". Scroll down the list of apps and locate "Microsoft Flight Simulator" (I type "flight" into the search box and it shows up at the top without scrolling). Click on MSFS, and then you can click the "Move" button to move your installation.

I know this method lets you pick the drive to move MSFS to, but I don't think it lets you pick a folder. If you want to move it to a specific folder, try moving the Community and Official folder to where you want them, and then try "Repair" under "Advanced Options" in Settings->Apps->MSFS  

Edited January 24, 20224 yr by MDFlier

17 minutes ago, MDFlier said:

Go into Windows settings and click "Apps". Scroll down the list of apps and locate "Microsoft Flight Simulator" (I type "flight" into the search box and it shows up at the top without scrolling). Click on MSFS, and then you can click the "Move" button to move your installation.

I know this method lets you pick the drive to move MSFS to, but I don't think it lets you pick a folder. If you want to move it to a specific folder, try moving the Community and Official folder to where you want them, and then try "Repair" under "Advanced Options" in Settings->Apps->MSFS  

This can be useful for other games, but for MSFS it's only useful if you want to move the 1GB base install to a different drive. The large data folder (the one that gets downloaded in-game during startup) can be placed anywhere you like, no matter where the Apps install folder is located.