After a recent PC system update I had to re-download the latest version of Bijan Seasons.  Bijan's setup no longer allows for downloading to anything but the Community Folder (it installs directly to that folder with no other option).  I attempted to then move the folders to my chosen Mods folder and use them with AddonsLinker as I have always done in the past.  When I did this they ceased to function.

They now show up in AddonsLinker with the following marker: could not read the manifest.json file.  This makes them non-functioning.

The only way I can use them now is to move each folder physically into the Community folder before flight.  Pretty clumsy.  Would this be a result of something Bijan has placed into his installer?  I wanted to get some input before I send him a message.

Hello,

I might be wrong because i don't have Bijan product and i don't have the MS-Store version of the game, so ignore this post if it's not useful 🙃

What has been reported in the past, is that sometimes, for users with the MS-Store version of the sim, the files that are put in the real community folder get 'kind of locked'. It's like if they were encrypted and so if you move them they don't work anymore. If the file is not readable, AL will show 'can not read the manifest.json file' and it will not work in the sim either. You can maybe also try to open the manifest.json file with notepad to see if it looks normal. Maybe you are confronted to that issue and it's not something specific due the Bijan's product.

One thing that seemed to work for some people is to zip the flies directly into another folder (don't create the zip in the community folder), you can do that with 7zip for example. You have little discussion about how to do it here :

 

So :

• reinstall the product in the community folder (if you have moved it already, don't move it back because sometimes moving it back doesn't work either, not sure, reinstall to be sure unless there are issues with the number of times you can install it). In any, case make sure it works in the sim before proceeding with the next step
• create the zip of your bijan folder that is located in your real community folder, create the zip in another folder like explained above
• extract the zip in your custom AL folder
• check if you still get the 'can not read manifest'
• if yes then well .. running short of ideas 😱  (maybe i have another idea to try to trick the installer but really not sure 🙈)
• if no, delete the folder in the real community folder and you should be able to link the addon

Like i said, not sure if that can help or not, but maybe you can try. Worst case scenario, you just reinstall the product in the community folder.

Take care !

🍻

Edited February 8, 20242 yr by Bad_T

Thanks for the idea.  I can verify that the season files work if in the Community folder.

When I move one back in, the seasons change.  If I move it out, then link it, they don't work  Basically, he's now designed his add-on to install directly to the Community folder with no other option.  To change seasons, you're forced to move them in and out - actually physically move the folders and files.

I'll try your zip method.  I'll put all of them back in the CF, zip them to another location, delete the originals, unzip the archived versions and link them.  Hoping for the best.

It worked (at least it appears to be indicating no manifest.json file issues in AddonsLinker)!

It was kind of a pain to convert and reset all of the seasons folders, so after I check that the foliage is appearing properly tomorrow, I'll set up a batch method of converting entire groups of folder and files to speed the process.

Using theclatesr Bijang addon icw Addons Linker without any issues. 

Not sure if this is relevant but one of the recent Bijan releases came as one huge collection of stuff that couldn't be separated out. I don't remember the details now but I do remember it had the manifest json problem, which I think was caused by everything being in a single folder with a single json file. This was subsequently updated with a version that went back to the old way of doing things (separate zips and folders for the different seasons, ground masks etc, each with its own json files) and that worked absolutely fine with the addons linker.

I did notice though when I was on the SimMarket app yesterday that there was an "update" showing as available to me, but it had a date I'm sure was older than the version I'm running, so I wonder if perhaps the kludgy previous version has somehow gotten re-listed?

3 hours ago, GSalden said:

Using theclatesr Bijang addon icw Addons Linker without any issues. 

Gerard.  You need to take more water with it!   

2 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

Gerard.  You need to take more water with it!   

LOL : latest 😬

4 hours ago, andy1252 said:

I did notice though when I was on the SimMarket app yesterday that there was an "update" showing as available to me, but it had a date I'm sure was older than the version I'm running, so I wonder if perhaps the kludgy previous version has somehow gotten re-listed?

All of the season files and masks (as of a couple of days ago) were separate "downloads".  However, you could not download them normally - - the only choice was to run the built in installers from the simMarket website.  When I did this, all of the files were placed unzipped in the CF.  I moved them to my Mods folder and linked them as I had in the past,

When they were selected in AddonsLinker, none of them functioned and all indicated unreadable .json files.  Following the previous recommendations, I placed them back into the CF, zipped them to the Mods folder and they now function normally.