HOWTO Reinstall Skyrim SE 1.5.97 if you don't have a backup

[TheWilloughbian]

Thanks for this. I was trying to do it and couldn't remember how to find the right manifest IDs. 

[Dinger]

Hi. So how would we go through the process once all the depot files are downloaded? I've deleted all Skyrim data to start fresh as AE overwrote SE. I initially created a SkyrimSE folder outside the Steam client (reinstalling that from scratch), and proceeded to install MO2, LOOT, SKSE, etc. However, SSEedit was not able to identify Skyrim. When logging into steam Skyrim is, of course, showing not installed. However, if I install, I imagine it will install AE again. I ask because when I had installed SE previously, I needed to select "play" to at least allow Skyrim to config graphics settings. This allows Steam to "launch" game main page so I can go to settings and then exit without actually loading the game. Then I can run SKSE.

Do I still have to install Skyrim from Steam and then overwrite everything with the depot download? I imagine that would still leave some extra files that are AE based. Thank you for your help.

[Dinger]

Would the solution proposed by @DoubleYou work installing Enderal instead of the original SSE and overwrite the skyrim.exe and bink dll? Looks like there may be some concerns as this may not be a stable solution (https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/User:Hishutup/Unofficial_Enderal_Port)? I also saw that others have allowed for two instances: one SSE one AE (https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/16204-prepare-for-the-skyrim-10th-anniversary-edition/?tab=comments#comment-252119). Is this still the preferred method to resolve my issue in the post above? Which method provides more stability? There was also a discussion about obtaining a skyrim physical disk and using that for the base install. I was not smart enough to backup my entire skyrim folder so I want to install skyrim as close to pre anniversary as possible so I can do so and prevent having to go through this again. Thank you for any help!

[DoubleYou]

At the time, Enderal hadn't updated to latest version. I believe it has now, so that wouldn't work.

[Constantine]

Hi everyone, I stumbled on this old topic and thought I could give it a bit of a second life. I'm a complete noob at modding. I recently came to realize that I wanted to downgrade my Skyrim 1.6.640 to 1.5.97 in order for DAR to work. I did all the steps explained here, even followed the video by Apoqsi here to the letter :

But I can't make my SKSE executable to work, I get an error message saying : "you are using version 1.5.97, which is out of date and incompatible with this version of SKSE64 (2.2.3). Update to the latest version".

So I decided to grab the SSE Engine Fixes for 1.5.9 here : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17230?tab=files , installed it through MO2, unticked the SSE Engine Fixes for 1.6+. Same move for the Adress Library files. But it still shows that error message. What did I miss, exactly ?

[Mousetick]

17 minutes ago, Constantine said:

"you are using version 1.5.97, which is out of date and incompatible with this version of SKSE64 (2.2.3). Update to the latest version".

The good news is that you successfully re-installed 1.5.97, or at least SKSE seems to think so. The bad news is that you have to make sure all your SKSE mods are for the correct version of Skyrim, in this case 1.5.97, starting with SKSE itself.

You're apparently using SKSE 2.2.3 which is for Skyrim SE/AE game version 1.6.640. It's confused and telling you to update to latest, while you actually need to use an older version.

You need to download and use SKSE 2.0.20. Go to https://skse.silverlock.org/ and pick the 4th link from the top.

Please do not post further questions/comments about plugins and libraries compatibility issues with 1.5.97 in this topic, which is specifically about downgrading the Steam installation of the vanilla game. Open a new discussion topic or search this site and internet at large. Thank you.

[Constantine]

Thank you very much for your answer. I will open a new discussion topic because in the meantime I figured out what you say (but facing a relocate error this time).

[Drusniel]

I'm trying to get EnderalSpecialEdition|1.5.97.0|enderal launcher.exe as it is required by one Wabbajack list, can I use this method for that?

[Mousetick]

2 hours ago, Drusniel said:

I'm trying to get EnderalSpecialEdition|1.5.97.0|enderal launcher.exe as it is required by one Wabbajack list, can I use this method for that?

If you follow the instructions given here you'll get Skyrim Special Edition 1.5.97, not Enderal Special Edition 1.5.97. But the same method can be used to download and install a previous version of any game from Steam as long as that version is still stored on Steam's servers (and your Steam account has a license for that game). To use the same method with a different game, you'll need to find out the specific app ID, manifest ID and depot IDs for that specific game and version.

I'm not familiar with Enderal, but why don't you simply install Enderal: Forgotten Stories (Special Edition) from Steam? You'll need to own Skyrim SE on Steam to be allowed to download Enderal SE. There's no way around that requirement, if that's what you were looking for.

[Statick]

the link to DepotDownloader in the first post is a hard link to v2.4.5 of the software, which is outdated and no longer works with Steam due to changes implemented by Valve

the latest release v2.5.0 from June 2023 works correctly so anyone having problems needs to navigate to the releases page which has the latest version at the top, and download that version

https://github.com/SteamRE/DepotDownloader/releases

so ideally the link in the first post on this thread should be edited to go to the releases page as well, rather than sending people to an old version that does not work

 

[Mousetick]

8 hours ago, Statick said:

so ideally the link in the first post on this thread should be edited to go to the releases page as well

Done.

[soupdragon]

Alternatively you can download directly via steam's console

Press Win+R keys in the Run box that appears type:

steam://open/console

In the Steam window that appear at the bottom enter download_depot followed by the I.D.'s i.e.

download_depot 489830 489831 7848722008564294070

download_depot 489830 489832 8702665189575304780

download_depot 489830 489833 2289561010626853674

etc. content will show up in steam\steamapps\content\app_489830 folder