Folks I have really made major mistake by accidentally pressing the” delete” key in MSFS deleting the community file. This hurts at being over 82 years old,it causes the heart to increase beating. All my add ons, which were over 200 Gigs, lost. When I decided to start up MSFS it started adding all my MSFS 3 packages I had purchased over a year with updates using steam. It completed after a hour or so. It stated I could now add downloads which I had purchased over the years or so under MSF. (which were 20 or more}.

  Then started up MSFS All  appeared went well with the MSF downloads. but when I had over 250gs before, now noticed  have only 49 gigs remaining on HD. I am really nervous on what I have done.It does appear that I have two installs with the three MSFS packages.   Do I have to just delete everything and start from scratch?.  I remember reading over time with people running with major problems.  Now I know what it feels like. I hope this makes some sense.

Thank you for reading and any help is surely appreciated.

Regards,

Carl.

 

I'm having trouble understanding? What is a community file? Do you mean community folder?

It the community folder is empty, MSFS will start up normally. It will not download anything when it is starting. Because MSFS does not care whether or not there is anything in the community folder or nothing in the community folder.

If you deleted the folders in your community folder, or even the community folder too, they might be in your recycle bin. If so they can all be restored.

 

"When I decided to start up MSFS it started adding all my MSFS 3 packages"

I don't know what "MSFS 3 packages" are.

"I had 250gs before, now noticed  have only 49 gig ".

Where were those 250GB's located before? In the folder underneath your Official folder? Or in your Community folder?

If they were in the folder underneath your Official folder, MSFS Content Manager and MSFS Marketplace can redownload them all.

If they were in your community folder, they may be in your recycle bin?

have you checked your Recycle Bin icon...usually on the left hand side of the desktop screen?  If you pressed the delete button, you can open the Recycle Bin and restore all the files/folders back to your original location...DO NOT EMPTY it!!

1 hour ago, ctiger said:

which were over 200 Gigs, los

I highly doubt if over 200 GB were sent to the recycle bin, unfortunately.. I think windows prompts "are you sure you wish to permanently delete" if over a certain size...

Thanks all, first it was my community folder. It was empty and that was around 250 gigs in the community folder. unfortunately the recycle bin was empty.

The 3 separate MSFS packages over time sold which I purchased thru steam. I have always started MSFS thru Steam. This time when I started up -  each of the MSFS  packages (3)  reinstalled. After the reinstall, msfs advised I could now reinstall all the MSFS I purchased thru the MSFS market. 

So at least it appears that some are working.  I backed up my community folder a year ago that MAY could be used in some more stuff. I assume I can transfer to the new folder. 

I am still not sure why I have lost almost 200gigs.  I may have deleted something else that I must check on.

 

 

 

 

Everything you backed up from community can be dumped back in, not a problem.

If MSFS starts acting funny afterwords, install addon linker to more quickly move stuff in and out of community to test for the bad packages.

If the packages in community were payware, the familiar online retailers have places to show you what you have purchased. Simmmarket, Orbx, Just Flight, Contrails. If freeware, flightsim.to keeps track of what you have downloaded.

 

When I upgraded my Nvme drive, I put the old one in the drive holder/USB converter case and now use it as a spare storage drive. It is probably 30 times faster than any USB drive. I put all my community on it a month ago. Took under an hour. If I had copied community folder to cloud storage it would have taken over day.

You can set Recycle Bin to be as huge as you want it to be. It doesn't hurt a thing to make it really large. If there isn't anything important in it, you can empty it whenever you wish and regain the space on the drive.

 Thanks for your quick replies.  I do have many items bought from those folks as you mentioned. I now just have to pay them a visit back to start reinstalling.  However, I  may have a problem since NVMe decreased from 230 gig to 42 gigs after the reinstall of the MSFS packages (3).  I am always checking my NVMe for  gigs since I will be having to upgrade soon.   When I restarted steam msfs had to reinstall the 3 msfs packages and each included the updates, which had already been installed years ago. There must be  something I had accidentally touched delete. ?

If you are seeing less space available (I.e. free space) on your hard drive now, it points to the original Community folder and MSFS packages etc still being on your PC. Did this perhaps happen after your MSFS did an update? If so, you may have just updated it to the wrong directory and now you have a duplicate installation, hence the reason you are seeing an empty Community folder and having to download all the packages again.

You would then be able to locate the original files and delete them, and copy that Community folder across.

Just keep in mind that an old Community folder backup is going to contain many outdated sceneries and aircraft etc. You will need to check with each developer for more recent updates or risk other problems with your sim.

 

I think RaptyOne is correct.

Or just go to the Start window (sometimes called Search Window) on the taskbar. And type Community

Or, all the folders that were in community could have been moved somewhere else (into another folder). so type the name of a plane or airport purchased at Orbx and it may show up almost in almost any folder in the Start window search results. All the other folders would probalbly be right there beside it.

 

Can't say this enough: Get Addon Linker -- the best free add-on there is for MSFS2020 -- and store all of your add-ons in a separate folder, preferably on a different drive from MSFS to conserve space on the MSFS drive. This way, your Community folder will contain only temporary links rather than the add-ons themselves, and nothing you do in MSFS can affect the add-on files you have stored separately. In addition there are many other advantages to using AL, such as arranging your add-on folder in a logical way that makes individual files easy to locate, and using AL to select only those add-ons that you need for a particular flying session.

Using AL can save tons of grief, is easy to use, and there is simply no reason not to do this!

Edited August 6, 20241 yr by cobalt

I have been a great advocate for years for Macrium Reflect backup program. It's free too! I create a backup of both Windows, MSFS and a storage drive, very easily and effortlessly, every month or so and have used it many times over the years. Every time it has restored things perfectly. To me it's a no brainer.

Step 1: Deep breath, go outside for a quick walk or something.  Get yourself calm and in the right state of mind.  The worst thing you can do is troubleshoot while you have high anxiety.  You will be way more effective in the right state of mind.  

I'm guessing you dragged your Community folder somewhere if the space isn't much higher.  Try searching for "community" in file explorer.  Dragging and dropping is the easiest mistake to make (I've done it with enterprise level file systems).