How to Save Your Source Filmmaker Workshop Addons

This guide is very basic; there's probably a better way to save your mods than what I've suggested, but for now, this should cover it. If you have any suggestions/questions, please leave me a comment!

With the recent DMCA over Garry's Mod addons, users of Source Filmmaker have also been reporting their Nintendo-based addons disappearing. If you are reading this guide, you probably are worried that your Workshop addons for Source Filmmaker will be gone for good.

Fortunately, it takes very little effort to save your Workshop addons. All you need to know is where they are stored, and move them to a folder dedicated to addons not downloaded from the Workshop. By doing this, you can still use your addons, and they will not disappear unless you reinstall Source Filmmaker.

Before we begin, I should stress a few things:

* DO NOT reupload these to the Workshop! Doing so may get you in legal trouble with the creators of the addons, the copyright holders, or even Valve themselves.

* All addons you save are for your own personal use. Creating public media based solely on these addons is not advised.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's begin!

Step One - Find Your Workshop Addons

Find the directory where you installed Source Filmmaker. On Windows, this usually is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SourceFilmmaker\game\, but on Linux, it can vary from distro to distro. We'll call this SFMFOLDER from here on out.

You'll find all the Workshop addons installed in SFMFOLDER/workshop.

Step Two - Find the usermod folder

That's easy! It's in SFMFOLDER/usermod.

Step Three - Backup and Move

First, find the elements you want to save. Models are stored in SFMFOLDER/workshop/models, and maps are stored in SFMFOLDER/workshop/maps. Knowing the name of the addon, as well as the addon author, will help immensely, as often the relevant folders will be tagged as such.

However, there's a chance you may have to separate endangered addons' files from ones that may continue to persist, in which case, you may have to make folders just for them. Here's an example of multiple addons in the same folder:


Then, backup the addons in a location outside of Steam folders, and simply move everything related to the endangered addons from the Workshop folder to the Usermod folder. Make sure to unsubscribe from the addons before relaunching Source Filmmaker to avoid conflicts.

Thank you for reading this guide!

I know, I know. This guide isn't very expansive; I've probably missed a lot. I plan on expanding this guide as I go along, but hopefully this covers the basics.

If you guys are interested, I have a small little group on Discord and Steam called TGif Gamer. If you like nerding over games and content creation, you'lll LOVE that group. Go check it out - links in my profile.

God bless and stay safe, guys! 🙏🏻💖😎

[Doctor Timbrwulf]

Husky - Sorry I didn't see this sooner. Thanks! I haven't used Source Filmmaker lately, but I'll see about trying that out next time I get into it!

[Husky]

Just a heads up: instead of saving into the usermod folder, make a new directory for the mods you want to back up. To do this, make a new folder in SFM/game/ folder, where you'll find the usermod, worshop, tf2, tf_movies, hl2 and the other DLC folders.
To enable this new directory, select "Launch SDK" from SFM settings (right-click in library, go to Properties -> Launch Options -> pick "Launch SDK"). Next time you start the program, go to "Edit search part for selected mod" and tick the box in front of your new directory.
Keep in mind, some models or materials may conflict with the existing workshop ones, so make sure to put your directory above the workshop one. This is also a good way to disable the directory if you wanna save up some RAM while working.
Finally, you may want to back up your mods somewhere outside SFM's installation folder as a failsafe if you "accidentally" delete the game files (happens to the best of us).
Hope this helps!

[Doctor Timbrwulf]

somerandompyromain - True! I'll add that soon.

[somerandompyromain]

it also works for gmod if you load gmad with the addon

[Doctor Timbrwulf]

Feel free to suggest things to add; I'll add to this guide whenever I have some time to kill.