My Downloads folder is empty, Vortex shows FO4 files in my SSE Downloads

[Vyxenne]

Vortex 1.3.22

Windows 10 x64

32 GB RAM

1.5TB disk space available

 

The other night (10 Sept.) I made the mistake of trying to play FNV (due to the rollout of the new DLC on the Nexus.) I selected my FNV profile and it appeared to switch, but I was unable to launch the game.

 

Giving up, I switched back to my SSE profile, whereupon Vortex threw an error "Please set Downloads folder." This in itself was disturbing since the SSE DL folder hadn't needed setting the last 1,500 times I had played SSE via Vortex. Nonetheless, I accepted Vortex's "fix" and went on to play the game (SSE) for the past several days since then. I downloaded 3 new mods in the time, and they all DL and installed fine in Vortex.

 

Tonight, I had occasion to need one of the original un-BodySlided meshes so I went to Vortex Settings to see where my DL folder had been changed to. When I saw "E:\Games\Vortex Downloads\falloutnv\skyrimse\skyrimse" I knew I was royally FUBARed. Even worse, that DL folder only contained the 3 mods that I had installed since I made the fatal mistake of trying to play FNV on the 10th.

 

I went to the Vortex Downloads tab, where I found only Fallout 4 mod archives and extensions in my supposedly SkyrimSE downloads folder, and ZERO SSE files! Switching back to the Vortex Mods tab, I found all ~350 of my active and inactive mods there, and indeed, my SSE game still plays fine despite the complete lack of any SSE files in the SSE downloads folder.

 

Please advise how I can even begin to troubleshoot this. As info, the ONLY download archives I care about are my SSE ones- but using a system-wide file search utility, the files do not exist on my machine! Is it even possible that Vortex "ate" my 400 or so downloaded mod archives???

 

Please advise. Thanks.

[Pickysaurus]

Vortex 1.3.22

Windows 10 x64

32 GB RAM

1.5TB disk space available

 

The other night (10 Sept.) I made the mistake of trying to play FNV (due to the rollout of the new DLC on the Nexus.) I selected my FNV profile and it appeared to switch, but I was unable to launch the game.

 

Giving up, I switched back to my SSE profile, whereupon Vortex threw an error "Please set Downloads folder." This in itself was disturbing since the SSE DL folder hadn't needed setting the last 1,500 times I had played SSE via Vortex. Nonetheless, I accepted Vortex's "fix" and went on to play the game (SSE) for the past several days since then. I downloaded 3 new mods in the time, and they all DL and installed fine in Vortex.

 

Tonight, I had occasion to need one of the original un-BodySlided meshes so I went to Vortex Settings to see where my DL folder had been changed to. When I saw "E:\Games\Vortex Downloads\falloutnv\skyrimse\skyrimse" I knew I was royally FUBARed. Even worse, that DL folder only contained the 3 mods that I had installed since I made the fatal mistake of trying to play FNV on the 10th.

 

I went to the Vortex Downloads tab, where I found only Fallout 4 mod archives and extensions in my supposedly SkyrimSE downloads folder, and ZERO SSE files! Switching back to the Vortex Mods tab, I found all ~350 of my active and inactive mods there, and indeed, my SSE game still plays fine despite the complete lack of any SSE files in the SSE downloads folder.

 

Please advise how I can even begin to troubleshoot this. As info, the ONLY download archives I care about are my SSE ones- but using a system-wide file search utility, the files do not exist on my machine! Is it even possible that Vortex "ate" my 400 or so downloaded mod archives???

 

Please advise. Thanks.

 

 

This is a very weird situation. I'm unsure why your downloads folder would become unset, perhaps it's on a network/external drive which lost connection momentarily?

 

Have you checked `E:\Games\Vortex Downloads\skyrimse\`for the files? That seems like the logical place they would be.

 

Your download folder is global for all games. So you might want to try and set it back to `E:\Games\Vortex Downloads` you will need to delete/move the skyrimse folders inside the New Vegas one though.

[Vyxenne]

My E: drive is an internal HDD and not a network drive, so the theory that it may have "lost connection briefly" seems unlikely at best.

 

Yes, I checked both of the "skyrimse" folders for my missing files. They are not there. In fact, with my global search tool (Jam Software Ultra-Search) I searched for a couple of the missing archives whose name I could remember, and discovered that the files had been deleted from my machine. Fortunately, I have an October, 2020 full backup and was able to restore most of them (except those that I d/l since the October backup.) However, Vortex does not "see" any of them when I look on the Downloads tab- it continues to report my FO4 archives even though an SSE Profile is active (see new trouble report just submitted tonight).

