I just installed the whole MSFS 2020 during initial installation to a 2TB drive and designated that drive solely for MSFS program and a few FS addon programs. Since Scenery and Aircraft programs tend to be high in space consumption, I put all those files solely into a 4TB drive and used the linker program to do its magic and connect everything. Everything works fine with NO issues at all.
Thanks! Really a must have! I have organized my add-ons in a very intuitive folder structure and can easily switch by that way f.e. between my helicopter setups or scenery by regions. To only activate the addons you actually use for your current flight or intention helps MSFS loading times and reduce conflicting. In addition addon linker can do a lot more... As said a really must have
100% agree with this, a MUST HAVE for MSFS on PC, My MSFS is on M.2, Sim content/official packages on my SSD, and all my addons are on my HDD, so essentially my sim runs from 3 harddrives and it works like a charm!
@@IslandSimPilot yeah didnt think it was possible, so i tried it... and it didnt have a problem...but obviously one needs to be sure of the paths, but yeah it does work
Hi island, I have a doubt. If I move for example the pmdg 777, or any other aircraft, there are some files that go inside users folder, app data, roaming folders from the original hard drive. Is there any issue if I leave those files there and move the aircraft from community drive c to community drive d? I don’t know if I explained myself correctly.
Thanks for all you informative videos. I have had great success in using Addons Linker with moving the Community folder so I didn't expect to have any problems with moving the "Official" folder. I have the Steam version which uses the path "C:\MSFS\Official\Steam" and not the One Store folder on my M.2 C drive. I followed best I could your instructions to the T and successfully cut and pasted just one folder to my new destination drive, "G:\MSFS\Official\Steam" and the sim worked fine. So I cut and pasted all my airplanes and moved them, and the sim once again worked without problems. I was excited, and wanted to see how much disc space I had gained on my "C" drive only to find that now all the files I had moved were still there but now just showed a Shortcut symbol. It may be the Steam version, or something else. Right now I am trying to move all the folders and see if when I run the sim it created new shortcut versions of the files. I could really use some help. Thanks.
Hey, no, that’s exactly what you want! What addons linker does is replace the files you moved with that linked folder in the same location, so now your actual file is where you moved it, and there is now the link where it used to be. So now MSFS thinks the folder is still there. Does that make sense?
@@IslandSimPilot You mean when I click on the shortcut folders in my "C" drive and see all the files that would normally be there that what I am seeing are the files that now have been transferred to my "G" drive (which a RAID BTW)? Is that the way Addons Linker works? That makes sense seeing MSFS needs to be tricked into believing those files have not moved otherwise it would try to download the missing files.🤔 Just when I think I am understanding the technical aspect of computers something like this pops up. Thanks for the help. When I get home I will see how the sim "liked" what I did.
@@IslandSimPilot It works like a charm. Thanks again for all your help. The only drawback I see in my setup is the loading of the sim is slower. No doubt because I am moving the files from my M.2 to my RAID drives, but on the plus side I have freed up almost 300 Gigs on my C drive. Now to add Bing maps and Frame Gen.
Fantastic addon, I use it on my pc and gaming laptop with a portable ssd for my add-ons to hot swap between the two so I can have all my add-ons with me when I go on exercises. Hook up my laptop to a TV and good to go.
I noticed in this video at 13:14 you mention having uninstalled Princess Juliana (TNCM) because you have the payware version. I presume TNCM is one of MSFS's hand-crafted airports. Do you recommend doing that for all MSFS's handcrafted airports if payware versions are installed?
I must be missing something, how do you keep MSFS from re-downloading the moved files on the next startup? Okay, I deleted the moved files in MSFS content but if I moved everything and MSFS updated them and other files that would be a PIA if I had to go thru everything to find the new and updated files? Am I wrong? Also. when I moved, for a test, all of the ASOBO 152 files I found the liveries would not activate in AOL?
I am going to guess that you would need to link ALL the official folders using Addon Linker. No ideal why IslandSimPilot is suggesting this method when you can move the entire sim install to another drive with the click of a button and save all this hastle. I agree Addon Linker is essential for addons but no need for the main content
Hi, with a few add-ons after ticking the ticking the check box the name remains red? This only happens with small scenary items like Typhoon jets. Could you let me know what this is telling me?
If there are a ton of airports and airplanes that you NEVER use or ALMOST NEVER use, won't leaving them unchecked in Addons Linker make MSFS load much faster? If so, it would be important to point that out in the video.
i find it when i land into a airport when using this addon i get a touchdown stutter and approach stutters wich i find really annoying, dont know if its because its a hdd external usb drive?
Exactly, and this means that any new stuff that MS comes up with on future updates will go to the correct folder. Using Addon Linker you'de have to transfer these as and when surely?
But the beauty of doing it with Addons Linker is that you can selectively load only what you're planning on using during that session, which I think speeds up loading the sim. Addons Linker allows you to have unlimited Presets so that before launching the sim, you can have it load only the packages you'll use.
@@Buddy308 yes this is true with Addons but NOT with content originally in the official folders. On sim startup anything not linked will of course trigger the sim to re-download it. The only way around that is to have links to all relocated official content back to the original official location. This of course will not save on loaad times. Only links from addons will do this since the sim isnt dependent on them so wont re-download
@@chrisibbotson6367 Good point, I think. Are you saying that if, on loading, the program doesn't find JSON files for every single Asobo item that it will crash or malfunction? I just assumed that if those items were not in the official folder they'd simply not appear in the sim, but that the sim would function normally and behave as though they were not installed. However, that assumption may be incorrect. I'll move one of those Asobo folders to another folder temporarily and report on the effect. Thanks for the information!
