Mod Organizer not sorting?

[Naddy]

Hey folks, I've been having a difficult time getting this issue sorted out, so I figured I'd come here for some help. 

 

As the title suggests, Mod Organizer isn't sorting my plugins. I have LOOT installed in my Skyrim folder, and I do run the executable through mod organizer. Everything as a general rule for me is run as administrator. I've noticed while getting some mods that despite running LOOT and allowing it to sort plugins, and even using the sort button built into MO, none of my mods were actually sorted. I tested this by dragging important mods all out of order (unofficial patches, SKSE and what not) and pressing sort; they simply remained where they were. If anyone could help me troubleshoot what my problem is, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Also, both my MO and LOOT are currently up to date - MO is 1.3.11, and LOOT is 8.1. Cheers guys :).

 

 

[GrantSP]

When you run LOOT via MO does it show the correct set of plugins for sorting? ie. is it actually installed correctly and seeing the MO profile you want to change?

As a test, examine the folder for the currently active profile in Explorer. If the time stamps for loadorder.txt & plugins.txt are being changed after you run LOOT, then there is no issue with LOOT via MO. If those files are unchanged then your LOOT installation isn't correctly set. 

 

Secondly it isn't advised to run both "Sort" and LOOT, especially if you haven't updated the LOOT API in MO's installation. You may have issues with conflicting masterlist.yaml records. My advice is to use ONLY LOOT, since you already have it installed and are currently trying to use it.

 

As a rule you shouldn't have to run anything as administrator, this avoids issues where one tool run as such has greater privileges than the next tool that tries to manipulate the same files. So, if you can install both MO and LOOT outside of any UAC folders, ie. Program Files, Program Files (x86), and also away from the game installation folders, you may not need to apply higher privileges to those tools.

[Naddy]

Hey Grant! First off, thank you a bunch for taking the time to help me out. 

 

As far as your first question goes, yes. If you mean the plugins.txt and loadorder.txt that exist within my mod organizer profile for the profile I'm using (And there's only one..it's just the default), then yes. When I run LOOT through Mod Organizer, and press sort plugins->apply, the timestamp does change for those two .txts. 

 

I did know sorting in MO could cause problems - I have never updated the LOOT API in MO's installation; I've never done that so I wasn't aware that was needed. I do however have the versions of MO and LOOT both up to date. For what it's worth though, pressing "Sort" on Mod Organizer doesn't seem to do anything either. Could you give me the names of a two easily obtainable mods that should be sorting, so we can remove the possibility of error that it's sorted and I'm just crazy? (I don't think this is the case, as I'm moving plugins all over the place, and my load order isn't changing - but it wouldn't hurt to be super super sure). 

 

Also, regarding masterlist.yaml - I've never messed with nor had problems with that before, so I'm not quite sure what that's function is. Does Mod Organizer keep it's own masterlist.yaml file somewhere? The only one I can find is at C:/User/Appdata/Local/Loot/Skyrim. Should there be another somewhere else?

 

Finally, I don't know if they may also be of some help, but I have both Skyrim and Mod Organizer installed on a seperate, D drive. Skyrim's and MO's paths are:  D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\Mod Organizer\ , wither Mod Organizer installed within my Skyrim folder - so I do not believe there is an error with UAC. I just run everything as administrator as an assurance. Do you think separate drives could be an issue somewhere, or that there are issues with the masterlist.yaml? Or possibly LOOT's API in Mod Organizer? Going by what you said, since the .txt timestamps are being changed, then there is no issue with LOOT. 

 

Thanks again for helping me out - I'm at my wits end :).

Edited December 9, 2015 by Naddy

[Greg]

When you run Loot, it automatically updates masterlist.yaml. This is just the master list of rules maintained by the Loot team that defines mod priorities and mod A after mod B.

 

Having Skyrim and Mod Organizer on separate drives isn't a problem at all. I had Skyrim on C: (SSD) and Mod Organizer (and all other tools) on D: (HDD) for a year or so and never ran into any issues.

 

I suspect in your case the mods are already sorted so Loot isn't find any reason to move anything. This is perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of Loot in that it won't move anything unless it finds a good reason to do so, so it looks as if it isn't doing anything. If you really want to test that theory, you can do something silly like moving Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch.esp to the bottom of your load order to see if Loot puts it back in place.

[GrantSP]

The masterlist.yaml used by both MO's "Sort" and LOOT is found at that location. The reason I mentioned not to use both together is depending on the version of MO you have, the format of the master list could be slightly "off". LOOT updated some features and there were minor issues. If in the future they, LOOT's developers, do something similar again that issue might return.

 

I concur with @Greg's view that LOOT simply finds nothing needing changing and it looks like nothing has changed. Since you say the timestamps are changing though we can safely assume it is working correctly.

[Naddy]

Greg, Grant, thank you both for the help with troubleshooting! I had a bit more time and was able to troubleshoot a bit more, and after moving some of the major patches downwards, it turns out LOOT did in fact move it back to its' respective load order.

 

This just means that I have around 150 mods that have no priority over eachother...eesh. I didn't think that'd be possible. Regardless of that, I'll go ahead and give it an earnest go tomorrow. I learned a lot about modding issues I wasn't aware of, so thank you both for that! :) I'll get back with some results.