SSD drive filling up - can library be transferred to D drive?

[Genghis McCann]

My 221 GB SSD C drive is rapidly filling up as I download more from Flight Simulator. There will be just over 30GB free after the latest downloads. I don't see any options for saving files anywhere other than the C drive. Can the library, or parts of it, be moved to a second drive? My D drive is 2 TB so there is no space problem there.

[Manwith Noname]

Go to...

C:\Users\YOURPCUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator

Open the file, UserCfg.opt in a text editor (notepad or similar). Right at the bottom find..

InstalledPackagesPath "X:\Some\Path\Content\Installs\To"

Copy the contents of that folder, which should be a Community folder and an Official folder to a location on the other drive. Now set the path mentioned in the UserCfg.opt file to be the same as where you moved the packages folders.

This should point the game to read and install all content to that new location.

[Kosmozuikis]

You choose where to install when launching the game for the first time/updating. copy the files to another location and then choose that location.

[Genghis McCann]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

Go to...

C:\Users\YOURPCUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator

Open the file, UserCfg.opt in a text editor (notepad or similar). Right at the bottom find..

InstalledPackagesPath "X:\Some\Path\Content\Installs\To"

Copy the contents of that folder, which should be a Community folder and an Official folder to a location on the other drive. Now set the path mentioned in the UserCfg.opt file to be the same as where you moved the packages folders.

This should point the game to read and install all content to that new location.

Perfect instructions Noname! Done! And it works. Thanks for the help.

[Genghis McCann]

Originally posted by 🎅Kosmozuikis🎅:

You choose where to install when launching the game for the first time/updating. copy the files to another location and then choose that location.

Maybe there was an option for where to install the game but I don't remember it. And IIRC the updates just seemed to install themselves without asking for a destination. I'll check next time I download an update. Thanks K.

[Manwith Noname]

No worries

Of note, updates do offer you an option to reassign where they install. They read the usercfg.opt file and if you just click continue they use that but you only get that option at install or during an update, whereas if you know where to look and what to edit you can do it at your own leisure.

[Ron ︻气デ 一]

So inside new community I should have the directories Community and Official?
I tried to move to another SSD drive
it stopped working. Veritify files takes 8 seconds? no way and does not re-install.
I tried to uninstall and reinstall and first install was 20 hours each re-install is about 1 minute. (NOT RIGHT).

Inside OFFICEL dir there is a STEAM dir and inside steam are AC and apot data dirs?

[Manwith Noname]

Originally posted by Ron ︻气デ 一:

So inside new community I should have the directories Community and Official?

No, well, it depends what you named the folder you installed the content to but the directory listed in the UserCfg.opt file should contain the Official and Community folders.

Originally posted by Ron ︻气デ 一:

Veritify files takes 8 seconds? no way and does not re-install.

Verify in Steam only checks the files downloaded from Steam[steamdb.info], which is around 1.5GB unpacked. You need to be aware though this will cause a custom script to run which in turn causes another executable to check the UserCfg.opt file for the location of installed packages and delete them. The effect here is it will uninstall the game content that was downloaded from Microsoft servers.

Originally posted by Ron ︻气デ 一:

I tried to uninstall and reinstall and first install was 20 hours each re-install is about 1 minute. (NOT RIGHT).

Yeah, if you "uninstall" through Steam the content from Microsoft sometimes remains. They likely intended for the custom script to run when doing this instead of verifying but it's all sorts of messed up. I did to some extent expect the custom executable to run when installing again and clearing any directory found in the UserCfg.opt file, so maybe you got lucky or it's more broken than I thought.

Originally posted by Ron ︻气デ 一:

Inside OFFICEL dir there is a STEAM dir and inside steam are AC and apot data dirs?

