Steps to move Vortex to a new computer?

[AugustaCalidia]

I think I resolved the disabled plugins issue:

 

Thank you for your very informative progress report. I've bookmarked this discussion for the time when I'll transition to a new computer.

[zarantha]

I'm wondering if Purging the mods prior to copying the folders may have caused this and may not have been necessary. It'd be great if one of you guys that plans on doing a migration as well could try it without purging the mods first and report back on what the plugins look like when they start up Vortex after the folder copy.

 

Since I'm not copying my game folder, I suspect it is necessary for me, otherwise it will complain about *a lot* of missing files.

 

For mass enable after redeploying everything, couldn't you do a ctrl + a to select all then click enable at the bottom? That still doesn't fix if some are disabled, but it's got to be faster than just clicking through them one at a time even in Wryebash.

[capella6707]

 

Since I'm not copying my game folder, I suspect it is necessary for me, otherwise it will complain about *a lot* of missing files.

Makes sense in your case. I'm certainly not planning on going through this again any time soon, so hopefully someone will be able to give that a shot.

 

 

For mass enable after redeploying everything, couldn't you do a ctrl + a to select all then click enable at the bottom? That still doesn't fix if some are disabled, but it's got to be faster than just clicking through them one at a time even in Wryebash.

 

Yeah - didn't think of that. I opted for the slow, check-by-check method without even thinking about if there'd be a quicker way.

 

Anyway...

 

SUCCESS! :thumbsup: :dance: :woot: :dance: :laugh: :cool: :dance:

 

I fired up the game and played for a bit and everything's just peachy!

 

So, below is the process that I followed. This is specifically for moving a Steam-installed SSE, Vortex, and all related files and tools from one computer to another, with the goal of not having to start a new game - to continue with your saved game(s).

 

On the old/source computer

1. Note all settings in Vortex
   1. Take screenshots of each tab/page, make notes, etc
2. Note Steam\Skyrim install location
3. Note Vortex install location
4. Note WryeBash install location
5. Note location of all tools in Vortex Dashboard (BethINI, FallrimTools, SSEEdit, etc)
   1. I re-downloaded these tools for the new computer, but they can probably be copied over to the new computer
6. Purge mods in Vortex
   1. See step 16 below - I'm not sure this is necessary and may have caused some more work
   2. Vortex will say the Bashed Patch is missing masters
7. Copy full SSE folder in My Games to the backup location
   1. For me, OneDrive was syncing this folder, so on the new computer it was there, but when I started SSE for the first time, the save location was created in C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition, NOT the OneDrive location of C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition. Why, I don't know - just be aware of that possibility
8. Copy full SSE Steam install folder to the backup location
9. Copy Vortex AppData folder (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Vortex) to the backup location
10. Copy Vortex Mods Staging folder to the backup location
    1. This is the "Mod Staging Folder" path on the Mods tab in Vortex
11. Copy the following WryeBash folders to the backup location
    1. The "Mopy" folder created in the SSE program folder
    2. The "Skyrim Special Edition Mods" folder at the same level as the Steam SSE folder

On the new/target computer

• NOTE: As far as copying the backup folders and files to the new computer, I recommend deleting or renaming the ones created by Steam, WryeBash, and Vortex after installation, setup and first run to eliminate any possibility of files existing in the new computer's folders that weren't there in the old computer's folder

1. Install Steam to the above location
2. Install SSE to the above location
3. Run SSE first time
   1. You just need to get to the launcher so the files are created in the Save folder
4. Install and run Vortex
5. Set Vortex settings as noted above
6. Close Vortex
7. Copy Vortex AppData folder from the backup location
   1. I deleted the existing one created when I installed/started Vortex
8. Copy Mod Staging folder from the backup location
   1. These are the uncompressed mod files (30GB for my 270+ mods), so this one will take a very long time
9. Install WryeBash
10. Copy WryeBash folders from the backup location
11. Install/place additional Vortex Dashboard tools
12. Copy SSE backup from the backup location
    1. Again, I renamed the existing folder that Steam created before copying the backup over
13. Copy SSE My Games folder from the backup location
    1. On the new computer, starting SSE created save folder in non-OneDrive location: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition, so I backed that up by renaming it and copied the OneDrive save folder to that location
14. Since the previous copy tasks will take a long time, ensure all file copying is complete before continuing
15. Start Vortex to make sure it runs as expected
    1. Ensure that it recognizes the mods that were copied over to the Staging folder
    2. Confirm tools start from the Dashboard shortcuts
    3. Check the Mods and Plugins pages and ensure everything looks okay
16. At this point, in Vortex, for me, even though all settings files were copied over, I was perplexed to see that all of the Plugins were disabled but the Mods were still enabled. Deploying the mods did not fix this (purging and deploying again didn't affect anything, either). I resolved this by doing the following (this is the method that I followed, there may be a better way to do this)
    1. In WryeBash check all plugins
       1. If you have more than 255 plugins, check 254 and the Bashed Patch esp
    2. Rebuild the Bashed Patch, which will free up plugins
    3. Check the rest of the plugins and rebuild the patch again
    4. Checking back in Vortex, the plugins with checks in WryeBash were enabled and the plugins with pluses in WryeBash were disabled
17. Fire up Skyrim and pray it works! (It should - it did for me!)

