1 hour ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

And went to C drive only to find an Xbox folder and under it two other MSFS folders which don't seem to do anything...so I don't know if I can delete these or not. 

Nope.. that is the new "default" location for the core files.

Hello Guys n Girls,

I do not know if this is going to be any help, but here goes.

1. I have my MSFS installed on a separate SSD drive. PC of course.

2.  Every time I have to do a re-install, I simply go to that drive and rename the Community and Official folders.

3. I then click on the MSFS icon on the desktop and it starts loading. it gets to the update stage and automatically goes in to update (approx 126gb) (this, despite have a whizzbang starlink satellite internet connection, takes about two days to download. 

4. After that upgrade and install is complete, I delete both the new Community and Official folders and rename the renamed folders back to Community and Official.

5, I then reboot the system and it is all updated in the Content manager and working normally.

I have done this now for the last 6 or 7 times when MSFS fails to load. Please note that this is a fairly regular procedure for me despite upgrading to Win 11. It is/should be a quick and easy re-install but the bugbear is the very slow update download and I am unsure whether it is me and my computer and internet or simply a Microsoft server problem.

Finally, I just hope that it works for everyone whose MSFS just gets to a certain screen (For me, it is always the split screen with three panels and what looks like a bush landing strip in the middle panel when it locks up) 

This procedure simply avoids going through the xbox screens although xbox has to be installed which I have always found to be confusing.

Regards to all,

Tony

 

17 minutes ago, himmelhorse said:

  Every time I have to do a re-install, I simply go to that drive and rename the Community and Official folders.

 I then click on the MSFS icon on the desktop and it starts loading. it gets to the update stage and automatically goes in to update (approx 126gb) (this, despite have a whizzbang starlink satellite internet connection, takes about two days to download. 

Hi Tony,

I believe there is a way to avoid downloading the 126GB..

Not sure what is causing you to reinstall, but you should be able to avoid downloading the Official and Community folders which you replace anyway.. 😉

At reinstall time, the install should pause on the update screen with a box at the bottom left indicating the location of the "MSFS Content".. instead of just accepting that, point that box to the folder which contains your Official and Community folders.  It should then accept that location and not download the data..

Alternately, you should be able to interrupt the update download after it starts, and do your "renamed folders" renaming.  Next time you start, things should be fine.

Edited June 7, 20233 yr by Bert Pieke

Bert, Thanks for that mate.  I was totally unaware of that. 

Other than the long, long, long download, I do not find it much of a problem, however, avoiding that is a real plus for me.

Thanks again mate,

Tony 

Just now, himmelhorse said:

Bert, Thanks for that mate.  I was totally unaware of that. 

Other than the long, long, long download, I do not find it much of a problem, however, avoiding that is a real plus for me.

Thanks again mate,

Tony 

Hopefully, you do not have to reinstall again... not sure what causes your initial issues..

But if you do, try this, and let us know the outcome!

many users, including myself once, have stumbled over this full 120 GB re-download. Microsoft should change their install program only slightly and include another step during the install instead of letting the unsuspecting user simply hit RETURN to accept the default path c:\MSFS which results in overwriting the COMMUNITY folder with an empty one 🤣 and the 120 GB download begins.

5 hours ago, turbomax said:

to avoid such mishaps, the connoisseurs all use the free MSFS addons linker, which creates only a symbolic link instead of the real addons in the ADDONS folder. My addons are all on a separate drive in a separate folder, like "D:\MSFS addons" so they would all still be there waiting for me even after a re-install of Windows. don't leave your hangar without it:

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

I have and use Addon Linker thanks.  All my planes and scenery are on another drive and were linked via Addon Linker.  The reinstall took every shortcut and actually loaded the stuff back into the Community folder.  Interesting.

I will just take the shortcuts I have in Windows.old, and put them back into the community folder, deleting the files in the community folde.  And ensuring the Addon Linker has set up correctly again.

7 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

Hi Tony,

I believe there is a way to avoid downloading the 126GB..

Not sure what is causing you to reinstall, but you should be able to avoid downloading the Official and Community folders which you replace anyway.. 😉

At reinstall time, the install should pause on the update screen with a box at the bottom left indicating the location of the "MSFS Content".. instead of just accepting that, point that box to the folder which contains your Official and Community folders.  It should then accept that location and not download the data..

Alternately, you should be able to interrupt the update download after it starts, and do your "renamed folders" renaming.  Next time you start, things should be fine.

I believe I accidentally stumbled upon doing this.

Everything seems to be working, Addon Linker sceneries and planes and payware planes are all installed...the only thing not working is my TDS - GPS I can't seem to get the trainer installed so the gauge doesn't work...will look at tomorrow.

13 hours ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

the only thing not working is my TDS - GPS I can't seem to get the trainer installed

before re-installation: can it be de-installed via standard windows control panel? perhaps the app has still some left overs in the registry etc. pointing to your previous, different installation?

58 minutes ago, turbomax said:

before re-installation: can it be de-installed via standard windows control panel? perhaps the app has still some left overs in the registry etc. pointing to your previous, different installation?

 

Sorry.. are you referring to the Garmin Trainer "app"?

If so, yes getting rid of the old before installing the new, makes sense..

Edited June 8, 20233 yr by Bert Pieke

11 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

Nothing to do with installing MSFS.

I thought he said he mixed reinstalled/copied files from new and windows.old, others from previous Community and addons linker, delete some "useless windows files"  here and there, which combined could create a somewhat instable environment. whatever ....

Edited June 8, 20233 yr by turbomax

22 hours ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

The reinstall took every shortcut and actually loaded the stuff back into the Community folder.  Interesting.

It sounds like you have it all sorted, but if you copied the Community folder with links in it, the copying process would populate the folder with the real content..  The way to avoid it, would be to use AddonsLinker to disable all linked content, before copying the folder.