Recently i ran into that issue where going back to the main menu from a flight results in eternal loading and the need to quit MSFS via the task manager. I was experimenting around a bit by disabling my recent addons and gradually enabling them again. The issue went away and started to reappear as I neared 1000 addons in my community folder manager. I was hoping it is a specific addon causing this but it didnt seem to be the case.

Is this a hard limit?

Edited May 12, 20233 yr by Soulflight

I had heard something somewhere, somewhen, about a limit of about a thousand or so as far as simobjects (I think)

Not sure if that applies to anything else.

I don't know if there is a hard limit but I noticed that with lots of addons MSFS can get stuck during the loading screen while checking for updates.

For me there are 2 ways to get past this:

1. Disconnect from the network. This allows MSFS to continue to start and when I reconnect later I can enable Online data and everything will be mostly fine. However, when I end a flight MSFS can get stuck while loading the menu which again is solved by disconnecting momentarily from the network.
2. Limit the number of installed addons. Via Addon Linker I link just a subset of my addon airports. I haven't counted the number of addons I can have linked at a given time but I have purchased over 500 addon  airports. Add to this aircraft, freeware airports and AI aircraft like AIG and FSLTL and I have easily over a 1000 addons that are opossibly installed.

Before SU12 this was not an issue, even in the beta.  Since the issue  goes away when I disconnect from the network it is possible the limit is not MSFS but just the part that checks for updates. That code was updated in SU12.

Whether that limit is a hard one (as in # of addons) or limited by the size of the update check I don't know. Most of my scenery is purchased outside the marketplace so I don't see why they should be included in the update mechanism of MSFS. It is possible MSFS first needs to inspect all addons before deciding which to check for updates, or perhaps it tries to send data about all installed scenery in order to spy improve support and they did not (yet) take hoarders like me into account.

3 hours ago, Soulflight said:

The issue went away and started to reappear as I neared 1000 addons in my community folder manager.

Each to their own, however, there is zero need for having that many add-ons active simultaneously in your community folder.

Highly recommend using MSFS Add-on Linker to activate only the scenery, liveries, third-party aircraft, object libraries, etc. that are expected to be used in the one or two flights in your next MSFS session.

So simple to use once you understand how the program functions. Benefits include reduced load times and a lower chance of add-ons interfering with one another.