Okay, gotta go play now - on my shiny new Lenovo laptop with 4GB GTX 1050Ti, 6-core i7, 16GB Ram, 500GB SSD and obscene resolution of 3480x2160! :smile:

[BigBizkit]

I am glad this worked for you, capella6707.

 

Vortex should be able to pick up on it if you just copy the whole Vortex directory over to the new system - as long as it is still in %Appdata%%.

 

Doing this it is, however, crucial to create any customised mod/download directories on the new system in the exact same location before you launch Vortex for the first time there. Otherwise Vortex will assume all mods and downloads have been deleted.

 

Also, keep in mind that you will have to launch many games at least once (Skyrim for example) through Steam so all the prerequisites are downloaded and installed.

[AugustaCalidia]

@capella6707: Congratulations! :thumbsup:

[capella6707]

I am glad this worked for you, capella6707.

 

Vortex should be able to pick up on it if you just copy the whole Vortex directory over to the new system - as long as it is still in %Appdata%%.

 

Doing this it is, however, crucial to create any customised mod/download directories on the new system in the exact same location before you launch Vortex for the first time there. Otherwise Vortex will assume all mods and downloads have been deleted.

 

Also, keep in mind that you will have to launch many games at least once (Skyrim for example) through Steam so all the prerequisites are downloaded and installed.

Yes, two key points to a successful migration are 1) exactly mirroring the location of the source computer's programs and 2) running each installed program once before copying over the source folders and files.

[earthdude]

I would like to see an "Export/Import Vortex settings" that would include load order, conflict management rules, etc. Maybe it could even create an export/install package that would include *everything*. Sure it's going to be a mega file (or several slightly-smaller-than-mega files), but you're still going to be transferring a huge amount of data anyway. Why not create a more consistent migration process?

 

I basically did the above migration steps for my FO4 game without remembering to note the Vortex states and reinstalled from my saved archive and tried to rebuild from memory. When that utterly failed, redownloaded everything and activated in small chunks. I'm now getting issues I never had on the original install. Thankfully, I was able to rescue my original computer so I can finish my current playthrough. When I have time, I may be posting about some more specific problems I'm having with the migration to get community input.

[HadToRegister]

I am glad this worked for you, capella6707.

 

Vortex should be able to pick up on it if you just copy the whole Vortex directory over to the new system - as long as it is still in %Appdata%%.

 

Doing this it is, however, crucial to create any customised mod/download directories on the new system in the exact same location before you launch Vortex for the first time there. Otherwise Vortex will assume all mods and downloads have been deleted.

 

Also, keep in mind that you will have to launch many games at least once (Skyrim for example) through Steam so all the prerequisites are downloaded and installed.

 

 

Could his post be taken as a separate entity, made into a new thread and stickied and locked PLEASE?

[zarantha]

Yay! Glad this worked for you capella!

 

This part I can answer, it's something I'll be doing during the new pc setup before I start copying stuff over.

 

 

1. Copy full SSE folder in My Games to the backup location
   1. For me, OneDrive was syncing this folder, so on the new computer it was there, but when I started SSE for the first time, the save location was created in C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition, NOT the OneDrive location of C:\Users\<username>\OneDrive\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition. Why, I don't know - just be aware of that possibility

 

You can change the location of the user folders in Windows. I've currently got mine going to D:

To change the location of Documents from c:\users\<username>\documents to c:\users\<username>\onedrive\documents (or any other location):

 

1. Open file explorer
2. Right click on Documents in the left sidebar and select properties (or browse to the folder location and do the same)
3. In properties, select Location
4. Click Move and browse to where you want Documents to be.
5. Click Apply. You'll get a pop up asking if you want to move your files from the old location to the new location. Say yes.
6. You should see the new path in the properties window.
7. When you click ok, it will start moving everything over. Resolve file conflicts (if any) as appropriate. If the new location is empty, there won't be any conflicts.
8. Repeat for anything else in c:\users\<username> that you need to move elsewhere.

[BigBizkit]

 

I am glad this worked for you, capella6707.

 

Vortex should be able to pick up on it if you just copy the whole Vortex directory over to the new system - as long as it is still in %Appdata%%.

 

Doing this it is, however, crucial to create any customised mod/download directories on the new system in the exact same location before you launch Vortex for the first time there. Otherwise Vortex will assume all mods and downloads have been deleted.

 

Also, keep in mind that you will have to launch many games at least once (Skyrim for example) through Steam so all the prerequisites are downloaded and installed.

 

 

Could her post be taken as a separate entity, made into a new thread and stickied and locked PLEASE?

 

 

I'll write up an article for our knowledge base.