Greetings!

I have a new PC and want to transfer the contents of the previous install on the old machine to the new one. As per some posts in on the www, I copied the Official and Community folders to the new computer into a folder named MSFS 2020 on my D drive. I then installed MSFS into that folder. However, MSFS created a new community folder in the C:\users\name\appdata...that whole long string, and that is where MSFS 2020 wants to install packages to during the update after the install, not the Community folder I copied over from the old computer. I tried to direct it to install packages into the Community folder I copied to D drive, but I get a message that says "you can't select this folder. It is part of another package installation". I deleted the folders that I copied over, rebooted the computer and get the same message when I try to direct the package install path. During the first installation I did let MS do its thing with the package install, but, for example, when I installed the TFDi MD-11, it installed it into the Community folder that is part of the C:\users\name\appdata long string of stuff. When I launched the game, and selected the MD-11 there were not any liveries other than default to choose from. It did not see any others until I copied one from the Community folder on D drive to the Community on C drive. When I tried installing the MD-11 into the Community folder I copied over, it did not show up in the aircraft selection in the sim.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been wrestling with this for a couple of days in my free time, which is limited.

Regards,

Scott

Sometimes, the only way I can copy files in or out of the community folder is by zipping them first.  It's a big PITA, though I recall that this is an issue with the MS store version only and the Steam version does not seem to have this problem.

I'm hoping that MSFS2024 will be better in this respect though I am not holding my breath.

Edited October 30, 20241 yr by cianpars

open 2 file explorers - 1 for inside 2020 folder - and 1 for your old community folder - then just drag an item

item from this across to your new 2020 community folder 

7 minutes ago, jaytee73 said:

open 2 file explorers - 1 for inside 2020 folder - and 1 for your old community folder - then just drag an item

item from this across to your new 2020 community folder 

In the store version, I just seem to get warnings that I am prohibited from moving or copying files, which is why I zip them first.

Thanks for the replies!

@Jaytee73 I give that a try and see what happens (I have the store versions).

@cianpars Are you copying files from computer to computer or from folder to folder on the same computer?

4 hours ago, ndflieger said:

I then installed MSFS into that folder.

How did you do this? What you are describing sounds like you didn't do this part correctly. 

There are two steps to the installation

 

1. Install MSFS from the Store - Here, you do NOT need to mess with the path it chooses, you can let it install anywhere it likes (or change it if you want.. but this has nothing to do with the location of the community folder)

2. AFTER the small download from the store, MSFS starts up and then wants to download the ~150GB... this is where you have to change the folder to the location where you have the Official and Community folder stored. This is what determines the location.

Here's an image that shows what I mean - see the "Install Packages" bit?

If you didn't change this to the location where you copied the files, it won't work. 

Good news is that this is easy to fix. Just uninstall and reinstall, but this time make sure to point it correctly - it will NOT download ~150GB then.

I have done this many, many times (at least 10 times haha) over the past 4 years and it works fine. 

If you did do it this way, then something else is wrong 🙂

Remember, don't click Update. Click on the directory name and it will let you change it, and then click update. It's confusing because it looks like the only option is to click "Update"

Hi Jonathan, I have clicked on the directory name to change the installation path of the packages. It won't let me change the path to my D:\MSFS 2020 folder. I get a message stating that "you can't select this folder. It is part of another package installation".

Ok, I just had a thought. Perhaps I'm getting this message due to the fact I had the MS Store install the sim into the D:\MSFS 2020 folder I had created. If I let the Store install it to where it wants to, then maybe I'll be able to change the packages download to the MSFS 2020 folder on my D drive. 

Should I still copy over the Official and Community folders from the old install into the new folder? If so, before or after installed MSFS 2020 on the new computer?

Edited October 30, 20241 yr by ndflieger
typo

32 minutes ago, ndflieger said:

Perhaps I'm getting this message due to the fact I had the MS Store install the sim into the D:\MSFS 2020 folder I had created.

