What exactly needs to be re-done when copying a profile?

[Brambleshire]

Greetings folks ヾ(＾-＾)ノ
I've done a lot of reading around here and on reddit, youtube, etc. But I can't find an sufficiently in-depth explanation.

Now that I've successfully finished the entire STEP SkyrimSE guide, I want to tinker with it by adding more mods. However, I want to keep my STEP SkyrimSE build as a base and a backup in case I screw something up. I understand the gist of how profiles and instances work, but I cant find what I need to re-do or re-install in the new profile. What exactly needs to be re-done or re-installed when copying a profile? Is it just the tools? Do I need to re-install certain mods in a certain order? Is it just the tools with the ouputs? Should I just start from scratch? Should I not even bother with profiles and go straight to a new instance? Right now I've got 2 identical STEP SkyrimSE profiles, but only the original is fully functional. For example, I was trying to do the white run test. As soon as I spawned in breezehome, I saw that the light effects were not present, and the character naming UI was missing parts, and mostly everything looked visually worse. Meanwhile in my original STEP SkyrimSE build, everything works great. I want to have 2 identical fully functional STEP SkyrimSE builds. 1 for tinkering, and the other as a base/backup.

Here's what I have done already:
- Went to [profiles]
- clicked "Step SkyrimSE"
- clicked [copy]; named "STEP SkyrimSE expanded"
- copied the modlist.txt and loadorder.txt from the old profile folder and pasted/replaced in the new profile folder. 
- ran loot.

I'm not sure where to go from here.
✿ Thank you for your help ✿

Edited November 28, 2023 by Brambleshire

[z929669]

12 minutes ago, Brambleshire said:

Greetings folks ヾ(＾-＾)ノ
I've done a lot of reading around here and on reddit, youtube, etc. But I can't find an sufficiently in-depth explanation.

Now that I've successfully finished the entire STEP SkyrimSE guide, I want to tinker with it by adding more mods. However, I want to keep my STEP SkyrimSE build as a base and a backup in case I screw something up. I understand the gist of how profiles and instances work, but I cant find what I need to re-do or re-install in the new profile. What exactly needs to be re-done or re-installed when copying a profile? Is it just the tools? Do I need to re-install certain mods in a certain order? Is it just the tools with the ouputs? Should I just start from scratch? Should I not even bother with profiles and go straight to a new instance? Right now I've got 2 identical STEP SkyrimSE profiles, but only the original is fully functional. For example, I was trying to do the white run test. As soon as I spawned in breezehome, I saw that the light effects were not present, and the character naming UI was missing parts, and mostly everything looked visually worse. Meanwhile in my original STEP SkyrimSE build, everything works great. I want to have 2 identical fully functional STEP SkyrimSE builds. 1 for tinkering, and the other as a base/backup.

Here's what I have done already:
- Went to [profiles]
- clicked "Step SkyrimSE"
- clicked [copy]; named "STEP SkyrimSE expanded"
- copied the modlist.txt and loadorder.txt from the old profile folder and pasted/replaced in the new profile folder. 
- ran loot.

I'm not sure where to go from here.
✿ Thank you for your help ✿

First, see the Current guide changelog Highlights section

That section links to create a new MO instance

Only a new instance provides clean separation when changing up the mod list. Profiles are good for quickly spinning off a variant, but all mods are shared between profiles of the same MO instance (among other things). This is why you should carefully read this subpage article.

[Brambleshire]

I'm an idiot. I didn't enable the plugins on the right side in the new profile.... 

I just wasted my entire afternoon furiously looking for answers to a problem that doesnt exist lol. Even if it's not the answer your looking for, there's something about asking for help that gets the ole brain cells moving. Thanks for your patience and professionalism with my dumb questions!

[Mousetick]

28 minutes ago, Brambleshire said:

What exactly needs to be re-done or re-installed when copying a profile?

Nothing.

29 minutes ago, Brambleshire said:

Here's what I have done already:

- Went to [profiles]
- clicked "Step SkyrimSE"
- clicked [copy]; named "STEP SkyrimSE expanded"
- copied the modlist.txt and loadorder.txt from the old profile folder and pasted/replaced in the new profile folder. You don't need to do that.
- ran loot. You need to switch to the new profile before working on it. Mods should initially be enabled and sorted exactly as they were in the original profile, so running LOOT should have no effect.

36 minutes ago, Brambleshire said:

Should I not even bother with profiles and go straight to a new instance?

It depends on what you intend to change between profiles. See the article Z linked above for details.

[Brambleshire]

Well, what I was going to say is that when I copied the profile, all the mods and dividers were all over the place. But what I now realize, is that I probably had it sorted by something other than priority. I didn't even know you could change the sort until just now. Incredible, I know . 

Every time I actually ask for help, it's always the most dumbest things...

 

[z929669]

12 hours ago, Brambleshire said:

Well, what I was going to say is that when I copied the profile, all the mods and dividers were all over the place. But what I now realize, is that I probably had it sorted by something other than priority. I didn't even know you could change the sort until just now. Incredible, I know . 

Every time I actually ask for help, it's always the most dumbest things...

 

Basically, I was trying to say in my previous post that it is best to create a new instance for a customization of the Step build. You will undoubtedly have different mod-level requirements for your custom build, which profiles cannot accommodate. I personally have no need for profiles and prefer instances in almost every use case.

[Greg]

I agree with @z929669 that profiles are too fiddly to bother using. Profiles are great in that mods are shared in both profiles so it uses significantly less disk space, but this is also it's major sore point.  This essentially means you can install the STEP guide, get it working correctly, and easily create a new profile containing an exact copy of your existing profile. If you then install let's say JK's Skyrim and redo TextGen, DynDOLOD, etc. you just clobbered Texgen Output and DynDOLOD Output in your STEP profile.

Instances uses more disk space because none of the mods are shared between instances, but this also means you can make all the changes you want to this instance without affecting any other instances.

[Brambleshire]

Ah yes that definitely makes sense to me.

Funny note, just the other day I was reading old posts between Greg and Z and Z was more in favor of profiles, but now I see you've come around to the Instance life 

[Greg]

I think most of us were using profiles the days prior to instances because the only options were to use profiles or install multiple copies of Mod Organizer. I still have multiple copies of Mod Organizer floating around (pretty much one for each Bethesda game from Fallout3/Oblivion to Starfield) that I need to migrate to instances at some point Multiple portable instances were my preference in the days of old, but it's also a pain having to update multiple copies of Mod Organizer.

At some point I want to migrate all of my portable installs to instances. The pain point with instances is that Mod Organizers defaults instances to %AppData% or %LocalAppData% (on the sacred boot drive) and many people have small boot drives. I'll just need to spend some time to move the instance folder to my game drive.

[z929669]

Exactly correct. I preferred profiles in the old days over multiple copies of portable MO 'instances'. Now that the implementation for instances is proper, I'm an instance guy.

[GSDFan]

Speaking of instances, I have been using Kezyma's setup tool for Mod Organizer 2 to setup my instances of MO2. It works with the current release versions of Mod Organizer. It also has options to install some MO plugins. It will also configure the instance according to the selections you select.