Numbered folders in Fallout4 Data directory: what are all these folders?

[Rezznor]

In my Fallout4 Data directory there is over 50 folders who's names are just numbers, inside each folder it varies from other folders labeled "materials", "textures", some others, most nothing else and empty except that each numbered folder has a file of 0 bytes named "_folder_managed_by_vortex". What are these folders? I highlighted the entire group and selected Properties and it turns out that apart from other folders inside some of them there is no actual data. All 50+ numbered folders have a grand total of 0 bytes of data. Can these folders be deleted, or are they placeholders for something?

[Tannin42]

They are probably part of the mods you are installing. Vortex doesn't create directories in the data directory other than those required by the mods.

[Rezznor]

I could see that as being a thing except each numbered folder has a file in it that just says "_folder_managed_by_vortex", and often just that with nothing else. So Vortex created these folders. But they are also not in my Skyrim SE data folder, so its very odd. So if they are game related to F4 then everybody should have them, or if they are related to mods then the folders should have some indication as to which mod it is for.

[BigBizkit]

"_folder_managed_by_vortex" just means the folder was deployed by Vortex. It doesn't name/create the folders per se, but puts them in the data folder - they originate from mods.

[Rezznor]

So would it be ok to delete these folders since they don't actually contain anything?

[burbigo1]

I think that you should avoid deleting the files even if they're empty.

 

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[DarkDominion]

@Rezznor,

Do you have many mods installed ?

 

Why don't you just find out which mod is dumping that inside your Data folder ?

[Pickysaurus]

Sounds like it may have been a FOMOD with a broken or missing XML that you installed?

[rmm200]

My impression (as opposed to facts) is that numbered folders are the NMM left-overs when you uninstall NMM mods.

Preferred solution is to clean up your game directory before you turn it over to Vortex. Then the numbered directories would not be there...

 

If it were my game, I would freely delete empty numbered directories, even if they have the Managed by Vortex tags.

And promise to do better next time I switch from NMM to Vortex.

[Rezznor]

Couldn't say for sure, so I uninstalled all my mods (about 50 or so), then deleted them all. There were still about the same plugins remaining. I checked the Data folder and saw they were still there as well as the numbered folders, so they must have been leftovers from MMO. I must have not removed them 1st before starting Vortex. .....Which now that I think of it makes sense since I didn't download Skyrim SE until after, so it was fresh for that.
Well, no telling what was left over completely, and don't want it messing up the game any further, I backed up customizations and home made mods, deleted the entire mess and redoing from Start.