Vortex stuck on "Mods can't be deployed"

[technodude9000]

• Vortex version: 1.5.13
• Game: The Witcher 3
• Mod count: 5 (though this problem has shown since 0)
• Environment: Windows 10 64 bit

 

I'm trying to install some mods for The Witcher 3 using vortex, but it won't let me deploy mods. The game is installed to my D: drive (and only the D: drive) and Vortex appears to detect the install location properly when I check the location in the "Games" menu.

 

The mod staging folder is ALSO set to my D: drive, and Vortex reflects that in the "Settings" menu.

 

I can download and install mods just fine, but I just keep seeing the "Mods can't be deployed" alert. Clicking the "Fix" button on the alert gives me this as the first "Fix" option:

 

Move deployment (Experimental!)

 

Problem

 

Works only if mods are installed on the same drive as the game

 

Solution

 

Please go to Settings->Mods and set the mod staging folder to be on the same drive as the game (C:\).

 

 

So it seems that vortex believes I have the game installed on the C drive. I don't have space on my C drive for the game, but if I move the mod staging folder to C, I get THIS message instead:

 

Move deployment (Experimental!)

 

Problem

 

Works only if mods are installed on the same drive as the game

 

Solution

 

Please go to Settings->Mods and set the mod staging folder to be on the same drive as the game (D:\).

 

I've seen posts about how people changed drives or had drives die and that put things in a weird state, the D drive on this computer has always been the D drive, and I've never had the game or mods for it installed on any other drive on this computer.

 

What's really weird is I can download, install, and deploy mods just fine for Skyrim and Fallout 4. Witcher 3 is so far the only game I've run into this problem with.

 

Any ideas why vortex won't accept that both the staging folder and the game are on my D drive?

 

[AugustaCalidia]

Perhaps something here will help you: https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Modding_The_Witcher_3_with_Vortex.

 

A couple of years ago I had a similar problem, which Pickysaurus resolved for me. See this forum thread: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/8813288-vortex-1216-and-the-witcher-3/page-2?hl=witcher&do=findComment&comment=82109253.

 

I hope this helps.

[technodude9000]

Thanks!

 

I see from your other post that you had your documents folder on the D drive while the rest of the components were on the C drive. Did you by any chance try moving the other components to the D drive before your eventual solution of moving the documents folder back to your C drive? My C drive is pretty small compared to my D drive so it would be nice to not have to put >50GB of game on a drive that doesn't quite fit it.

 

After digging into symlinks, the "Fix" options for symlinks are apparently not an option on my system. The "Run as Administrator" variant indicates I should use the normal variant, but the normal variant says "Filesystem doesn't support symbolic links". I tried enabling the toggles in "Settings" for each of the symlink settings one at a time, but no dice. Any thoughts on that one?

[AugustaCalidia]

Since my C drive is 1TB, I never considered moving any of the other Witcher 3 components to my D drive. However, for deployment mode activation, it doesn't really matter what drive you use so long as your Documents folder (where the Witcher 3 settings reside), your mod staging folder, and your game are all on the same drive, and Vortex knows where the latter two folders are.

 

As for your symlinks issue, I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment.

[rmm200]

Typical "Symlinks not supported" is because the target disk is not formatted as NTFS.

Easy thing for you to verify.

[technodude9000]

Since my C drive is 1TB, I never considered moving any of the other Witcher 3 components to my D drive. However, for deployment mode activation, it doesn't really matter what drive you use so long as your Documents folder (where the Witcher 3 settings reside), your mod staging folder, and your game are all on the same drive, and Vortex knows where the latter two folders are.

 

As for your symlinks issue, I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment.

 

Fair enough, no point moving things the more unusual direction when you know one will work.

 

Typical "Symlinks not supported" is because the target disk is not formatted as NTFS.

Easy thing for you to verify.

Ah, yeah that would do it. My C drive is NTFS but D drive is exFAT. Thanks for clearing that up!

 

Fun, I guess I'm going to .... not do this then.