Can you move the community folder to a different drive?

Which version of the game do you have, Steam or MS Store?

This little tool is a godsend. Store your community content wherever you want, and this tool automatically creates symbolic links to it. You can simply tick box which content you want loaded - and can be changed easily every time you run the sim if you want so you donā€™t have to have everything loaded. Works brilliantly.

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Iā€™m using the Steam edition. I solved the problem by creating a symbolic link. Works great.

I think you need to use the Administrator account. Your user login does not have Full Access.

Welcome to the forum. I just arrived myself.

I am having the problem of too long filename and gpedit and registry hack are not resolving it.
My windows drive recently had problems booting. I installed a new ssd and reinstalled windows. FS was on another drive and Official & Community folders were on the same drive and easy to get to. I use MSFS addon linker but have recently come across addons the do not work right unless they are actually in the Community folder.
Specifically the Icon A5 performance addon. It requires the 3 files and if using links there are functions missing from the glass cockpit to change the altitude and vs. I had just gotten this working before the windows reinstall. I thought I could just install the sim without having to download the whole thing but could not because installer requires 127Gb free space and I could not free that much on 240Gb SSD since (actually 223Gb) official folder was 109.
So I reinstall full program but couldnā€™t find official and community where I expected file structure like my previous install. Did not take me long to find it but when I tried to copy the 5 addon files that I want to be permanently there and at least some need to be to function properly, I get the too long filename popup message.
Around the New Year I had moved the sim to a different drive. I just used the apps and features to move it. Then I realized it did not move the official folder or ā€œPackagesā€ folder as I now have but only the 1 gig program base. So kind of useless for most peoples purposes I think. Any way I physically copied to new drive and edited the path in user.cfg on the C drive. That worked but somehow I lost much of my flight log and achievements which appeared OK with just the base move. I had 500 plus hrs at that point and even though the main profile showed next level 600 hrs. the new count was starting at 0. Some things remained and I know some others had similar problems around that time so Iā€™m not exactly sure if the move caused it. It was like the 2nd time I flew and I got a message that there was a problem and hed to be logged out and back in.
I was going to just move the folders back closer to the root of the drive and edit the usercfg.opt again. But when I go to the file on the C drive it is showing the path as
InstalledPackagesPath ā€œC:\Users\mojoh\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packagesā€
Which is obviously not the path to the Packages on my M drive which is:

M:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-683890078-484304368-1426736932-1001\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages

(good god why are they trying to bury it?).
So Iā€™m looking for advice on how to move these ā€œPackagesā€ without breaking the program and or losing my profile.
I know the folders in the App data are actually links, but I donā€™t know much about how to edit them. Itā€™s rather transparent to the layperson but for the little shortcut/link arrows. I know how to edit shortcuts but not so much these links and the usercfg.opt file. I know for some edits there you have to invoke the read only attribute to make changes persistent.

I have read some comments that this is a Windows problem and not a problem with the Sim, but the program Windows 10 only, so I think that is a moot point.

My original install was through gamepass back in August. Seemed much simpler, and much easier to locate and use community addons. Now more and more problems to use this interface. Is there a reason or need to make it this much more complex. Orbx and new A32x addons want to install direct to community folder and dynamic links do not work 100%. So why make it more abstract and convoluted than it needs to be if the objective was to improve this system?

The Microsoft folder? Where is that?

Personally, in your case, I would uninstall MSFS, and reinstall to the correct drive.
Your settings, the vast majority anyway, are kept ā€œin the cloudā€ and are restored when you reinstall the sim.
That way you have everything pointing to the correct installation.

If you change the file to a read only, MSFS cannot change that file with any updates.
If that file isnā€™t updated with the rest of the sim, it will probably lead to CTDā€™s.

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just attempting the above with symbolic links, do i have to create a seperate link to every piece of 3rd party add on software i have for this to work because i have 52gbs of files there and so far cant get this to work. Thanks

Just use the Freeware AddonLinker, works very well and allows for easy management of your addons, has presets depending on what you want to have active etc.
There is really no reason at all to maintain the links yourself anymore.

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Hi Brunlea
i had to re install MSFS again yesterday becuase the latest patch caused CTDS while the sim was loading every time.
I pointed the install to my ssd D drive and when the install was finished i have 3 folders named: Program Files, WindowsApps and WpSystem
My D drive is only used for MSFS.
My community folder and official folder is deep down in the c directory like this:
C:\Users*****\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages
Can i drag the Community and Official folders to my D drive or should i create a short cut to them from the D drive.
Also if i drag them to the D drive must i create a folder called Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 in the D drive and put them in there

Method still works in 2021 still asks for new location I just deleted the folder out of there and repointed to my existing d drive thanks

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Hi everyone.

Iā€™m very new to the sim world and Iā€™d appreciate your help.
I have a PC with 512gb and Iā€™m running out of space.
I have a Lacie 1 TB hard drive and iā€™d like to save some mods there.
Would it be possible to run MSFS mods with my hard drive?

Best regards,
Karim

Something like this MSFS Addons Linker Ā» Microsoft Flight Simulator should do what you are looking for

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Thanks a lot!

Thatā€™s exactly why I use Addons Linker. I have all addons on D drive.

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Hi,
You will never be happy with using a traditional HDD for MSFS. The HDDā€™s are just too slow for this type of use. I used to have a traditional HDD as my main drive then I moved to a SSD ā€¦>THENā€¦ I moved it all to a NVme drive and I will never ever go back. The speed difference is so much better with a NVme.

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I decided to go for a 1TB SSD.
I will try to move everything from my current driver to my new one.
I donā€™t know how the MSFS add-on linker works but I will check the tutorials now.

All you ned to do is go to Settings, Apps and under the MS Flight Simulator App, just click ā€œMOVEā€.

Win 10 will move FS2020 wherever you tell it to.

It successfully worked! I installed my new M2 drive and with the help of MSFS Addon Linker, I managed to have the community where ever I like. Thanks a lot!

What is the difference between doing it manually (changing the UserCfg file) and automatically with the move button?