Disable vs uninstall

[anjenthedog]

Hi,

 

I recently participated in a problem debugging thread on another site in which the OP alleged in a followup edit of their original post that "they'd solved it" by uninstalling a mod they'd disabled. (The OP was using Vortex as his/her mod manager)

 

That is, the OP claimed that disabling the mod left it active in some manner, which caused his/her issues.(he or she was resolving a CTD issue). Now, it's possible that he/she only disabled a plugin, (which afaik is not "disabling a mod"), but there was no further update to clarify that, and the OP has been silent since.

 

Can you please clarify what disabling a mod (vs uninstalling) does, and if disabling (the mod, not just a plugin) is insufficient to block the mod from interfering in the game?

 

I often suggest that a person with an issue disable, rather than uninstall a mod or mods to debug an issue they've discovered since installing a group of files back to back, and I would prefer not to be disseminating fallacious advise if possible (if indeed it is bad advise to disable a mod to check if it might be the cause of an issue...or for that matter just to swap between different mods (like I do with weather stuff to simulate seasons, or to enable disable things that do or don't apply when my male player is used instead of my female player) .

 

Not to mention, as I noted I disable/enable mods selectively, and I now have a minor concern that I may be introducing error or potential errors by doing so.

 

oh, fyi, the game in question here is Slyrim SE, but I presume that disabling a mod in vortex applies ~equally to different games that use mods.

 

thanks.

[Tannin42]

If a mod is disabled it will not deployed into the game directory or if it already was it will be "undeployed" on the next deployment.

Remove physically removes the mod from staging.

 

The effective differences are:

- a disabled mod still occupies the same disk space

- disabled affects only the active profile

- "remove" enforces a deployment (we can't correctly remove the mod without it first being "undeployed") whereas, if you have automatic deployment disabled, Vortex will request that you deploy after disabling the mod but technically a user might ignore that.

 

So your advice to disable mods for searching problems for example is absolutely correct, I do get the impression though that a surprising number of users avoid deployment and then not realize that it is part of their problem.

 

And yes, disabling a mod works the same on every game.

[rmm200]

And very important: if you move your game to a different disk, Purge first.

Hard links do not move well, and a deep copy is not something you want.

After the move, Deploy puts everything back like it was. Enabled mods stay enabled.

Edited July 20, 2020 by rmm200

[anjenthedog]

If a mod is disabled it will not deployed into the game directory or if it already was it will be "undeployed" on the next deployment.

Remove physically removes the mod from staging.

 

The effective differences are:

- a disabled mod still occupies the same disk space

- disabled affects only the active profile

- "remove" enforces a deployment (we can't correctly remove the mod without it first being "undeployed") whereas, if you have automatic deployment disabled, Vortex will request that you deploy after disabling the mod but technically a user might ignore that.

 

So your advice to disable mods for searching problems for example is absolutely correct, I do get the impression though that a surprising number of users avoid deployment and then not realize that it is part of their problem.

 

And yes, disabling a mod works the same on every game.

 

Thank you, that sums it up well. It works as I thought it worked. I suspect the OP of the post I alluded to tried disabling the "bad" mod's plugin instead of the mod I advised him/her to disable. And yes, I'm aware you have to deploy after any change. Or at least should. After all, the button is glowing and pulsating for a reason, (even if it's a bit subdued in its "glowiness")

 

Thank you for the reply and clear answer. Much appreciated.