As the title says, I'm thinking of moving my Steam version FS to a larger SSD drive.  My son just upgraded my M/B and processor, ( some AMD thing) and added a 2 TB ssd drive.  All seems to work well but, certain items just will not install.  They show up in the Community folder or in my Mod Storage folder for Addon Linker, but just will not show up on the game.  So far one freeware and one payware aircraft won't show, (H-135 and Trinidad TB21 and a payware airport for KRFD.  These show up in the Community folder and/ or the Mod Storage.  I know this may cause a conflict, but they don't show either way.  I have noticed a Community folder in each drive (have 3) so maybe it's a conflict thing.  I don't know which to eliminate.  So this brings me to moving FS to the larger ssd drive.  My question is has anyone done this with Steam using their "move install location" feature?  I am trying to avoid a complete reinstall.

Thanks in advance

 

Don't know if this will help you, but, in my experience, even the mods that you use an actual installer with will show up in Addon Linker program. Yet you can't control them from within "Addon Linker". Those with an actual installer probably need to be un-installed and re-installed.

I use Steam but have never "moved" an installation to another location or drive.

To know for sure that you have straightened things out, It sounds as if a complete uninstall and reinstall might be required. (due to 3 community folders)

Edited February 7, 20224 yr by jimcarrel

Thanks, the issue with multiple Community folder seems to be what is causing my issue, just not sure how to fix it.  As far as using Steam to change the install location, well, I would really like to hear from someone who has tried it so I know any pitfalls, but thanks again for the info.

Mike

 

I have successfully moved a Steam game without any worries by using the "move install folder" tool. It was a simple process but - and that is a big BUT - it wasn't msfs 2020...

WOLFPACK, a much more humble and lighter sim.

Cheers,

2Low2Slow

I moved 4 or 5 games from one disk to another in the past. Never had a problem, and no reason for the msfs. It is the same thing. You can move successfully. All folders and subfolders will be the same except the drive name.

Keep in mind that the MSFS installation folder, unlike most other Steam games, consists of two separate parts: One small folder of ~1 GB that is managed by Steam, and a second larger folder managed by MSFS itself, containing the majority of the >120GB of files. Only the former can be moved using the method described above. In order to move the latter, just move the folder to the new SSD, and before launching MSFS, load the "UserCfg.opt" file (for Steam users located in  C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator), and change the path after the keyword InstalledPackagesPath in the last line of the file accordingly.

If you don't edit this file, MSFS usually asks about the install location during startup. If you point it to the existing (moved) folder then, no download is necessary. So far this has worked for me, but for some users a complete download (to the previous location) was triggered regardless, if they hadn't adjusted the InstalledPackagesPath before launch. 

 

Edited February 9, 20224 yr by pstrub

Very helpful info, thanks to all.  I may attempt the move follow these directions, only quedstion is what is the large file I am looking to move?

Mike

On 2/7/2022 at 3:00 AM, morso484 said:

As the title says, I'm thinking of moving my Steam version FS to a larger SSD drive

How to move MSFS from old hard drive to new SSD https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/new-pc-msfs-query/419855/12

Super, thanks