Guide to uninstalling mods mid game in Skyrim.

This is a guide on how to safely uninstall a mod from a game save that you have already been playing with. If your like me sometimes you want to try out a new mod and you might like it at first but for whatever reason you decide that you no longer want, like, or need the mod. You can remove mods mid game like this safely and not break your game save if you follow these steps. You will no longer have to go back 20 hours to a save without the mod, or start a brand new game just to remove a mod.

Guide to uninstalling mods mid game in Skyrim

First let's handle the easy one's to uninstall and those are any mods that do not have an ESP or ESM file. Those are files that are listed in your Skyrim launchers "Data" tab, or your chosen mod manager, that can be seen and easily checked and unchecked.

Most body replacer mods, texture packs, etc do not use ESP or ESM files so you do not have to do anything special to uninstall these mods, just uninstall them and Skyrim will just go back to the default body or textures you had before.

Most of the mods that only add things for the player and their followers to use can be easily uninstalled safely. This includes many house mods, most armor mods, most weapon mods, single follower mods (that only add one NPC to follow you), etc. Just make sure you unequip all the items from yourself and your followers from the mod you want to uninstall (dismiss a follower if you're deleting one from your game) then save your game. Then uninstall the mod.

Start up Skyrim again and load that save. You will get an error message saying "This save relies on content that is no longer present....." just say yes to this to load the save. Now save your game again to use for your character from now on. You will no longer see the error message and your game should have nothing in it from that mod.

For the rest of the mods out there that rely on Scripts or that alter every NPC (not just the player) you have to take an extra step that will require a tool to clean you game save. I like this new tool, Save Game Script Cleaner by Hadoram that can found here, http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52363/

Some examples of mods that use Scripts are Magic overhauls (Midas Magic), Quest/New Land mods (Falskaar), House mods with special things (Sjel Blad Castle), weather/immersion mods (Wet and Cold, Frostfall), Extra follower mods (UFO, or AFT), etc. Some examples of mods that change every NPC's by giving them new items or replacing default items are, Immersive Armors, Cloaks of Skyrim, etc.

To safely remove these types of mods you need to unequip any items, magic spells, shouts, etc that you as a player are using, and also from your followers like before and save your game. Note: If you are using the SkyUI mod and you're uninstalling a mod that has a MCM menu, there may be an option in the settings of that mod that should also be used before saving the game.

Now you need to open that save with the Save Game Script Cleaner. Once open click this button "Fix All #->", then click "Fix Script Instances", then "reset havok". Now click "save" to save what you just did.

NOTE: If you have the box checked next to the save button that says "Auto Backup" when you go to load Skyrim you will see your save listed twice with the same number. I prefer to overwrite the save so I uncheck this box to make sure I load the corrected save file and not the old one by mistake. You can always manually back up your save before you run the program if you want to.

Now all you have to do is load Skyrim, load that save, and then save the game in a new slot. Like before you will get an error message saying "This save relies on content that is no longer present.....", just say yes to this when loading the save. From now on you should be all set to play with a safely removed mod that shouldn't break your game.* :)

*I am not a car dealership so can not offer a guarantee that it will work 100% of the time for you, but it has worked for me 100% of the time.

[tankdestroyer227]

When attempting to open the savegame file in Script Cleaner, the program immediately crashes. Has anyone encountered this issue and discovered any solutions? Thanks.

[Chris Leon]

Skyrim SE
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5031

[lucridd]

Does this still work for Skyrim SE?

[The Void Knight]

That is why I always keep a backup.
How about deleting a small file to be downloaded with that file so that both get downloaded, delete a dll or the interface folder in your data folder.

[AmdemiC]

Well turns out that did nothing. It did say it found 1 item and then went on to replace that. But after it completes it still find that same item again again and again. Also, the gameplay has not changed at all.

Any clues to what direction i should look at from here? im totally stuck and its way beyond me to comprehend.

[AmdemiC]

@Avatar, thanks. Yes i shift-deleted the entire Skyrim-remains in the steamapps folder before i downloaded it again. I just completed the cache verifying and it found 1 invalid item. Keeping fingers crossed!!

[Avatar1971]

@Nathanrel
Unless you deleted all the folders in your Data tab before you reinstalled the game you could have the textures from Skyrim HD 2K Textures still running. Texture mods replace the in game textures and do not have a .ESP file like the other mods that make the game look for the new textures, they also have no script so the tool would find nothing to fix. Without knowing your PC, it sounds like the HD textures are taxing your game making it run sluggish. If you have no other mods installed, try deleting the Textures folder and the Meshes folder from the Data main Folder, then verify the games cache. You do that by Loading Steam, from the Library section, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu. Select the Local files tab and click the Verify integrity of game cache... button. It will down load the default textures and meshes for the game and you will then have uninstalled the Skyrim HD mod.

[AmdemiC]

Im having some difficulties i guess.
I downloaded the following mods manually

These mods were downloaded and extracted into data folder all in one go.
- Bijin NPCs
- A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map - With Roads
- Skyrim HD - 2K Textures
- Seranaholic
- Bijin Warmaidens
- Sofia - The Funny Fully Voiced Follower
- The Eyes Of Beauty
- SkyUI 5

Long story short, the game ran like !@#$ so i got to the point of redownloading Skyrim via steam, only to end up here realising my saves were messed up. Even saves from 2 weeks before i installed the mods are affected, thats weird right? i did not load them, with the mods on.

>The Script Cleaner finds 0 orphan scripts and deletes nothing with any option. But the game still staggers like crazy..

How can it not find anything when it clearly has some faulty scripts going on?
The tool itself seems to work flawlessly, it just doesnt find anything.

Much appreciated in advance!

[Kosze]

Interface, Strings, Video... Those are the only folders there are after "data" i try checking that out many times but i dont seem to find all the other folders that are supposed to be there.

[Avatar1971]

@Kosze
It sounds like the textures for the mod are still installed overwriting the default textures even though you uninstalled the mod. The only way to fix that is to delete the textures, here is how you can do that. Uninstall any texture mods you are still using first, then go to the files and delete the texture folder at ...Program files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/common/Skyrim/data/textures. Then verify the local files to reinstall the default textures by right clicking on the game, choose properties, then local files, then verify integrity of game cache. Reinstall all your texture mods you want to keep, then when you run the game it should be fixed now. Good luck.