Do not put mods/downloads into your Vortex install directory!

[Tannin42]

When Vortex updates to a new version it removes and replaces the previous installation directory. If you have your mods/downloads stored there they will be deleted.

This is not a bug in Vortex, it will not/can not be fixed. The vortex install directory is intended for application files only, you should not put anything else in there.

The same is true if you played around with bundled extensions or localisations: backup those files!

 

If you have such a setup (e.g. mods stored in C:\Program Files\Black Tree Gaming Ltd\Vortex\mods\skyrim) you have to move your mod&download directories before the next update.

 

Future versions of Vortex will warn about such setups being wrong but there is nothing we can do to leave such a setup intact on update if it's already in place.

[zhesam]

Thanks Tannin - its explain a lot what was that - now i move my mods dir outside. Can You add this case in description for other users/testers to prevent deleting mods setups?

[BeowulfSchmidt]

@Tannin42, if I recall correctly, when one changes the directory to which mods are downloaded, Vortex actually moves any that already exist in the old location. Am I remembering correctly?

[KarebuS]

@Tannin42, if I recall correctly, when one changes the directory to which mods are downloaded, Vortex actually moves any that already exist in the old location. Am I remembering correctly?

Yeah it does

[continous]

It's possible for a user to change their directories to the one Vortex uses. Any chance you could prevent that? Or at least prompt the user?

[Olivir2019]

It's possible for a user to change their directories to the one Vortex uses. Any chance you could prevent that? Or at least prompt the user?

 

You have to manually change up to three paths (and I am pretty sure these are in advanced settings, which you are supposed to activate only if you know what are you doing anyway).

[Risakisa]

Well, this would've been nice to know before Vortex updated itself without asking or warning me.

[Tannin42]

It's possible for a user to change their directories to the one Vortex uses. Any chance you could prevent that? Or at least prompt the user?

Not by default it's not. If you use the suggested installer the Vortex dir is write protected so you can't move your mods there.

But yes, the current vortex version should prevent setting your mod directory to a sub-directory of Vortex.

 

Well, this would've been nice to know before Vortex updated itself without asking or warning me.

Yes, but it didn't occur to me that people might do this. Vortex installs to c:\program files where it's write protected. You have to circumvent this protection to even manage to move your mods there, do you expect us to anticipate and warn about any constellation where this might be a bad idea?

Next users will move their mods to c:\windows\system32, C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp or c:\$Recycle.Bin and then blame us if things go wrong.

[Risakisa]

I don't install anything to C, let alone Program Files. As a general rule of thumb, last time I knew, that was the first thing to avoid when modding (ie avoid putting games and mods and modding tools to protected directories).

[Tannin42]

I don't install anything to C, let alone Program Files. As a general rule of thumb, last time I knew, that was the first thing to avoid when modding (ie avoid putting games and mods and modding tools to protected directories).

 

This is a bad rule.

It's probably advice given for Morrowind, 15 years ago by people who didn't know better at the time and since then people follow it like it's been brought down from a mountain on a stone tablet.

But it's not a good idea today, this problem is testament to that.

 

Vortex is a standard conformant windows application, using a standard installer with default settings. It behaves like 95% of Windows applications out there, yet people manage to screw up their install and delete their data by using non-default install locations and manually changing their settings.

At that point you should ask yourself if maybe your "house rules" are standing in your way more than they help you.

 

The reason people may have advised you to avoid putting modding tools into "program files" is because those modding tools tried to write files (logs, mods, ...) to their installation directory. Vortex doesn't do that, so the advise doesn't apply.

The reason people may have advised you to avoid putting games into "program files" is because otherwise the write protection would prevent you from putting mods in there. But you could just as well disable the write protection punctually for the data directory. This is less work and more secure.

And most of the time you don't even have to do that because Steam (by default afaik) already allows writing to all game directories. So again, this advise doesn't apply for most games today.