 

I am afraid to touch anything for fear Vortex willl blow up my game, including all my mods, game executables, who knows... Once trust is lost, it's gone. I am well and truly scared because Vortex's behavior seems impossible- how can it fail to see 300++ SSE archives in the Vortex Downloads folder while at the same time falsely reporting my FO4 archives as SSE archives?

 

I would very much appreciate some knowledgeable help- some way to non-destructively troubleshoot and fix whatever is wrong. Thanks.

[Pickysaurus]

I can understand why this is frustrating, but Vortex doesn't just delete big chunks of your files on it's own. I can't even think of a scenario where it would do that. Perhaps if you started moving your download folder and the PC lost power, but that's not really something Vortex itself can be blamed for.

 

Did you try setting your download folder back to `E:\Games\Vortex Downloads` as I suggested?

 

You might want to take a backup before you do that just to be safe.

[HadToRegister]

I can understand why this is frustrating, but Vortex doesn't just delete big chunks of your files on it's own. I can't even think of a scenario where it would do that. Perhaps if you started moving your download folder and the PC lost power, but that's not really something Vortex itself can be blamed for.

 

Did you try setting your download folder back to `E:\Games\Vortex Downloads` as I suggested?

 

You might want to take a backup before you do that just to be safe.

 

 

I know that I ended up with a situation like this when I tried to set up a new game folder in my download folder.

Vortex for some reason, moves the entire contents of the download folder into the new folder you created WITH VORTEX, it's a real PITA, because it doesn't just make a new GAME fodler, it actually thinks you want to move every single game folder, along with all of the downloaded mods, into that on new folder you made.

 

It can take forever too.

I lucked out and shut down vortex, but Vortex is Fanatical about following the location of where the "__vortex_downloads_folder" file is.

 

I don't really know how I managed to recover from it, but the problem is, is extremely easy to do, when you think you're just innocently adding a new game to the download folder.

 

My download folder is D:\Games\Vortex Downloads\

 

My mistake was I installed a new game, went to SETTINGS----->DOWNLOAD and saw that the download folder wasn't D:\Games\Vortex Downloads\

So I changed it to D:\Games\Vortex Downloads\Subnautica...

 

What ACTUALLY Happened, after that, was Vortex Moved the Entire Contents of my Downloads folder to D:\Games\Vortex Downloads\Subnautica\

 

Like a Black Hole just sucking up everything near to it.

 

This really needs some type of safeguard, or the behavior needs to be changed, because a user innocently thinking they're adding a new game to the Downloads Folder, will EASILY end up with a mess like this

[rmm200]

My suggestion to HtR: Bug report it. Anything with seriously detrimental consequences is a bug to me.

Partial coverage would be to change the description on the Settings page. "Do NOT specify the game name in the Downloads path. Vortex will fill that in."

Sympathies Vyxenne...

[Vyxenne]

Vortex doesn't just delete big chunks of your files on it's own.

Irrespective of that opinion that it doesn't just delete big chunks of my files on its own, that is exactly what Vortex ACTUALLY DID whether anyone understands how it could do that or not. In fact, in my research prior to posting this plea for help, I encountered a warning that "You will lose all of your downloaded files when you set this" or words to that effect. I'm sorry that I didn't bookmark that page, but my inability to prove that what happened actually happened in no way diminishes the truth of what Vortex did: it deleted all of my downloaded archives in an instant when I responded to the erroneous challenge to set my Downloads folder after my failed attempt to play FNV.

[Vyxenne]

 

Did you try setting your download folder back to `E:\Games\Vortex Downloads` as I suggested?

Yes, I read your slightly misleading statement that "Your download folder is global for all games" and set it to E:\Games\Vortex Downloads. Then, relying on the assertion that Your download folder is global for all games, I copied all of my downloaded archives into that folder. Big mistake. It turns out that the statement should have been "Your download folder SETTING in Vortex is global for all games, but the downloaded mod archives DO NOT GO THERE- they go into subfolders of that folder, e.g. "Vortex Downloads\skyrimse\.." and "Vortex Downloads\fallout4\.." etc.

 

Once I figured that out via trial and error since it doesn't seem to be published anywhere (nor does anybody who responded to my pitiful whining for help seem to have known it), and moved my downloaded SSE archives into ..Vortex Downloads\skyrimse, Vortex began "seeing" them again.

 

So thanks for your help, which at least got me to set my Vortex Downloads setting correctly. :wub:

[Pickysaurus]

I can understand where the confusion came from in this case. I've also noted the help text on the little "i" icon next to the Download folder implies that you are setting the path per-game. It doesn't outright say it either way, but it does mention that {GAME} variable, which doesn't apply for the Download folder. I'm sure we can improve the way this is presented a little.

 

Glad to hear that setting the path back worked :)