MSFS2020 Uninstall and Reinstall

[GeoSkyman 59]

Hi need your advice please. How to uninstall and reinstall MSFS without loosing my install add on. Or an easy way and avoid spending days to reinstall.

Thank You

[History 39]

3 hours ago, GeoSkyman said:

 

Hi need your advice please. How to uninstall and reinstall MSFS without loosing my install add on. Or an easy way and avoid spending days to reinstall.

Thank You

I have my MSFS backed up on Steam. After uninstall, go to Restore Game Backup and the amount of data I needed to download is less than 15GB. Before reinstalling, back up the Community folder. Depending on the download speed, it usually takes less than a day. 

Edited March 17 by History

[cobalt 798]

Store your add-ons in a folder outside MSFS and use addon-linker to select links to addons to be placed in Community.  Uninstalling and reinstalling MSFS will have no effect on your add-ons, as they are not part of the MSFS program. It takes several hours to reinstall MSFS2020, longer if you reinstall all the scenery updates (these are optional). But no way does it take days! 

Edited March 18 by cobalt

[Micko 89]

If you want to avoid several hours, here is how I reinstall MSFS, worked every time for me:

1. Copy the Official / Packages folder somewhere safe. (Or rename it temporarily) (This is the bulk of the data)

2. Uninstall then re-install MSFS

3. Copy the Official / Packages folder back to where you want it before starting MSFS

4. Start MSFS, when it asks where the data folder should be, navigate back to where you put the Packages folder.

MSFS won’t re-download any of the Packages folder. However, it will check for corrupt files and  update it if it is out of date.

To back up your flight time of all your aircraft, here is the folder:

C:\Users\XXXXXX\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SimObjects\Airplanes

I found this advice online a while ago.

 

Good luck

Mick

[GeoSkyman 59]

25 minutes ago, Micko said:

If you want to avoid several hours, here is how I reinstall MSFS, worked every time for me:

1. Copy the Official / Packages folder somewhere safe. (Or rename it temporarily) (This is the bulk of the data)

    

2. Uninstall then re-install MSFS

    

3. Copy the Official / Packages folder back to where you want it before starting MSFS

    

4. Start MSFS, when it asks where the data folder should be, navigate back to where you put the Packages folder.

    

MSFS won’t re-download any of the Packages folder. However, it will check for corrupt files and  update it if it is out of date.

 

To back up your flight time of all your aircraft, here is the folder:

C:\Users\XXXXXX\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SimObjects\Airplanes

I found this advice online a while ago.

 

Good luck

Mick

Thank you Mick, highly appreciated 

[Micko 89]

Not a problem, Hope it help

 

[Flyfaster_MTN002 412]

If you use the Xbox app it does this for you essentially