FS2020 deletes itself and all content - Steam

I can confirm (02/01/2021) that MSFS 2020 will delete itself and all official content if you verify the integrity of local files through Steam.
It apparently rubs out all the local files too and they all need to be downloaded again.
The only things that remained were items in my community folder (liveries)

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That’s been a well-known issue since launch. If you use the Steam version, NEVER verify your files unless you don’t mind re-downloading the whole sim again.

As to whether Asobo are planning to do anything about this, it’s a mystery. It’s never been acknowledged by the devs to the best of my knowledge.

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Indeed it has, oddly enough I cannot find a topic on the issue in Bugs and Issues so I have created one.

When you have time, please report the bug to the developers through Zendesk.

Edit: Fixed link to my topic.

I remember I had this issue once with another game several years ago
 I don‘t remember which one but the file verification removed the whole thing. So it could be a Steam problem too, maybe a bug in the Steam software triggered by something the game does in this case.

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I think the problem is that steam resets the files to what it installed. Steam has no idea about all the files that get installed when you start FS2020.

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I don’t think it can be this. I purchased the game and the DLC on Steam, updates have all come through steam and yet steam removed the base game as well as the DLC and everything I had subsequently purchased through the marketplace.
I was basically left with redownloading EVERYTHING. Base game, DLC, updates etc. It took about a day.

I purchased the game through steam also, not sure what DLC you bought in steam but either way after steam installed it’s part and when I start the game it downloads all of the game files from inside the sim.
Your saying steam downloads everything before you even start the sim?

What you got from Steam is a game launcher. Nothing more. It’s about 1GB. THat’s it.

Once you open said launcher, it downloads the meat of the game, which is 95-130GB, depending on the edition you got.

When you “verify” on Steam, it rolls back your game folder to the condition it was when you initially downloaded it - just a launcher.

Is this stupid? Yes. Very much so. But that’s how it is regardless what we may thing about it. And it needs to be fixed by Asobo.

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Yeah this just happened to me this weekend and I had to re-download the whole thing won’t be doing that again.

That is the point I was trying to make but you worded it much better than me. Thank you

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What it did was

On first start after validating local files through steam the game launched into downloading files. This was a massive download that took a really long time.

Once it was done and I eventually got into the game it was only the core game. A lot of stuff was missing. (Aircraft from the DLC etc)

I had to manually select all these components and it redownloaded and installed those. This also took a really long time. These components included parts of the Flight training, some challenges as well as items I had purchased through the marketplace.

Many components failed to download, so I restarted to try again. During the restart process I also had to download and install the late December update.

So, indeed quite a lot, in fact everything must have been uninstalled and deleted.

Items I bought through the steam store = Base game + Premium Deluxe DLC (as sold as package by Steam)
Everything else was bought through the in game marketplace and paid for via steam.

Some community content was manually placed into the community folder. This was the only content that remained untouched by this glitch.

As the post above said Steam only installs the launcher so everything else gets wiped. I made the same mistake once.
All that other stuff always has to be selected after a reinstall which makes sense as you could be reinstalling because one of those items is causing a problem and needs to not be installed. So then you pick and choose what to install.
My full install took about 3 hours to complete

Once the game launcher is done loading it asks you where you want to install the game. I chose a folder I named “Msfs” (not sure how I came up with that name).
Then when that was done, I copied that folder onto and external HD hoping that will reload faster than a new entire download, should the need ever arise.

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