Vortex Mod Groups (with respect to Skyrim SE) - All downloaded Mods now automatically end up in "Default" Group

[BarbarossaKain]

I have a question that I hope someone in the Community may be able to address.  If this has already been answered elsewhere, I'd ask someone kindly to point me in the right direction.

 

Up until several months ago (maybe over a year; time does fly), in my experience when I used Vortex to download a Mod from Nexus, I found that it automatically placed the associated Plug in(s) in a specific group, for example "Late Loaders" or "Vampire Overhauls".  Several Vortex updates later, I have found that any Mod I downloaded from Nexus now automatically ends up in the "Default" group.

 I can of course then manually change this on the back end, however, I wondered if there was any functionality that I am not aware of where I can turn hat feature back on, i.e. Mods automatically go into the proper Group like the old days.  I am a relatively novice user, so it may be something simple that I am not aware of.  Any guidance that someone may be able to provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

[vortexposer]

Most mods are typically assigned to default group. LOOT masterlist is how it gets assigned to a specific group, so it's possible masterlist updated some.
Did you maybe have them assigned via your own metadata and then reset Vortex or something? Perhaps provide a specific example (with pic, et cetera).
 

Edited May 21 by vortexposer

[BarbarossaKain]

Thank you for your reply.  Interesting, a half a dozen plus Vortex updates back, all my Mods were auto-assigned to the various groups as I downloaded them.  For a newer user like me, this all happened without my input, "under the hood" so to speak.  

Nowadays, when I download a mod, it auto-populates to the "default" group (again, in the Before Times, they went into their proper groups without any actions on my part), and stays there even after I run Auto-sort and LOOT.  That said, everything now ends up in "default", unless I go into the Plu-Ins tab, and set the group for each and every Plug-in manually.

My hope here is that it is User Error on my part, and that there is some functionality that I have neglected to turn back on to have things go back to the Old Days.  The thought of having to manually assign 600+ Plug Ins to there respective proper groups is not a task that i am looking forward to...

[vortexposer]

The only reasonable explanation for that would be if you've used public collections at some point, which will retain any custom group assignment bundled in its collection.json until manually cleared by user or Vortex is reset to its default state via Users > username > AppData > Roaming > Vortex > game > userlist.yaml.
 

Or there was a massive change/update in LOOT Masterlist's group assignment for SkyrimSE.
 

Edited May 22 by vortexposer

[BarbarossaKain]

  On 5/22/2025 at 5:03 PM, vortexposer said:

The only reasonable explanation for that would be if you've used public collections at some point, which will retain any custom group assignment bundled in its collection.json until manually cleared by user or Vortex is reset to its default state via Users > username > AppData > Roaming > Vortex > game > userlist.yaml.
 

Or there was a massive change/update in LOOT Masterlist's group assignment for SkyrimSE.

Expand  

This is VERY helpful.  If I could trouble you further:  How might I go about resetting Vortex completely to have it function as it should in this case (clearing collection.json etc)?

[vortexposer]

Quick and dirty way is to delete userlist.yaml (while Vortex is closed), and allow it to generate new file (can be shared similar to MO2 loadorder.txt shenanigans). Or via Vortex UI; go to Plugins tab > Manage Groups, rt click to select reset and then, if necessary, Manage Rules > remove individual rule (can be a slog if a lot).
 

Edited May 22 by vortexposer

[BarbarossaKain]

Again, thank you so much - I'll give this a shot.

I truly do appreciate you taking the time to help me with this.  

Have a great weekend.