After years of only using msfs occasionally, over the past 6 months I have come to enjoy it and accept its...flaws (its hard to hold back going on a rant, btw). So yesterday I fired it up and there is an update, mandatory of course! It proceeded to install this 135gb monster over hours and hours and guess what? It was a total reinstall; into the default C:\\bla bla bla location, which made obsolete my previous location (since 4 years ago) of H:\MSFS\. So I could easily go on and on about time spent with addons, community folder issues, and changed settings...but does anyone have any idea why this happened? I'd been flying every day for weeks and this just rises out of nowhere, seemingly.

Thanks for any input. 

Greg

     

Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago. MSFS sometimes looses track of where it should install the Official and Community folders and so when it checks in the default location on the C disk, it "discovers" that they're missing and so wants to download the folders in that location. Where I went wrong (and where I suspect you may have also) is in not carefully checking on the Update page the location into which it is asking to do the installation. If you see that it is trying to install into a location other than your desired spot on the H drive, just select that location before hitting the UPDATE button (or whatever it is called at that point). MSFS will then realize its mistake and do an installation of only the updated files.

Hope this helps. I know I'll check where MSFS is pointed before I ever hit the UPDATE button again!

Also, alarm bells should ring if it's about to install an 'update' anything remotely close to 135GB in size. That should immediately prompt the user to check the location it wants to install to is correct. Plus, there would almost certainly be an active discussion on here about an update so large.

John's answer is correct. Always check your instal location. Only then hit the update button.

Alarm bells did go off...and iirc I thought I did attempt to steer it elsewhere but somehow was blocked out? Don't know for sure. Just another thing to be aware of and not assume the update manager knows what it's doing. 😉 

And there it is, the update manager, which has been updating fine for 4 years has a hangover or something and pulls this stunt.  

Now I wonder if that C drive installation can be undone and revert to the old location, but I'll search around for possibilites.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone!

Greg 

3 hours ago, Chocorua said:

After years of only using msfs occasionally, over the past 6 months I have come to enjoy it and accept its...flaws (its hard to hold back going on a rant, btw). So yesterday I fired it up and there is an update, mandatory of course! It proceeded to install this 135gb monster over hours and hours and guess what? It was a total reinstall; into the default C:\\bla bla bla location, which made obsolete my previous location (since 4 years ago) of H:\MSFS\. So I could easily go on and on about time spent with addons, community folder issues, and changed settings...but does anyone have any idea why this happened? I'd been flying every day for weeks and this just rises out of nowhere, seemingly.

Thanks for any input. 

Greg

     

Greg. You can move it back to where you want it.

Start the XBox app. Click on MSFS in the list on the left, then click the button with the 3 dots on it ("...") on the top right. When the dialog pops up, click the "Files" tab then click "Change Drive". It will let you pick a folder, too.

Edited February 28, 20242 yr by MDFlier