This is exactly correct. There are two parts to the MSFS installation

 

1. MSFS installs the executable and a bunch of other files (language packs for different regions, other internal stuff) that you never really need to touch. This can go anywhere and is determined when you first install from the store. The store installer does this

2. The next step is that MSFS starts and wants to create a Official and Community folder. The only things that live in this are the packages that MSFS uses. The EXE files and so on do not live here. This is the part where you point it to your existing folder. 

I would do the following

1. Find your existing Community and Official folder (with all the files, likely hundreds of GB) and put them somewhere. I put them in C:\MSFS and will refer to this below

2. Uninstall MSFS from the store. This will delete the execuatble and all the other files.. but your Official and Community folder will be safe, since you moved those to C:\MSFS

3. Install MSFS from the store. The first download (something like 10GB?) where the store asks where you want to install... put that anywhere EXCEPT c:\MSFS. The default location it chooses is fine

4. Let MSFS start, and this time, when it wants to "Install Packages", point it to C:\MSFS. It will pretend to download, but it should really just go through very quickly (like in 2-3 minutes) as all it does is check the existing files and will only download files if they are outdated.. which shouldn't happen. 

Then all should work well. 

 

If you want to be super careful and have the disk space, you can make a separate copy of C:\MSFS before doing the install, just in case something goes wrong. I have 4 TB of space so I always am careful.. one time somehow screwed it up and had to wait hours to download it all again. Learnt my lesson!

Edited October 30, 20241 yr by JonathanC

Here's how I have it

https://imgur.com/a/DnarMDq

From the Store, I install into C:\XboxGames. You can see MSFS is in there, and then there's a content folder inside it, which has a bunch of files that I never look at

But all the packages live in C:\MSFS

 

Hope this helps!

Also, it IS possible to do this without doing an unistall and reinstall dance. If you are comfortable with editing text files and so on:

 

MSFS has yet another folder which lives in 

C:\Users\<YOURUSER>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache

Inside here, you will find a file called UserCfg.opt which you can open in Notepad

Right at the bottom of this file you will see

InstalledPackagesPath "C:\MSFS"

 

Change that to whereever you have the "Official" and "Community" folders, and next time you restart MSFS it will look there.

The unistall and reinstall is easier if you really dont' want to mess about with the internals, but it is easy to do if you want to try this

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for those detailed instructions! I hopefully will have time to do the reinstall after work this evening or tomorrow morning before work.

I've seen various posts about the UserCfg.opt and have found it in my installs. I'll probably just take the extra time and do the uninstall/reinstall process.

I'll report back once I've had a chance to do this.

Regards,

Scott

2 hours ago, ndflieger said:

I'll report back once I've had a chance to do this.

I just went through the same exercise last week, and it seemed to work just fine, until I discovered that my default airplanes had non-functioning radios.. they were dark.   Maybe I could have uninstalled and reinstalled each airplane.. but I gave up, deleted the Official folder contents and let MS reinstall its basic content.   I still had a copy of my old Official folder which contained the various World updates, and those I was able to recycle, either by copying them back, or using Addons Linker to activate them.   The Community folder was OK, except for payware aircraft which also had problems, so I had to reinstall them one by one..

I suspect that the aircraft have some sort of copy protection which is tied to the actual computer.

Last, but not least, also check in Content Manager that you have all the Working Title updates installed.. I was missing a GNS530 and G1000 update.

It may be a bit of a journey, but you'll get there! 🙂

Edited October 30, 20241 yr by Bert Pieke

Hi Bert,

Thanks for the response!

Regards,

Scott

Success!

Last night I copied over the Community and Official folders from my older computer to the new one. This morning before work, I re-installed MSFS as per the procedure outlined above. I was able to direct the packages to the location of my choosing. I then went into Content Manager and installed all the updates. Exited and re-started the sim. Took the default C172 around the pattern at KLAX.

Everything seemed to work flawlessly!

After work this evening, I'll start the process of downloading and re-installing utilities, payware aircraft/sceneries...etc...

A big thank you to everyone who helped me figure this out - have a virtual adult beverage or three on me 😉

Regards,

Scott

Edited October 31, 20241 yr by ndflieger
Add'l info