Installing Vortex with pre-existing manually installed mods?

[waahooo]

I have a few mods that I manually installed for Skyrim, but now I just installed Vortex to install a more complicated mod that requires a mod manager. Vortex does not seem to detect the old mods through the user interface. I haven't loaded up Skyrim yet nor have I installed the new mod.

 

My question is, can I install the new mod through Vortex and play the game normally? Will it detect and load my old mods that I installed manually? Or does this require me to manually uninstall my old mods and reinstall them through Vortex? I tried looking through the Vortex knowledge base page but couldn't find an answer.

 

Thanks

[rmm200]

As far as Vortex is concerned, any pre-existing manually installed mods are just part of the game.

Vortex will not manage them. Vortex will not show them. New mods installed by Vortex should work fine.

 

Caveat: Do NOT use two mod managers, like Vortex and NMM, or Vortex and MO.

Those will conflict, and the results will not be pretty.

[waahooo]

Okay thanks. So the pre-existing mods should run okay in addition to the new mods managed via Vortex.

 

I don't have any other mod manager, Vortex is my first. I haven't had the need, actively trying to keep my mods slim and only have about a dozen quality-of-life improvement mods. I've been "managing" my mods through Skyrim's built in splash screen UI. Which actually leads me to a follow up question, is it safe to toggle the old pre-existing mods on/off (though I don't really toggle them off) through the Skyrim interface with Vortex now installed? It sounds like from your answer, Vortex doesn't interact with any pre-existing mods and scripts so it seems like the answer would be yes, it should be safe.

[HadToRegister]

Okay thanks. So the pre-existing mods should run okay in addition to the new mods managed via Vortex.

 

I don't have any other mod manager, Vortex is my first. I haven't had the need, actively trying to keep my mods slim and only have about a dozen quality-of-life improvement mods. I've been "managing" my mods through Skyrim's built in splash screen UI. Which actually leads me to a follow up question, is it safe to toggle the old pre-existing mods on/off (though I don't really toggle them off) through the Skyrim interface with Vortex now installed? It sounds like from your answer, Vortex doesn't interact with any pre-existing mods and scripts so it seems like the answer would be yes, it should be safe.

 

 

It's not a good idea to use a mod manager to install over the top of manually installed mods.

I always uninstall the manually installed ones by wiping the Data directory and using steam to verify the files and start clean.

 

if you install a mod with a mod manager that affects the same files as your Manually Installed Ones, and the Mod Manager overwrites those files, when you uninstall that mod, the Mod manager doesn't know about the Manually Installed Mods, so it will just remove the files and not replace them, thus breaking your manually installed mods, leaving you with a complete mess.

Better to wipe the Data directory and install EVERYTHING with a mod manager

 

 

[waahooo]

Thanks for your perspective. I think I'll go with the safe side and wipe all old mods first. Two more questions:

 

Is there an easy way to wipe the data directory of old mods?

 

Do I also need to uninstall script extenders? Looking through the Vortex FAQs, it looks like script extenders can be installed manually without issue so it seems like those should be okay to leave alone? But as an inexperienced modder, if you think it's still safer to uninstall those as well and install them through Vortex, I'll do that.

[HadToRegister]

Thanks for your perspective. I think I'll go with the safe side and wipe all old mods first. Two more questions:

 

Is there an easy way to wipe the data directory of old mods?

 

Do I also need to uninstall script extenders? Looking through the Vortex FAQs, it looks like script extenders can be installed manually without issue so it seems like those should be okay to leave alone? But as an inexperienced modder, if you think it's still safer to uninstall those as well and install them through Vortex, I'll do that.

 

 

I described that in my post..

 

Delete the Data directory manually delete it so you see it is gone, because if you use Steam to "Uninstall" the game, if there's mods/files in the Data directory, Steam will leave them there and not delete the directory, it will only uninstall all of the Steam files, and leave the game directory with all of the mod files still in it,

 

(This is the mistake most people make, they "Uninstall" the game to get rid of old mods, without knowing that the only thing that gets uninstalled is the Game, and the Old Mods get left, so then they install the game, and wonder why the old mods are still showing up.

 

1. Delete the Data directory, manually

2. Have Steam Verify your Files, Steam will download all of the files that Steam installed in the Data directory, and you should end up with a Data directory that is completely "Factory Fresh"

 

Yes, you'll have to uninstall/reinstall the Script Extenders because when you Delete the DATA Directory, the scripts from the Script Extender Zip Files, that go in the DATA\SCRIPTS directory will also get deleted, which will make your Script Extenders not work properly until you install/reinstall

[waahooo]

Sorry, I did not understand what you meant by "wiping the Data directory" in your first post but I'm following now. Thanks for your advice.