Clean The Bethesda ESMs

Manaroth · April 28, 2018

"Clean The Bethesda ESMs

With profiles now set up properly, it is time to begin modding some vanilla game files. To increase stability, TES5Edit will be used to clean ITMs and UDRs from Bethesda 's ESMs. This improves compatibility between the various DLCs and lessens the chance of instability in Skyrim. Perform the following:

Start Mod Organizer.Select "TES5Edit" from the drop down above the right pane and click [Run].Right-click inside the file listing and select "None".Check the box adjacent to Update.esm and click [OK]. Wait for the message "Background Loader: finished" to appear in the right pane.Right-click Update.esm and select "Apply Filter For Cleaning". Wait for the message "[Filtering Done]" to appear in the right pane.Right-click Update.esm and select "Remove Identical To Master Records". Wait for the message "[Removing Identical to Master records done]".Right-click Update.esm and select "Undelete and Disable References". Wait for the message "[Undeleting and Disabling References done]".Click the [X] on the title bar to close TES5Edit.Verify the box adjacent to Update.esm is checked and also that "Backup Plugins" is checked then click [OK].

Update.esm has now been cleaned, meaning that any improperly removed records or edited records that were identical to the base Skyrim.esm file have been fixed.
Repeat the process above for all of the DLC ESMs in order selecting only one at a time. Do NOT attempt to clean Skyrim.esm itself. Dawnguard.esm must also be cleaned twice to remove all duplicate records.

Normally, when a file is cleaned through TES5Edit using Mod Organizer it is automatically moved back to it's original mod folder and any generated files are moved to <Mod Organizer Path>/overwrite. In the case of the base Bethesda ESM files there is no source mod and so post cleaning the cleaned ESMs are left in the Skyrim/Data folder while the backups are moved to the overwrite folder. The cleaned files should be moved to their own mod folder to preserve a clean Skyrim/Data folder and the backups restored from the TES5Edit Backup folder in overwrite. To resolve this problem, perform the following:

Close Mod Organizer.Navigate to Skyrim/Data and move the newly cleaned Bethesda ESM files to <Mod Organizer Path>/Mods/Cleaned Vanilla ESMs.Navigate to <Mod Organizer Path>/overwrite/TES5Edit Backups and move all of the backup files to the Skyrim/Data folder.Rename the .backup* files to their original name such as Update.esm, Dawnguard.esm and so on.Remove the TES5Edit Backups folder from <Mod Organizer Path>/overwrite.

This process has restored the original game files to allow the game to run in a pristine vanilla state via Steam. When Mod Organizer is started again, a new mod will be added to the left pane called "Cleaned Vanilla ESMs", it must be activated for Mod Organizer to use them.

Start Mod Organizer.Verify Skyrim Revisited is the currently selected profile.Drag the newly created mod "Cleaned Vanilla ESMs" between the "HighResTexturePack03" and "Skyrim Script Extender" mods in the left pane and activate it by checking the box.

To recap the current set up:

Running Skyrim through Steam results in a completely vanilla experience.
Running the "Vanilla Skyrim" profile through Mod Organizer with "Skyrim" selected in the drop-down results in a completely vanilla experience.
Running the "Skyrim Revisited" profile through Mod Organizer with "SKSE" selected in the drop-down results in a SKSE enabled experience using the cleaned base ESM files."

After i cleaned the 4 esm files i closed MO and went to the skyrim/data folder and the 4 esm's there still had my install date and then i went to the override folder in MO there was the cleaned esm's with todays date and the backup folder which leaves me with the question is this info out of date as the cleaned esm's were not in skyrim/data and there was an tes5edit update like last week?

