Hi,
I have a steam version of MSFS. The problem is that it stores too much data on my system disk. I’d like to move all the MSFS files from C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming (or at least the largest portion of them which is the Packages subfolder) to another physical disk. Is there a way to do it?
Thanks
If you’re using the Windows Store version, its easy. Go to settings in Windows 10, then go to Apps. Find MSFS in the list and click on it. There should be a “move” button where you can give it another drive and path to move it to.
For the steam version, there is a way to do it in the steam app as well, but I don’t recall the exact steps at hand.
Pardon the piggyback, but the follow-up question is, Will moving MSFS to a different drive screw things up when updates are released?
Hi @SamuraiSax ,
Quite possibly - My constant installation & upgrade issues lessened when I just reinstalled to the default drive. May be better now, but I’m leaving it!
thanks
PaulyFsPauly
It shouldn’t. If you pay attention during the update you will notice that you are prompted for the install directory where the sim files are stored. If you make sure that this is the same drive and directory where you moved the sim to it should work.
1 create new folder named MSFS 2020 on for e.g. D drive
2 copy root_game_folder Packages from
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator
to D:\MSFS 2020
3 after that go to
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator
4 open with notepad file named userconfig.opt
scroll down to the bottom and edit last line
e.g.
InstalledPackagesPath "C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages"
Packages is root game folder
change
InstalledPackagesPath "C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator\Packages"
to for e.g.
InstalledPackagesPath "D:\MSFS 2020\Packages"
save changes
Hi, I have a question:
Once I copied the data from C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator
to D:\Microsoft Flight Simulator, can I delete all the folder in C:\Users\MyUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator to liberate space, or I may screw the sim? 
Has the Solution above been reliable for most people? I am seeing that my Roaming folder on my C: drive has 180 GB of FlightSim files, even though I used Steam to install the game to my D: drive. I want my games to live on D: because that is my higher speed NVME SSD.
This is frustrating because I told Steam to put it on the D: drive where it uses <2 GB of space.
Also from a System Administration standpoint this is a pretty huge ■■■■■■ flaw, knowing that the Roaming profile is meant to be used for network users that goes from PC to PC in an active directory domain. If a user installs MSFS on one computer, and logs into a 2nd computer without MSFS, over 180 GB of FlightSim data will be copied over the network to the 2nd computer. If anything the files should be kept in the Local folder under C:\users<username>\appdata folder.
Thanks!
Hey y’all,
I need advice. I’ve encountered this problem. I’ve had MDSF (steam version) on SSD drive and didn’t play it for a while. Then I launched it and spent 3 days (not because of my connection, but because MS servers are apparently run by potatoes on 14 mbps) updating. MSFS downloaded all the files on my system drive to appdata, even though i checked that it was supposed to be installing to the SSD. So now I’ve got two duplicate installs of MSFS (together over 500 GB - MS should provide drives with this). So I used this guide, moved the new files. upon launching, it says i need to do 160GB update and evidently wants to download to system drive again. I cannot seem to solve it. And i aint downloading it again for another 3 days.
Any ideas?
I would not have tried clicking on it 
I supposed this was download location, not files location.
Thanks man, appreciate this greatly.
The problem with this step is that it doesn’t let me copy anything from the AppData folders.
Also in the APP settings, MSFS says it’s installed in D drive but the updated and newley installed version is in the AppData folder. …
Complications.
didn’t work initially because I did not pay attention to my own words…but…below is a true FULL MSFS load and run data, if you find it interesting.
2.I just ran Procmon after resetting the last line of both C:\Users\Chas\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator to “D:\MSFS I2\Packages” and the same with D for the file userconfig.opt…
I saved the entire sequence both native and CSV events for disk activity from procmon and found that somehow C: drive version had been overwritten referencing the offending L:(my equivalent counterpart to OPs overflowing C:drive.)
I am uploading a complete Procmon disk activity zip file renamed to .MOV so I could upload it to here. LogfileMSFS.mov - Google Drive . Yall are going to have to rename it back to a zip file…its s 16MB file that unpacks to over 260MB…HAH!
Hopefully someone can figger out what happened from the Procmon activity…BTW, MSFS Squawked saying there was a "monitoring program loaded Unload and restart MSFS…which I ignored…this was just like a previous meeting by the same company that didn’t want me to see the inner workings of their so-called proprietary copy protection…unfortunately I didn’t do a screen shot to show you, but I KNOW I met the same company before years ago…don’t remember if it was FSX,P3D, or Xplane that I was scoping out, but it WAS the prime EXE file for each or either as it was this time monitoring “Flight Simulator.exe”…hope this helps untangle things…Ive still got 386GB with 200 gigs to spare if I can just get MSFS to pay attention.
Sending protective and healing vibes to yall and your loved ones…
a little giftee for yall…my 4th rehearsal reading of Dylan Thomas’ “A Childs Christmas in Wales” read by moi…Im getting closer to his intent I think…Please comment and give notes so I can do my best performance on Christmas eve’s (our 43rd wedding anniversary) live production and readings to locals who need a little cheer. https://youtu.be/z6kXJVnqu2g
Chas