[Skyrim LE] [MO2] MO2 not picking up archives manually placed in downloads folder

[Khaorix]

Hello and thanks in advance for reading this. 

 

I have downloaded mods on a fresh install of Skyrim using Mod Organizer. After this was done, I noticed that they were on the wrong hard drive and proceeded to move then to the proper drive, then updated the filepaths in settings. FNIS didn't seem to work there. 

 

This resulted in all my mods being undetected by Mod Organizer. To attempt to remedy this, I transfered the downloads folder too, and updated the filepath, but the downloads tab seems to not detect the archives either. 

 

Now, do I need to download all the mods again, or do I need to install everything from the archives "directly" with the Install from Archive function? Alternatively, is there a way to make MO2 detect the downloads? 

 

Thank you for your time.

[Greg]

I think this depends on where the archives are stored. If you install Mod Organizer in instance mode, all of your profiles, mods and the download folder are stored in C:\Users\[userName]\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer. The advantage with instance mode is that you can use one installed instance of Mod Organizer to manage profiles for any of the Bethesda games it supports. The disadvantage with instance mode is that you may not have sufficient space on the C: drive for all the mods, assets and downloaded archive files.

 

If you installed Mod Organizer in portable mode, all your profiles, mods and the download folder are stored directly in the Mod Organizer folder. The advantage with this mode is that everything you need is stored in the Mod Organizer folder so it's really easy to move everything just by moving the Mod Organizer folder. The disadvantage with this mod is that you'll need one installed instance of Mod Organizer for each game. I handle this by installing Steam games in the D:\Steam folder, GOG games in the D:\GOG Games folder, and installing the tools in the D:\Games folder for each game (e.g. D:\Games\Fallout 3, D:\Games\Fallout New Vegas, D:\Games\Skyrim Legendary Edition and D:\Games\Skyrim Special Edition).

 

I assume you initially installed Mod Organizer in instance mode since this is the default. If you want to move everything to a different drive, the first step is to move the Mod Organizer folder to the new drive. You should also move the data in C:\Users\[userName]\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer into the D:\ModOrganizer folder. You can install Mod Organizer just about anywhere so D:\ModOrganizer is just an example path. Anyway, you'll need to copy over the profile data into D:\ModOrganizer\Profiles, the mods into D:\ModOrganizer\mods, and the downloads folder into D:\ModOrganizer\Downloads.

 

Once this is done, run Mod Organizer from its new location, click the "Open the instance selection dialog to manage a different Game" button at the top left, scroll through the list and select Portable, and click OK. Mod Organizer should restart and you should see all your installed mods and archives in the Download folder.

 

Exceptions:

Do not install Mod Organizer in a UAC-controlled folder like C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) because you'll run into access denied issues.

 

Do not install Mod Organizer in the Steam or game folder (e.g. D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim Special Edition) because the virtual file system will not work correctly and the game may not be able to find any mods.