MSFS (Steam) Wants to do a complete reinstall (not Update related)

Yesterday, I flew for hours. One of the most fun MSFS days I have had. Everything worked well. Today I logged into Steam to continue my tour across Austria, and it took forever to get to the “checking update screen”, like 2 minutes… then it says it wants to download 108GiB of data to complete the installation. I checked, and all of my files are there. I did a validation of the files in Steam, and it completed with no missing files… but, it will not launch and wants me to click “continue” to start the re-install. I have really slow internet and looking at about 2 days to reinstall.

Is there a way to 'fix" this? I know the files are are on the drive. There is no reason to re-download them. I was so disappointed today as I was really enjoying my tour.
grounded
Lemit

See this post:

Thanks for the fast reply and informative post.
The "forced Re-Install situation: occurred before the file verification. I did nothing but log off last night… and log on today. After about 6 attempts at rebooting and restating Steam and starting MSFS (with no relief) I tried a validate files. It found no errors, or invalid files. When I try to launch, it says checking for updates and then to to complete reinstall screen. It seems that Steam has lost sync with what is on my hard drive. I was hoping for a work around.

Unfortunately, there isn’t.

I don’t know what caused the first part, but when you clicked to verify files, Steam only knows about that 1GB installer and not the core. So it forces a full download again.

There have been some who have saved the official files elsewhere and managed to reinstall without having to re-download. I don’t recommend it but if you want to search on the forum, search for:

Transfer to another drive
Install on another pc

Understood. I will search the forum, but… think I would prefer to go with a clean install if I must. I did find a post that said the Log book file is saved online in a profile somewhere. I am currently copying the entire directory structure in case that is not true. Maybe I can find my log book and copy over. In the big picture, yesterday was the most fun I have had since my FSX days years ago. Setbacks will happen. At the worst, I have the day off tomorrow, and will not be flying. I don’t want to be critical, but… this seems like a strike against Steam if someone was trying to decide “Steam or MS Store?” I am pretty ■■■■ sure m sim is OK, Steam just thinks it is not.

My advice when you re-install , if you didn’t the first time, is choose a different install location than the default one.

All your settings are stored in the cloud and will resync after reinstalling.

Neil,
I originally installed it on a clean internal SSD (“E: Drive”) The installer wants to put it back there. So it remembered where it was installed. MAYBE, if I press update to continue the process, it will find the file there and not have to reinstall them again. Wishful thinking? I will report back when I see what happens.
All of my community add ons are in a separate directory on the same drive, but "linked to the community folder using MS Linker. That will not be a problem.

Yeah, the Steam verify files bit me… verifies it’s files (1.3GB) but deletes all Microsoft MFS files (100GB). I originally tried MFS with a trial GamePass then purchased on Steam. After the verify fiasco I got a Steam refund and bought on MS Store (with GamePass 20% discount). This is one game that Steam adds no value IMO, directory structure still convoluted and verify doesn’t work correctly. It’s been running great since my re-install.

I had the same problem with GTA V and steam. Steam said I have to install GTA but it was installed. It was installed on D but steam wanted to install it on C, I don’t know why.

What I did:
I reinstalled Steam so I can restart the download from GTA, than I said install it on D where GTA was already installed. Steam Realized that so I dont had to completely reinstall it.

It should work the same for FS2020 as for GTA, I had to reinstall the FS2020 installer, because this will be deinstalled when you reinstall Steam.

I hope that will work the same for FS2020 as for GTA, I’am not sure because you only install the installer via Steam and not the whole game, but that should be enough.

I wanted to provide a follow up to clean this thread up, for people that find it in the future.
The problems was not with Steam. Steam thought the program was installed and healthy. Once I pressed Play in steam, THE MSFS Launched started, checked for updates, and wanted to reinstall everything. There was nothing Steam Support could do for me.
This problem happened after successfully closing MSFS the night before.
This problem occurred prior to running Steam Verify files. I ran verify files once I had exhausted all other options. The situation of forcing me to reinstall was not a result of running Verify Files. The problem was a glitch in the MSFS launcher / updater. I will turn in a ticket.
Ultimately I had to click “Update” and let it download and install the entire 108 giga bytes. Once the download started, it did NOT find the files on my hard drive and skip the download.
Now for the good news. The MSFS Server was blazing fast, It installed over a short night (I stayed up late) and I was able to fly the next day as planned (a day off). I installed it to the same location on a separate internal SSD. I made a personal choice and did not download everything in the Content Manager, just the things for the area I was flying. I can down load the rest when I choose to explore those areas of the world, or focus on those particular aircraft. Also, it did remember all my settings and Log book! So in the end, not a big deal. The only thing I lost was, I had somehow got the PRINT SCREEN key to take a screen shot and save to the folder that holds the MSFS executable. I use Track IR and F12 is used for this, and I did not like taking pictures with STEAM anyway. For the life of me I can not remember how I did that. It was so convenient for a one button press for screen shots without a third party program running to do it. If anyone here knows how to set that back up please reply.
I am sure the launcher / updater will mature as will the sim, and these occurrence’s will be less heard of. I am still glad MS is back! Now I am off to depart Bolzano, Italy at night in a Cessna 182T. (Sim) . If you don’t know why that is exciting, go to LIPB and see for yourself.

I found my problem with the Print Screen Single action screenshot. Previously I had ReShade installed and it gave me that function. I will read up on ReShade verses Nvidia shaders before I proceed.

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