Edited April 28, 2018 by Manaroth

Manaroth · April 28, 2018

I tried to edit my post again as i have noticed more but the edit button is no longer there. The update.esm and 3 add-on esms were not in the skyrim/data folder instead there were .bsa versions and now i see the date modified dates/times are about the same for both the overwrite folder and skyrim/data.To follow the guide i would have to move the BSAs from skyrim/data as there was none of the 4 ESMs there to move to mods/Cleaned Vanilla ESMs folder which i need to make as Cleaned Vanilla ESMs is not there. Then move the backup ESMs from override folder to the skyrim/data and name to remove .backup.2018_04_25_16_57_36 ect. I guess my main issue now would be the different file types and info provided in the walkthrough makes me think i did something wrong cause the .esm files were not in skyrim/data just a .bsa version and it says to move the updated cleaned esms from skyrim/data to the mod folder which makes me think the .bsa is not right version to move. This leads me to think that MO removed the esms from skyrim/data altogether for use with its folder and that i should move the esm backups from override/backups folder to skyrim/data and move the cleaned esms from the override folder to mods/Cleaned Vanilla ESMs not the bsas in skyrim/data?

Manaroth · April 28, 2018

I tried to edit my post but the edit button was gone. Ok after reading the section many times and working myself through the issue i was having i figured out my problems. It had a lot to do with me miss reading/understanding the walk through but there are errors in the walk through. 1st it says "Dawnguard.esm must also be cleaned twice to remove all duplicate records." but it does not say how to clean a second time. 2nd after cleaning the 4 ESMs there is no cleaned versions in skyrim/data only the the 4 .bsa versions. 3rd you will find the 4 cleaned ESMs in the override folder.

"Clean your Masters:

Launch Mod Organizer (or right click anywhere > refresh if you already had it open) and then launch TES5edit through MO
Select only Update.esm and let it load
(THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT! Only clean ONE file at a time! Trying to clean all your masters at once can cause TES5edit to short-circuit and break something!)
Right-click Update.esm and select "Apply Filter for Cleaning"
Right-click Update.esm and select "Remove Identical to Master Records". Yes you are sure what you are doing! (to the warning that pops up)
Right-click Update.esm and select "Undelete and Disable References"
Close TES5edit and when prompted check the box to create a backup, make sure the file you just cleaned is checked, and then hit Save
(The cleaned master will now be in your overwrite folder, along with a folder called TES5Edit Backups containing the original uncleaned version of Update.esm)

Repeat steps 1 - 6 for Dawnguard.esm, Hearthfires.esm, and Dragonborn.esm

Sidenote: The overwrite is where MO puts files when it doesn't know what to do with them, so that the user can decide for themselves what should be done. Best practice is to keep the overwrite clean. So if a mod ever drops a file in the overwrite it's a good idea to figure out which mod the file comes from and then drag that file(s)/folder(s) to the associated mod and drop it in.

You could explain how to clean Dawnguard.esm a second time here.
Open Overwrite in MO and drag the 4 ESMs in TES5Edit Backups to skyrim/data (Rename the .backup* files to their original name such as Update.esm, Dawnguard.esm and so on.)

(Delete the TES5Edit Backups folder from Overwrite in MO)
Right-click the Overwrite folder (which should now just contain the clean 4 cleaned ESMs) and select "Create Mod". Name it "Cleaned Vanilla ESMs". ACTIVATE THE MOD* and Drag the newly created mod "Cleaned Vanilla ESMs" between the "HighResTexturePack03" and "Skyrim Script Extender" mods in the left pane and activate it by checking the box.

This process has restored the original game files to allow the game to run in a pristine vanilla state via Steam and added a new mod called "Cleaned Vanilla ESMs""

This guide was pieced together from your guide and the tes5edit cleaning section found here "https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/wiki/beginners_guide" i take no credit for any of this. I think this would fix the errors in your esm cleaning section and maintain your clean/revisited profiles but feel free to delete my post i would have deleted it myself as i figured out how to fix my issue before anyone answered i just didnt want to leave anyone confused by my post as i know i confused myself. I will not be returning to this post as my issue is fixed and have moved on to my next one just wanted to add this in hopes of helping others and like i said i pieced this together so may be wrong but it worked for me it seems so far.

Edited April 28, 2018 by Manaroth