Using Nexus Mod Manager. Mods do not activate?

[JumpyJuice]

I've installed a few mods, none of them seem to work when I go to play Morrowind and they do not show up in the data files.
The game will not launch from the manager either. Is NMM not compatible with steam?

[SaltyPeanuts]

It's compatible. You may need to change the setting for archive invalidation in Nexus Mod Manager. Not all mods show up in Data Files.

[Clarion77]

I read in another forum not Steam, that one should not use NMM for either Morrowind or Oblivion. Because the mods won't install correctly. Don't know if that's true, as I've always done it by hand or with Wry . It was a Morrowind Mod site. There are others. For simple mods it isn't a problem.
Data files is for texture and mesh files, along with other files, like sound, usually the structure is self explanatory, like mesh and texture. Just drop them in. Or verify they are there.

Mods Always Appear In Data Files, sometimes as an esp or bsa or both along with their textures and meshes if they have any. Often the mod has been put in one folder too many and has to be repackaged. Your file manager may inject these into the Data file with the extra folder (wrapper) and the game will pass over it without a second glance because once it is in Data Files it isn't going to respond to a second data files. It will just sit there doing nothing. Or it will do something else with them.

I'm not sure what NMM does, I think it creates it's own file, but you need to know the game takes inventory of these files in Data files whether it is Wry Mash, NMM, or some other mod manager. Originally some games would launch from the mod manager, but because it is Steam, it does not.

• Start with one or two very simple mods, so you see where the files go. Meshes and Textures and sometimes an esp file. Some modders recommend this. Keep it simple.
  
  
• Get to know how your mod manager works, maybe with the same files you know how to install by hand. Look at how it works.
  
  
• Make sure your options on the start up screen has your mods checked.

[destroyor]

Don't use Nexus mod manager (NMM) to install your Morrowind mods because they might not install correctly. Some of the older mods do not follow standard mod folder structure (extra folder e.g: YYY's mod -> YYY's mod 3.0 -> data file -> meshes, extra/optional meshes/texture in separate folders, etc) and won't play nicely w/ NMM.

My advice would be:
Always create a clean backup copy of Morrowind (fresh install from steam)
Read the readme in the mod before installation, some older mods might have additional instructions (e.g. compatibility instructions).
Manual installation (copy and paste by hand)
Run Mlox
Check and update masterlist using Wrye Mash[www.nexusmods.com]

Good luck!

[Teralitha]

You dont need a mod manager for morrowind. At least, Im not using one... and and my mods are working, mostly.

[Grogu]

NMM is nice if you plan on installing multiple texures. It allows you to try different textures without completely overwritting the previous textures by using a virtual install. But otherwise using NMM is not necessary. It is better to just install mods manually.

You can restructure mods so that they are NMM compatible. I usually do that myself. One reason is that many mods come as a windows compressed file or in a RAR and I prefer using 7-Zip because you can view the DDS files in 7-zip and the compression is usually superior, which saves HDD space or allows you to store more mods on a flashdrive.

One big problem with NMM though, is that you waste 3x the storage space using NMM.

When using NMM each mod is stored in 3 places. In the Nexus Mod Manager folder so it shows up in NMM, in the virtual install folder so it remembers the installed files, and in your Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim data folder.

If you have Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim installed at the same time. You waste massive storage space when using NMM. Those 20 GB mod installs really take up 60 GB of space when using NMM.