So I've been using addons linker for a while now and it's worked great. After I had to do a full MSFS re-install, a bunch of airports I had on another drive that I was linking to the Community folder now show an error in the Addons Linker application: cannot read manifest.json file. I've tried moving some of the airports to the actual community folder instead of of linking it and they still do not show up, and I've used dev mode to make sure I'm moving it to the correct Community folder as well. I did a fresh reinstall of one of the airports and placed it in the Community folder/linked folder, which then makes them show up in the sim. Is there an issue with the addons themselves? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Are you sure you've checked/re-added the locations (that were on another drive)? In the lower (horizontal) panel, do you see any link errors?

Another thought: has the location of the Community Folder changed? You may need to check that it corresponds to whatever you have set in Linker options.

Edited November 10, 20241 yr by Adamski_NZ

Hello and welcome, 🍻

'Can not read manifest.json' means that the file is there but can not be read. It's often due the the MS-Store version of the sim that 'encrypts' (or something like that) the files when they are put in the community folder for some users (go figure why and who had that idea 🤔). So then, when you move the files outside of the community folder they don't work anyore and the files can not be read. In your case, after a reinstall, maybe they are still 'corrupt' even after putting them back in real conmmunity folder.

Try to open some of those files showing with 'Notepad', are they readable ?

I have never had that issue myself because i have the Steam version of the sim so i could never really see that issue in action, but i'm aware it exists because you're not the first one reporting it unfortunately.

So yeah, if you redownload the addons and place them immediately in your custom addons folder managed by AL, it should work without problem, but those that you moved might not work, it's some sort of windows/security/profile/microsoft 'issue' that Addons linker has can not control over.

There is a little trick that worked for some users that was to move the addons by zipping the files directly in another folder with 7-zip, but that requires to do it from a folder where they still work. So if you have moved them already it might not work.

Hopefully it's not too confusing because, depending on how confident you are with computers, this message might be a bit complicated to understand (even for me it's not really clear what happens for some ms-store users and their community folder, this issue has been plaguing users for some time 😑) ...

Feel free to message me if you need more help.

and thank you @Adamski_NZ for trying to help 👍, but i think he has that 'move file' issue explains above ...

🍻

Edited November 10, 20241 yr by Bad_T

There's a superb little program called Teracopy that allows the copying/moving of encrypted files. The freeware one will work fine, but I liked it so much I bought it (it's not hugely expensive).