Can I re-link vortex to an existing staging folder?

[whispers7]

Long story short, I had to abruptly reinstall windows, losing the vortex app in the process. My skyrimse and the mod staging folder were on a different volume so they were not deleted. Is it possible to reconnect vortex to that staging folder?

In the staging folder, there are these files (besides the mods):

"__vortex_staging_folder"

"vortex.deployment.msgpack"

 

I also still have the downloads folder (with all the .rar mods)

 

Is there anyway I can continue playing without having to reinstall all the mods all over again? Right now when I launch a saved game it says mods are missing. I reinstalled my mods for my other games but for skyrim..I have too many of them and I spent too much time fixing them and I have no intention of doing it again and will probably give up on the game if I can't fix this somehow :sad:

Also, is there a way to prevent this scenario in the future? With any game in general.

I'm a bit new to this whole modding stuff so sorry for all the questions.

Edited July 24, 2020 by whispers7

[Tannin42]

All the meta data for mods as well as profiles, application settings and some other stuff was in c:\users\<username>\appdata\roaming\vortex which you probably deleted together with your windows, so you will find some stuff missing.

You don't have to download or reinstall mods though.

The easiest solution is this:

- change the staging folder in Vortex to a new, empty directory on the same drive as where your old staging directory is.

- close Vortex

- move the entire contents of the old staging folder into the new one including the "vortex.deployment.msgpack" file but don't overwrite the __vortex_staging_folder file (not a big problem if you do though)

 

Then start Vortex again. It will complain about how there is now new mods in its staging folder that it doesn't know about but that's ok, just accept.

 

The mods will be disabled though, so now you have two options:

- Click the "Reset to manifest" button at the top of the mod list. This should now enable all the mods you had enabled the last time you were playing

- If that doesn't work for whatever reason, press ctrl+a to select all mods and then the "enable" button on the bottom bar to enable them all.

 

Finally, check the Plugins screen, most likely you want to enable everything there. Again, you can press ctrl+a to select everything.

[Tannin42]

Oh, forgot: You probably want to do the same thing for the downloads folder as well: Create a new empty directory for downloads, then move all the files from your old download folder into the new one while Vortex is closed.

[whispers7]

All the meta data for mods as well as profiles, application settings and some other stuff was in c:\users\<username>\appdata\roaming\vortex which you probably deleted together with your windows, so you will find some stuff missing.

You don't have to download or reinstall mods though.

The easiest solution is this:

- change the staging folder in Vortex to a new, empty directory on the same drive as where your old staging directory is.

- close Vortex

- move the entire contents of the old staging folder into the new one including the "vortex.deployment.msgpack" file but don't overwrite the __vortex_staging_folder file (not a big problem if you do though)

 

Then start Vortex again. It will complain about how there is now new mods in its staging folder that it doesn't know about but that's ok, just accept.

 

The mods will be disabled though, so now you have two options:

- Click the "Reset to manifest" button at the top of the mod list. This should now enable all the mods you had enabled the last time you were playing

- If that doesn't work for whatever reason, press ctrl+a to select all mods and then the "enable" button on the bottom bar to enable them all.

 

Finally, check the Plugins screen, most likely you want to enable everything there. Again, you can press ctrl+a to select everything.

 

You saved my Skyrim, thanks!

 

Moving the downloads folder tho seemed to be pointless, it just added them to vortex as uninstalled mods and wasn't associating them with the mods in the staging folder (which appeared in vortex as disabled like you said). I struggled a bit fixing the dependencies since in some cases I forgot what goes after what. But all in all, most mods seem to be working fine and if anything isn't, it should be much easier to fix a few than reinstall all.

 

Thanks again. Is there a better way to backup mods (in a way the association between downloded archives and mods is still intact)?