Saw a post where a user had to reinstall the sim after going from Beta to the SU7 Update. Asobo can you make it possible where upon uninstall the community folder is not deleted? People have so much invested now this would be a disaster. A reinstall should ask where the community folder is so it can connect back up to it once the installation is installed. You guys did a great job with the Community Folder concept but you also need to ensure this critical folder is not touched should the sim have to be reinstalled.
It’s plainly simple and quite often advised to rename the community folder for updates, this is the absolute tiniest bit of end user responsibility.
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People are still losing it. I just read about it over on Avsim.
They can’t be loosing it if it’s renamed when the sim is off. That would require the sim to have some form of artificial intelligence. There are plenty on Avsim and other forum who post about things being broken when it’s actually them that have done something silly.
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If you want to ensure that doesn’t happen, copy and paste it to another location outside of the sim folders, with a diffrerent name.
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Not once have I ever renamed emptied or done anything to community folder and never had an issue to date touch wood.
Sometimes it’s better to leave things alone. Saying that I don’t have to many addons.
Approx 30 addons max which includes liveries etc
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I’ve had it deleted twice and also have about 30 addons total.
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That is OK, I’ve done both, and like you, never had an issue, but if you do have a problem, it is a real nuisance to diagnose.
I try to remember now, to name it to Community1 and let MSFS make a new one.
If you do have a problem after an update, you will at least know where the issue is.
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Yes I can certainly imagine!
I may start to do it as I’m seeing some of these updates are becoming a bit more unstable for some.
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The only thing that comes to mind is some orphan file cleaner being installed?
It’s illogical but not impossible confirmation bias aside… or not.
on PC - use your own folder/s for the mods and set only a link with the addon linker
MSFS Addons Linker » Microsoft Flight Simulator
Then can FS Update delete every day his commy folder.
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I lost everything in my community folder in the January 13th update. Previously I had all my Ad-ons in a separate folder and used the linker program. However as my folder grew and the effect of certain add-ons being unstable I decided to keep the 20 most used mods directly in the community folder. I probably would have discovered that updates delete the community folder much sooner otherwise, but live and learn.
However, I feel like there should be a clear warning your community folder may be deleted. Mine seems to have disappeared before the major (100+ gig) update in the loading screen. The deletion took place in the small (3gig) update to the App Store. As opposed to the loading update when you are asked if you wish to proceed, I have my App Store updates happen automatically. So it was gone before I realized an update was taking place.
Luckily it was only 20 add ons such as FBW & Salty development mods and a few favorite liveries and scenery. All easily replaced, but what if somebody lost a large amount or some unique mods that may be difficult to re-download? Would taking advantage of system restore to a point before the App Store update bring back the files?
I feel like besides the clear warning it would also be helpful to know if system restore (or any other method) is possible to restore your folder contents so it can be renamed or linked as suggested.
They do recommend you empty the community folder before each update.
It’s been that way since the sim started.
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Well no need to empty but rename it, yes.
And data space is so affordable and available compared to everything else PC.
I keep copies of everything in my documents folder when I clean my download folder which usually has a newer version when I occasionally tidy that. Which all of that is on a different drive from Windows and MSFS. I only have about 1.75tb in space over 5 drives but a treat it like a tool box. There’s a junk drawer but all the rest are tidy organized and the metric and standard are in separate drawers. (active files and backups)
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I rename mine as well, I’ve never emptied it.
I do though, as recommended, uninstall Navigraph navdata before an update.
Oh I agree it’s recommended, but so is closing all other programs when installing the simplest new driver or reading an entire user agreement before clicking “I agree”. Perhaps adding “May result in data loss” would be a better than a recommendation.
I also feel like this should be a more easily searchable FAQ when you query “deleted community folder”. It can recommend either renaming or using a linker to avoid it happening again and maybe answer the question if the data can be retrieved with system restore or if it’s gone forever, which is still unclear.
It’s not the end of the world, but it does seem to take enough people by surprise that there should be an official message or FAQ regarding this issue.
I fairly confident that this (and if I am wrong I stand corrected) only happens to users who at some time joined the beta which did say all manner of bad things may happen beware and whatnot.
If it didn’t happen to you, you probably didn’t participate in the last beta… when it was released as official release (out of beta), all beta testers had their entire local settings folder removed and recreated. (This contains the community folder, the official marketplace files , some of the settings like cameras and so.) So just a rename would not have helped as the above folder was deleted. it was /would be necessary to have an external backup of it to later restore, and because this was not notified in advance many people were caught by surprise and really lost everything they had. The request/complain is very valid, if for any reason Asobo devides this is needed, not advising ahead of the delete is unprofessional and can be a headache for customers.
It did not happen to Steam users as far as I know.
MS-Store users were told to make a complete second install and were clearly warned that you may have difficulties.