My 2020 Community folder is no longer present in my system, including all the software it contained. Instead, my 2020 install points to the 2024 Community folder, a path I did not set, which contains only the 2024 packages I placed there.
This is new after nearly a year of peaceful coexistence and likely results from recently moving the 2024 Community folder off C drive. It has only been a few weeks and every time I open 2024 there is a message about my files being relocated and then yesterday I noticed my pinned 2020 Community folder vanished.
I have checked Username]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community
it’s empty.
I had a great deal of valuable software in that folder that I have no place else, because it too was not on C drive. I have not opened 2020 in many months and just now opened it to discover it’s Community folder is the 2024 Community folder.
Who do I talk to about getting my software back please.
FREQUENCY OF ISSUE
It is a new permanent state.
REPRODUCTION STEPS
Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:
Moved 2020 Community folder to peripheral drive to increase storage several years previous.
Installed 2024 and for 10 months used default paths.
Moved 2024 Community folder to peripheral drive to increase storage 2 weeks ago and it didn’t happen over night.
YOUR SETTINGS
If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub. – > Of course the issue would end with an empty Community folder. < -
What peripherals are you using:
[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?
I use DevMode on a daily basis.
[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?
Whichever W11 defaults to for an Alienware R16.
[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?
nvidia RTX 4090
[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?
Thank you for this report. We’ve moved your topic into the User Support Hub.
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But, you shouldn’t move the Community folder from the C: drive.
Meaning that there is always a Community folder on the C: drive.
If you install FS2024 to the C: drive, the Community folder will be on the C: drive.
If you install FS2024 to another drive/folder, the Community folder will be on that drive\folder.
If you move it and then update the UserCfg.opt file where it has been moved to, FS2024 will build a Symbolic linked Community folder on the C: drive.
The folder is not lost because you moved it.
It is still where you moved it.
Move it back or update the UserCfg.opt file so that
FS2024 will know where you moved it to.
100% in your MSFS 2024 settings you’ve selected a subfolder instead of the parent folder. You should not point it to Community folder itself, but to the folder that contains the Community folder - the parent directory.
2020 and where it’s Community folder are located was established years ago> For several years I had a stable Community folder on E: drive. Done deal. Bought 2024, developed several aircraft, outgrew C: in due time and created a new directory at the root level of E: MSFS 2024 Community folder, I did not point it at any old Community folder and I had no intention of mixing directories. I developed more for 2020 that I like to review and occasionally convert to 2024. That worked for about two weeks. I had to have two 2024 Community folders (at my end) because you can’t just point to a directory like in 2020. With 2024 it is similar, but the actual Community folder is “restricted.” I am constantly developing aircraft and I need the old versions purged. I can’t delete from Community directly, so I use the alias location, E: drive and delete from there. So, 2 pinned 2024 Community folders, 1 pinned 2020 Community folder until two days ago and now just the two 2024 Community folders and all 2020 addon software, all the aircraft and scenery I developed gone. I open 2020, go into VFS projection, navigate to Community and the path I have not changed or even used since purchasing 2024, is now pointed at MSFS 2024 Community. That is not a bug, that is an attack.
Thanks but I could delete 2020 for how much I use it and fixing that Community folder is not the issue. Recovering my software is. That the alert continues to inform me software has been moved suggests it is likely responding to the fact I install and destroy broken aircraft on a nearly daily basis. I develop and make many, many bad aircraft to finally make one good one.
Well, technically there is always a 2020 Community folder. It was there on day one of owning 2024 and I’d always presumed the sim would populate it, never happened. Still never happened the sim just went and beheaded the whole thing, deleted the 2020 population and pointed the disemboweled directory to 2024, because..?