Hi All.
Just done a reinstall of MSFS and  put it on a separate drive.

 I asked the installer to install to My E drive but it's put most of the flightsim on my C drive. I have no idea why. I now have two community folders one on each drive, goodness knows why.

I checked in Developer options in the sim where the correct community folder was. It tells me that the Folder on my E drive is the one being used.

I downloaded and extracted (to my E drive community folder) some liveries from FlightSim To and followed their instructions to the letter.

..........no joy. The paintjobs are not showing in the livery selection window.

I tried extracting to my other Community folder on the C drive........still no joy.

The sim otherwise works very well since the last update, much better than before. I have third party AC. The Kodiak, Twotter and BN-2, they all work fine.

Anyone else having problems with the folder? 
Any tips or solutions for the problem?

Thanks Folks🙂

Edited October 5, 20223 yr by GaryK

iam no means an expert, and i have the same situation, continue to point to the E drive for installs in E drive i think it creates some kind of link (an expert will tell us) . basically, even if you install MSFS on a different drive than default "C" it will still put some files on C so it can work properly, my install is on a big NMVE drive and i just point everything to that, it works fine 

I didnt read it properly, someone will come back to you 

4 hours ago, GaryK said:

 I asked the installer to install to My E drive but it's put most of the flightsim on my C drive. I have no idea why. I now have two community folders one on each drive, goodness knows why.
I checked in Developer options in the sim where the correct community folder was. It tells me that the Folder on my E drive is the one being used.

The Developer opion should be correct, so you can assume the Community folder is on E:. If the one on your C:-drive is in your profile folder it is probably a dummy or a leftover from a previous installation.
It should be (almost) empty. if not, it is likely a leftover from previous installation. In that case you could move the contents to a temporary location, if MSFS doesn't complain at first start, you can probably safely delete it.

The core files of the sim are installed in your userprofile on C but most of the content should be installed in the "Official" folder next to it the community folder on E. If the Official folder on your C-drive is also large it is probably also a leftover from a previous installation.

 

4 hours ago, GaryK said:

I downloaded and extracted (to my E drive community folder) some liveries from FlightSim To and followed their instructions to the letter.

Liveries can be a pain to install. If the liveries are quite old than they might not work since their have been some changes in the filestructure IIRC.

Edited October 5, 20223 yr by orchestra_nl
clarification for "it"

5 hours ago, GaryK said:

 I asked the installer to install to My E drive but it's put most of the flightsim on my C drive. I have no idea why. I now have two community folders one on each drive, goodness knows why.

It looks that way on my system also, however the C drive folders are actually linked to the E drive and are not "real" folders.

Something similar may be going on on your system... just leave those folders be, would be my suggestion.

As for the liveries.. if you look at the folders you have moved to your Community folder, do they contain the essential Manifest and Layout files.. that might be the first thing to check.

Lastly, you may want to look at the Addons Linker freeware app.. it makes adding and disabling addons much easier..

https://flightsim.to/file/1572/msfs-addons-linker

Bert is correct.  The installer probably used an NTFS file system symbolic link,  or a hard link.

If you want to confirm this,   create a text file in your E: drive community folder and name it something OBVIOUS.  Then navigate to your C drive community folder,  and see if that same text file appears to be present in your C drive already without your intervention.   Or,  just go to your C community and see if the mods/liveries you already put in E are present in C without your intervention.

Like Bert said,  make sure any livery or mod folders have a manifest and layout json file inside.    Sometimes the unzipping process ends up putting that folder inside an additional folder,  where MSFS can't find the manifest or layout.

As Bert stated,  MSFS Addons Linker basically creates or removes those files system links for you.  Which allows you to enable / disable mods or liveries at will,  create presets,   or scan your mods for errors.   Definitely get it.

If you ever need to create virtual links for any other reason,  I use an app named Link Maker v1.1.1  

https://cresstone.com/apps/linkMaker/

 

 

 

Perhaps it helps if you mention the complete path to the community folders on both your C and E drive.

• When you first start the setup of MSFS, it asks you where to install the core files. Since it is only a few Gbytes, this takes just a short while. I chose C:\Games\Xbox\...
• After that, when you first start MSFS, it asks you again for a location. This is for the rest (the bulk) of the installation and contains the default aircraft, scenery etc. Here, I chose D:\MS Flight Simulator.
  IIRC, if you don't choose your own location it will default to your userprofile which means all these Gbytes end up in your userprofile, probably in C:\users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wexxxxxxxx\LocalCache\packages\Official\. I don't recommend this.

On my computer, I have THREE locations that contain parts of MSFS:

• C:\Games\Xbox\Microsoft Flightsimulator\
  This contains the core files installed by the first setup.
• D:\MS Flight Simulator\ (including an "Official" and "Community" folder)
  The Official folder contains the files that are downloaded when the sim is first started. These are the base simulator files, the default aircraft and scenery and all marketplace purchases.
  The Community folder contains all the files you installed yourself or those from third party addons like OrbX, Aerosoft, Simmarket etc.
• C:\users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wexxxxxxxx\
  This is where your settings including third party settings are kept. Some settings are also stored in the cloud in your Xbox account and copied here when MSFS "syncs" during start.
  Deep inside these folders there are an empty Community and Official folder. If they are not empty you have probably installed your entire MSFS there or it is a leftover from a previous installation.

Additionally, there are a few junctions or links that point to the core files in C:\Games\Xbox. On my computer these are in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps and on D:\Windows\WindowsApps.
These folders are probably hidden, you can only enter them with elevated rights. In there are just links but no real content.

Edited October 5, 20223 yr by orchestra_nl
Location of default files

Thanks folks, as always all very helpful and informative.

The liveries I've tried do have the manifest and layout json files in the correct place. To test the Community folder I've since downloaded a simple aircraft (whittaker microlight) and extracted it directly into the Community folder and it works in the sim perfectly. It would appear to be an issue with the liveries I'm trying to install, maybe they just don't work with the latest incarnation of MSFS.......I'll try a few others and see how it goes.


👍

 

I have a similar problem.  I added a SSD drive and it is now T7 (F:), and moved and created a new folder MSFS and under it Addons, Community, etc. Everything works fine in the simulator.

The only problem I have is there are now two T7(F:) showing in Explorer and both have all the same folders and files.

I'm afraid to delete one of them because I might delete the wrong one.  I also don't know if everything uses just one folder or some one and some the other.

So I just live with it.  I did have a problem with FSLTL and the injector.  It showed loading all the planes but they didn't show up. It was looking in the wrong folder.  I copied and pasted the injector so it would appear in both Community folders and now everything works fine,  So it looks like to me that both Community folders are being used.  Complicated.

Roy