Yeah, that's how things are installed with the Steam version. For example, if the directory listed in the UserCfg.opt file is:

G:\MSFS

You end up with a Community and an Official folder inside that location, such as:

G:\MSFS\Community

and

G:\MSFS\Official\Steam\*All the content*

Edit: Some of the above information doesn't match my most recent tests with regard to the behaviour of the custom script. Last tests resulted in files being removed at the point of verifying the files. This may also impact how the script functions when uninstalling the game through Steam and may come from a bug fix on Steams side.

[waltermeimes2010]

Working fine after transfer. Thanks

[Manwith Noname]

[doofus]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

No worries

Of note, updates do offer you an option to reassign where they install. They read the usercfg.opt file and if you just click continue they use that but you only get that option at install or during an update, whereas if you know where to look and what to edit you can do it at your own leisure.

After it is moved, is it safe to delete the original file location off of the root of the drive in AppData? Just moved mine because of the Fenix A320 lol

[doofus]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

Originally posted by Ron ︻气デ 一:

So inside new community I should have the directories Community and Official?

No, well, it depends what you named the folder you installed the content to but the directory listed in the UserCfg.opt file should contain the Official and Community folders.

Originally posted by Ron ︻气デ 一:

Veritify files takes 8 seconds? no way and does not re-install.

Verify in Steam only checks the files downloaded from Steam[steamdb.info], which is around 1.5GB unpacked. You need to be aware though this will cause a custom script to run the next time you click "play" in Steam which in turn causes another executable to check the UserCfg.opt file for the location of installed packages and delete them. The effect here is it will uninstall the game content that was downloaded from Microsoft servers.

Originally posted by Ron ︻气デ 一:

I tried to uninstall and reinstall and first install was 20 hours each re-install is about 1 minute. (NOT RIGHT).

Yeah, if you "uninstall" through Steam the content from Microsoft remains. They likely intended for the custom script to run when doing this instead of verifying but it's all sorts of messed up. I did to some extent expect the custom executable to run when installing again and clearing any directory found in the UserCfg.opt file, so maybe you got lucky or it's more broken than I thought.

Originally posted by Ron ︻气デ 一:

Inside OFFICEL dir there is a STEAM dir and inside steam are AC and apot data dirs?

Yeah, that's how things are installed with the Steam version. For example, if the directory listed in the UserCfg.opt file is:

G:\MSFS

You end up with a Community and an Official folder inside that location, such as:

G:\MSFS\Community

and

G:\MSFS\Official\Steam\*All the content*

Edit: Some of the above information doesn't match my most recent tests with regard to the behaviour of the custom script. Last tests resulted in files being removed at the point of verifying the files. This may also impact how the script functions when uninstalling the game through Steam and may come from a bug fix on Steams side.

So will the game have to be reinstalled all over again if the content from Microsoft is deleted by Steam? And if so, how would the game launch without having to go through a 90GB download again?

[Manwith Noname]

Originally posted by HeadBombGMD:

After it is moved, is it safe to delete the original file location off of the root of the drive in AppData?

Yes. So long as the game is using the new location then the Official and Community packages folders can be deleted. You don't want to delete the other files though.

Originally posted by HeadBombGMD:

So will the game have to be reinstalled all over again if the content from Microsoft is deleted by Steam? And if so, how would the game launch without having to go through a 90GB download again?

Strange issues aside, the main thing to be aware of is don't use the verify function unless you are prepared to download everything again.

[Simracer]

Originally posted by Manwith Noname:

Originally posted by HeadBombGMD:

After it is moved, is it safe to delete the original file location off of the root of the drive in AppData?

Yes. So long as the game is using the new location then the Official and Community packages folders can be deleted. You don't want to delete the other files though.

Originally posted by HeadBombGMD:

So will the game have to be reinstalled all over again if the content from Microsoft is deleted by Steam? And if so, how would the game launch without having to go through a 90GB download again?

Strange issues aside, the main thing to be aware of is don't use the verify function unless you are prepared to download everything again.

just rename your Official and Community folders before verifying game files. Then after verifying change both folders to their original names.