Are you on Steam or Microsoft Store version? MS Store Version
Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it? No
Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue: Current version - cannot determine as it is currently downloading
Brief description of the issue:
On launch a Store Mandatory Update was required, which downloaded and installed succesfully.
Using the Storeās āOpenā option presented following the update FS2020 launched, checked for updates and presented a full download (111.15GB) as being required. Checked the FS2020 directory size on disk to determine whether it had been deleted, 114GB in use but a full download now in progress.
This is the 5th time I have been required to download the entire product, Microsoft you are better than this and need to resolve these distribution/installation issues as a priority, particulary for those of us who only have 4G Internet access with monthly data limits
NO! Itās installing into a new directory! Make the installer point at your custom directory. Youā re now installing it twice. Just abort, start again and point to the right place.
Ah just send you a message too, glad to see this reply got you in time. Iā ve had it myself once too. Without changing anything it pointed the installer somewhere else and off it went.
Just make sure the installer points at where your Community and Official folders are normally located too.
If all the data is there then maybe try moving the already downloaded content to a custom path and see if re-running MSFS and pointing to the custom path helps?
Just throwing out an option to see if it saves you having to perform a massive download.
Details on how to move to a custom install path can be found here.
I have my FS2020 āInstalled Packagesā installed on D:\FS2020.
This update VII install screen defaulted to an install location of C:**.
I clicked okay or continue and the install started.
I then realised that it did indicate the C: drive.
I stopped FS2020 and started it again.
This time, I clicked the āBrowseā button and selected my install location.
I could only choose the drive and selected the D: drive and the install
continued with no problem.
after a long time running at abt. 100 Mbit I Ā“ve cancelled the update download.
unfortunately now the complete MSFS-app is disappeared. I dont have the opportunity anymore to start or to uninstall the sim.
Anybody an idea how to solve this problem or know what happens when I install the sim again without uninstall it before?
@tamalien I have a question regarding your methodology of copying the backup to a custom path. Hypothetically speaking, letās say I take the current build I have and copy both the community and official folders from the packages in the default install location on C: and make the custom folder in my E: drive to paste there. That part is easy.
My question now is, assuming I install a beta, since I am one of the peripheral testers, this should install into my C: drive by default. Once Iām ready to leave the beta, I will be prompted to reinstall the latest stable version, and I should point the packages to the custom location in E: so that I donāt risk having to fully reinstall.
Will E: now become my primary install path? What then happens to the data in C: and how do I make sure that the next time I install a beta it doesnāt install in E:? I just want to keep E: as a backup but donāt want to have out of date files in C:
I was in the last beta and had my āInstalled Packagesā (Community and Official folders) installed on my D:\FS2020 drive\folder.
You can have the āPackagesā on both C: and E: drives.
The FS2020 program will use the one that is indicated on your last download/install (indicated by you) as the location of the āPackagesā
and also indicated in your UserCfg.opt file.
You could consider the one not indicated as a backup but it is not updated
by anything.
Usually the one not indicated is deleted to not waste that disk space. (130 GB)
Usually, if a backup is wanted, say for for a new upgrade/install, a copy of the indicated āPackagesā is copied prior to the download/install.
to another folder and leave the original files in situ.
I completely move the entire contents of both directories āCommunityā and āOfficialā to a new location outside of the directory structure contained in
and make sure MSFS knows the location of this new directory.
I do maintain a separate back up of this data on another hard drive as well, in case anything ever goes wrong with the active directory that MSFS is using (be it the āliveā or ābetaā version). AFAIK it is only possible to have one type of MSFS installed at any one time, either the live or the beta version, not both. (Currently the only available build is the live build as there is no beta build just now.)
Whenever transferring from beta build to live build, in the past, MSFS has a tendency to delete everything in
before re-installing the new live version. This is the reason why the recommendation is to have the important downloaded content outside of that folder structure, lest it gets wiped in this process.
This makes sense, so even if I have it pointed to E: it will still try to delete on C:. I was worried about it deleting what I have on E: when trying to reinstall. As for the backup Iāll keep on a separate drive. Thanks!
Count me in. I have opted in for the beta because nothing was moving in a timely manner after the botched SU7 job and FS was no fun anymore with the ground always covered in clouds, IOW SU7 was already the last straw but now I faced the full reinstall challenge and read somewhere that it points to the default install location, so I tried to point it to its actual location on D: but it still wanted to install everything after it obviously wiped the old install in an instant. Every single time since SU4/5 the update process in FS is an increasing nightmare and itās time to pull the plug and make the only consequential statement I have as a customer: I have removed MSFS and I wonāt be installing it (and the loads of content I bought) again unless MS+Asobo have gained a solid reputation of having sorted out their massive issues with customer experience, stability, quality control and keeping their promises. That may as well mean āneverā.
This sim is supposed to make my day happier but the bigger part of the last year itās been a massive mood killer on such a regular basis that keeping this appears to be a sign of insanity to me. Before I get my coat I want to thank the community for the help bearing with this heartbreaking disappointment of a ānext-genā sim that just has become one notch too next-gen awful for me.
