Vortex Mirrored On 2 PCs - Need Info On Meta Data Location

[nt5raham]

I'm attempting to create and maintain a duplicate installation of SSE/Vortex et al. on a laptop that will mirror my desktop installation, mods, settings, load order, etc. I plan to keep using both computers, the desktop when at home and the laptop on the go. My goal is to work out all of the issues like cleaning mods, ESLify, conflicts and load order ONCE on the desktop and have it migrate to the laptop automatically, rather than having to manually install and tweak every single mod again on the laptop. I'm not one to try to re-invent the wheel or waste time duplicating my efforts. I'm approaching 300 active mods with no end in sight, and doing things twice manually is begining to take a lot of time away from gaming. It seems unnecessary. I have already worked out a solution for saved games between the two computers using OneDrive, maintaining a local copy on each that updates automatically, and it works perfectly.

 

I have begun a completely clean and new installation from scratch on both computers, using the exact same settings, paths, etc. for Steam, SSE and Vortex. I have the Vortex downloads and staging folders on OneDrive with local copies on each PC. I installed my first mod (USSEP) on my desktop and it migrated to the laptop as expected. But when I started Vortex on the laptop I got the following error message:

 

"Mods have been changed on disk. This means that mods that were managed by Vortex disappeared and/or mods that Vortex previously didn't know about appeared in the staging folder since the last time it checked. It is highly discouraged to modify the staging folder outside Vortex in any way! If you continue now, Vortex will lose all meta information about the deleted mods irreversibly and the added mods are added with minimal meta information."

 

QUESTION: Where is this meta data stored so that I can have it migrate to the laptop with the rest of the required information?

 

Thanks for your help!

[HadToRegister]

C:\users\<YOUR NAME>\appdata\roaming\Vortex

[nt5raham]

Thanks HadToRegister! I appreciate the help! And, yes, that is where I found the download and staging folders to begin with. But there are 39 folders and 156 files remaining, and that is with a brand new game. Can you narrow it down a bit? I'm guessing there is a particular file or folder that is the key here. Also, I can't find an option in Vortex to change the meta data location like I did with downloads and staging.

 

I have already tried copying appdata\roaming\Vortex\metadb over to the laptop and I still get the same error message. It contains the actual information that is displayed when you double click on a mod in Vortex, but there must be something more.

 

Just for giggles I copied the entire Vortex subdirectory structure from AppData over and it corrected the problem. I would appreciate it if we could narrow it down a bit to just what is required rather than the entire thing.

[HadToRegister]

Since you're planning on mirroring the install, you should just copy the entire Vortex folder

The files you can edit are the *.yaml files, that contain your load order, mods installed etc.
Those are also in each Game\Data folder

[nt5raham]

I found userlist.yaml (three entries in the file) and masterlist.yaml (considerably larger), but the only instances of "meta" I found were references to Metallica. Not sure that is going to help this situation. Or did I misunderstand why you provided that info?

 

At least copying the entire tree is a workable option, if not ideal. Hopefully more info will come along.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

[HadToRegister]

I found userlist.yaml (three entries in the file) and masterlist.yaml (considerably larger), but the only instances of "meta" I found were references to Metallica. Not sure that is going to help this situation. Or did I misunderstand why you provided that info?

 

At least copying the entire tree is a workable option, if not ideal. Hopefully more info will come along.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

 

 

I never mentioned the word 'meta' ?

[nt5raham]

True, you didn't. It was in the title of the thread and the topic of the discussion, locating key meta info, no way to tell Vortex to look elsewhere for the meta data, etc., so I was working on an assumption. Knowing assumptions are not a sure bet is why I asked if I misunderstood the purpose of you mentioning it.

 

So, if not to help with meta data issue, then why did you bring up editing .yaml files? I know you're trying to help, but please forgive me for not having the knowledge/experience to recognize how to use what you provided.

[HadToRegister]

True, you didn't. It was in the title of the thread and the topic of the discussion, locating key meta info, no way to tell Vortex to look elsewhere for the meta data, etc., so I was working on an assumption. Knowing assumptions are not a sure bet is why I asked if I misunderstood the purpose of you mentioning it.

 

So, if not to help with meta data issue, then why did you bring up editing .yaml files? I know you're trying to help, but please forgive me for not having the knowledge/experience to recognize how to use what you provided.

 

 

I mentioned the *.yaml files because you would need to mirror those too

 

Probably the easiest way to mirror your installation would to be to use something like "Beyond Compare", "WinDiff", "WinmMerge" etc programs where you can synchronize your folders between the two machines.