Bad reinstall and access path too long for add-on

User Support Hub Install, Performance & Graphics
, ,
1

Hello everyone,
On my setup I have 2 NVMe SSDs of 500 GB each, one of which was dedicated to Windows + DCS and the other only to MSFS.

Becoming tight as the various updates of two sims progressed, I decided to invest in a new 2 TB SSD this time, to replace the one dedicated to MSFS.

I took exactly the same model as the 500 GB of MSFS but in 2 TB.

So I have my c: drive with Windows and DCS on it and the new one, 2 TB that I named D:

So I go to the Microsoft store, as I did the first time, and download and install MSFS on the D: drive
So far so good.
The game downloads and does its updates.

Where the problems start is the folder in which the Microsoft store placed/created MSFS.
I don’t remember in my old SSD but the path didn’t seem so complicated to me.

Look at:

D:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-3063646243-3291990052-644337885-1001\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe

  • Why this improbable path and folder name?
  • What is “S-1-5-21-3063646243-3291990052-644337885-1001”?

Due to the complexity of the access path, there are Add-ons that I can no longer put, systematically having the message "the file name(s) are too long for the destination folder etc…

How do I fix this?

Worse still, I had put add-ons in the Community folder that I am trying to copy out of said folder and I end up with the message: Your organization does not allow you to place this file here

In short, I can import them into the community folder but I can no longer extract them! It’s driving me crazy

Several questions to ask you:

  • How to shorten the folder name? or if necessary, how to make the path contain less than 256 characters when I want to put an add-on (example texture of the HPG H145 downloaded from flightsim.to)

  • Why did I not have any of these path or authorization problems to copy add-ons from the Community folder with the old SSD and now yes?

HEEEEELLLLPPPPP!!

thanks in advance for your help.

Clopino

2

Hi Clo,
the best way to is
1- to remove the second 500GB(2) with MSFS
2-to clone the old 500GB(1) including windows
3-then swap the 2TB NVMe in the slot where the 500 GB (1) was
4-reinstall MSFS20 as in the default location as suggested.
Run the sim WITHOUT any Community added content before to proceed.
5-Copy paste from 500GB(2) the content from the Community into the location C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages

3

Thank you for the answer FSEINDHOVEN, but unfortunately I already erased the MSFS 500 Go SSD.
So as suggested in a French forum, I

  • re installed MSFS from the Xbox app and not the microsoft store
  • Created an MSFS folder straight in my ssd
  • Asked to do the MSFS update on the first launch to this folder

I have now a community folder on a really short path (D:\MSFS\COMMUNITY) and it works.

Thanks for the Help!

4

It’s a pity that due to incorrect advice you had to reinstall Microsoft Flight Simulator from scratch. If I had seen your post earlier I would have added a link that could have shown you how to move MSFS to a new drive without any issues and without unnecessary disk cloning.
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/new-ssd-m-2-nvme/570593/4

In your case, my advice would have looked a bit different.

1 Format new SSD 2TB
2 Create new folder named for example MSFS
3 Copy folders Official and Community and paste into D:\MSFS
4 Uninstall MSFS
5 Important - via xbox app Install MSFS launcher (2GB) on C > xbox games
6 Launch MSFS
7 Once you reach the installation manager screen select the install Package Path

image
image1904Ă—1086 115 KB

Select the folder you created earlier for example: D:\MSFS

image
image1504Ă—739 43.3 KB

and let the installation manager scan the existing files.

I decided to write “how to move MSFS to a new drive” because it might be helpful to someone in the future.

The entire process of moving Microsoft Flight Simulator to a new drive would take about 10 minutes - depending on the speed of the drives.

Could you please edit the system registry to adjust the 260-character path limit? This setting controls the maximum length for file paths in Windows and increasing it can help resolve issues related to long file paths.

How to Make Windows 10 Accept File Paths Over 260 Characters (howtogeek.com)

5

Thank you TenPatrol for your post. I will keep it… in case of :slight_smile:

1 Like
6

You’re very welcome.