In order to avoid issues when updates are available I think it would good to have the updater to renaming the Community Folder.
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I honestly think this isnāt a bad idea, as it will assist those who forget to rename their community folder before updating (I do that a lot 
)
However, some people who are potentially unfamiliar with this process may be confused as to why their addons arenāt working, and theyāll notice two community folders inside their Packages folder.
Maybe the team could add an option in the options menu to enable this instead of it being automatic. 
+1 from me.
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Yeah, having it as an option would be fine.
I really donāt understand the basics of this issue. I have never once renamed my Community folder before an update and Iāve never had a problem. Is that because I use Addons Linker and all I have in my folder are shortcuts?
Probably more a case of which addons you have, and whether you keep them up to date or not.
Many donāt, and that can cause issues when a new sim version is released.
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For PC users, rather than hope for, and rely on, something that I suspect is highly unlikely to happen, I would suggest it is much simpler to just start using MSFS Addons Linker. Over and above eliminating the post update risk, it also makes loading MSFS a lot more efficient and quicker if you only load what you need. And I do understand that people will say ābut we should not have to do thatā. And that is fine as a principle. But the reality is we have a simple, effective free adddon. So we can either continue hoping for a sim refinement that may or may not materialise or we can use the addon. To each his own.
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I never emptied my community folder for any of the updates since 2020. No issues. But you can bet there would be a ton of support tickets saying āThe update deleted my addons!ā. Itās a can of worms. 
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I believe only a tiny proportion of the user base actually use the forums, or even know they exist, so that would likely be a bolt from the blue for them.
You donāt have to rename your community folder or empty it or anything like that as a general rule. Thatās a debugging step for when you do have problems, to identify if one of your community packages caused the problem.
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Iāve never understood the reasoning being this either. Have always just installed updates without giving a thought to the community folder.
Feels similar to the advice to always use DDU when upgrading video drivers.
Hi folks,
Just to clear up some confusion, it isnāt necessary to rename your Community Folder when installing an update. Iāve been using MSFS since the Day 1 launch (in 
) and havenāt encountered any update issues despite never renaming my Community Folder.
The advice to rename your Community Folder applies if you experience issues after installing an update. Before coming to the forums and creating a new a bug report claiming the update broke the sim, first try launching with a renamed Community Folder to determine if the issue you are experiencing is possibly caused by an out-of-date mod/addon.
Here is the exact text we use in the release notes of every update explaining this:
If you are playing on PC, outdated packages in your community folder may have an unexpected impact on the titleās performance and behavior.
If you suffer from stability issues or long loading times, move your community package(s) to another folder before relaunching the title
Thanks,
MSFS Team
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There are many questions that would have to be considered to make this work, such as:
- Would this happen just for beta builds or for the stable version too?
- How would users be informed of the change?
- How would the folder revert to its original name? Would users have to do it, or would MSFS do it automatically - if so, when?
IMO, the proposed functionality would cause more confusion than benefit. A simpler alternative would be to have a splash screen (perhaps replacing an existing screen) that, on starting the game, displays for the first five (or other number) times after an update has occurred.
This screen could be used after any update - SU, CU, WU, AIRAC Navdata, one-off fixes (e.g. the Caribbean water mask), perhaps World-Hub updates in future, etc.
The screen would provide information specific to the update. For example, it might remind users that some 3rd-party addons and outdated packages in the community folder might have an unexpected impact on performance and behavior, and if this is the case, or the sim suffers from stability issues or long loading times, to exit the sim and move their community package(s) to another folder before relaunching.
This information is often provided in the release notes, but many do not read (or know about them), so showing them in a splash screen solves that problem too.
There is another wish that I think answers best to what people are expecting if they want to troubleshoot or descativate easily their addons for whatever the reason is. It would be optional so up to the user to disable one by one or all their addons in the Community folder same for the Official one where all Marketplace addons are downloaded:
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Same here. I install mods to Addons_Linker folders I create.
I try to keep nothing but links in āCommunity.ā
//42 wants me to install the Camping Utility and SimFX into Community, and not AL, but Iām going to test it in AL. They wonāt support the product if itās installed that way. Iām fine with that.
I have a hard time understanding why anyone on PC doesnāt use Addons_Linker. Itās free, and itās a āMust Haveā as far as Iām concerned.
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I always just move the installs from 3rd party installers after the fact without any issues.
Addon Linker is a must have.
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I could swear the official advice used to be renaming or moving the Community folder so the install would first see an empty community folder. Could be remembering it wrong though.
At any rate, now that the sim has āsafe modeā, itās totally up to MS/Asobo if they want/need to automate the process. Itās trivial to have the first startup after an update just ignore the Community folder and after loading up, if all is ok with the update, trigger a restart with Community enabled.
For my own purposes, Iāll still be using an empty Community folder for the update and first load of the sim. Itās too easy and if there are issues when I enable Community I immediately know it was caused by something in Community - though personally Iāve never had issues when Iāve forgotten and updated with a full Communityā¦
Old habits die hardā¦
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Itās a sensible first step, and helps answer the question āIs the sim unstable, or are my addons causing this?ā
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A good idea - but its not so much a āforget toā wth the community folder: more often its āI think thereās one due about now but when exactly?ā
An actual in-game warning that ātomorow we will updateā or similar would be good.
The latest one was delayed again and suddenly happened yesterday (in UK).
Anyway I am lucky because the few tmes it has appeared unexpectedly my Community folder hasnāt caused any problems
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Donāt get me wrong, I know itās a must for pc users and I am an avid user of it, but most ( or a lot ) of the people have trouble locating their official and community folder itself. And addon linker can be a bit complex to set it up first for letās just say PC ignorants. And to use it effectively, thereās a few more things to learn.
But coming to the topic, renaming the community folder automatically sounds not a very good solution to me. If something goes wrong and it doesnāt rename it back, many people may have problem restoring the community folder back manually.
Instead I like the idea of using the safe mode. May be with a prompt which will appear after an update informing that it is advisable to start in safe mode first to test things out. And there can be choices to start in either safe mode or regular mode. Also there can be a check box like save the choice and never show again until next update. Sounds pretty simple to implement. Not sure if UX wise this will be good or not.
Also, does safemode handle marketplace bought items, since those can also cause issues, but they are not installed in community folder? If not, then safe mode should be enhanced to load only first party packages from official folder. This is much elegant solution to renaming the community folder.
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The standard advice to simmers that have had MSFS updated is āMove/remove/deleteā the contents of your Community folder as old addons and mods may conflict with the new update". I and many others discover that the folder we have filled with all these addons canāt be copied or moved elsewhere because the owner of the whole chabang doesnāt allow it. Last time I tried to zip the contents (it has been possible to move a zip-file earlier) I was informed that this couldnāt be done at all in this Community folder. Digital owners, compressions and maybe other limitations are at play.
My suggestion is that the MSFS Installer/updater copies the Community folder, and keeps it in a temporary folder while the update is performed. Either it can stay there to be reinstalled/moved back manually THROUGH A BUTTON COMMAND IN THE INTERFACE or automatically reinstalled. This way simmers/players donāt have the ordeal of finding this folder, and the hassle of finding that it canāt be copied elsewhere or zipped. And furthermore it would improve the update experience. Players/simmers shouldnāt need to know how to pry into the discs of their computer to play or update MSFS.
You donāt need to do ANY of that UNLESS you ENCOUNTER a conflict with a mod, in which case itās a useful debugging step in identifying which mod is the problem.
Normal update procedure is just to install the update and fly.
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