MSFS Addon Linker is essentual for Addons but rather pointless for official content. You would need to link ALL files using the addon back to the official folder otherwise it will trigger a redownload since MSFS thinks files are missing. What then happens when there is an MSFS update? You need to go through the Official folder and re-move new stuff to the other drive. Why not just move your installation with a single click of a button? No need for MSFS Addon Linker for Official file relocation
Thank you so much for the video. I have a classic installation of MSFS. (C:UsersxxxxAppDataLocalPackagesMicrosoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbweLocalCachePackagesOfficialOneStore) Should in de Linker options the folders on the D-Drive have the same name and structure as on the C-Drive?
That's not necessary. Using Addons Linker for the Community folder, the path on my D: drive bears zero resemblance to the path of the official Community folder on C:. The names of those folders aren't even the same. That's why you put both complete paths in the Settings of Addons Linker -- i.e., it does not assume that the paths are identical except for the drive letter. In fact, it makes it less confusing in the long run to have them different, at least the name of folder in question.
I just installed the whole MSFS 2020 during initial installation to a 2TB drive and designated that drive solely for MSFS program and a few FS addon programs. Since Scenery and Aircraft programs tend to be high in space consumption, I put all those files solely into a 4TB drive and used the linker program to do its magic and connect everything. Everything works fine with NO issues at all.
Thanks! Really a must have! I have organized my add-ons in a very intuitive folder structure and can easily switch by that way f.e. between my helicopter setups or scenery by regions. To only activate the addons you actually use for your current flight or intention helps MSFS loading times and reduce conflicting. In addition addon linker can do a lot more...
As said a really must have
100% agree with this, a MUST HAVE for MSFS on PC, My MSFS is on M.2, Sim content/official packages on my SSD, and all my addons are on my HDD, so essentially my sim runs from 3 harddrives and it works like a charm!
That’s actually quite amazing!
@@IslandSimPilot yeah didnt think it was possible, so i tried it... and it didnt have a problem...but obviously one needs to be sure of the paths, but yeah it does work
Hi island, I have a doubt. If I move for example the pmdg 777, or any other aircraft, there are some files that go inside users folder, app data, roaming folders from the original hard drive. Is there any issue if I leave those files there and move the aircraft from community drive c to community drive d? I don’t know if I explained myself correctly.
Thanks for all you informative videos. I have had great success in using Addons Linker with moving the Community folder so I didn't expect to have any problems with moving the "Official" folder. I have the Steam version which uses the path "C:\MSFS\Official\Steam" and not the One Store folder on my M.2 C drive. I followed best I could your instructions to the T and successfully cut and pasted just one folder to my new destination drive, "G:\MSFS\Official\Steam" and the sim worked fine. So I cut and pasted all my airplanes and moved them, and the sim once again worked without problems. I was excited, and wanted to see how much disc space I had gained on my "C" drive only to find that now all the files I had moved were still there but now just showed a Shortcut symbol. It may be the Steam version, or something else. Right now I am trying to move all the folders and see if when I run the sim it created new shortcut versions of the files. I could really use some help. Thanks.
Hey, no, that’s exactly what you want! What addons linker does is replace the files you moved with that linked folder in the same location, so now your actual file is where you moved it, and there is now the link where it used to be. So now MSFS thinks the folder is still there. Does that make sense?
@@IslandSimPilot You mean when I click on the shortcut folders in my "C" drive and see all the files that would normally be there that what I am seeing are the files that now have been transferred to my "G" drive (which a RAID BTW)? Is that the way Addons Linker works? That makes sense seeing MSFS needs to be tricked into believing those files have not moved otherwise it would try to download the missing files.🤔 Just when I think I am understanding the technical aspect of computers something like this pops up. Thanks for the help. When I get home I will see how the sim "liked" what I did.
@@thomasvalley1183 Yes, that's absolutely correct, we're just tricking the sim into thinking the folders are still there. Let me know how it works!
@@IslandSimPilot It works like a charm. Thanks again for all your help. The only drawback I see in my setup is the loading of the sim is slower. No doubt because I am moving the files from my M.2 to my RAID drives, but on the plus side I have freed up almost 300 Gigs on my C drive. Now to add Bing maps and Frame Gen.
@@thomasvalley1183 Great to hear, and you're very welcome!
Fantastic addon, I use it on my pc and gaming laptop with a portable ssd for my add-ons to hot swap between the two so I can have all my add-ons with me when I go on exercises. Hook up my laptop to a TV and good to go.
I noticed in this video at 13:14 you mention having uninstalled Princess Juliana (TNCM) because you have the payware version. I presume TNCM is one of MSFS's hand-crafted airports. Do you recommend doing that for all MSFS's handcrafted airports if payware versions are installed?
I must be missing something, how do you keep MSFS from re-downloading the moved files on the next startup? Okay, I deleted the moved files in MSFS content but if I moved everything and MSFS updated them and other files that would be a PIA if I had to go thru everything to find the new and updated files? Am I wrong? Also. when I moved, for a test, all of the ASOBO 152 files I found the liveries would not activate in AOL?
I am going to guess that you would need to link ALL the official folders using Addon Linker. No ideal why IslandSimPilot is suggesting this method when you can move the entire sim install to another drive with the click of a button and save all this hastle. I agree Addon Linker is essential for addons but no need for the main content
Hi, with a few add-ons after ticking the ticking the check box the name remains red? This only happens with small scenary items like Typhoon jets. Could you let me know what this is telling me?
If there are a ton of airports and airplanes that you NEVER use or ALMOST NEVER use, won't leaving them unchecked in Addons Linker make MSFS load much faster? If so, it would be important to point that out in the video.
i find it when i land into a airport when using this addon i get a touchdown stutter and approach stutters wich i find really annoying, dont know if its because its a hdd external usb drive?
You could just use a symbolic link to your community folder location. Does the same thing.
Exactly, and this means that any new stuff that MS comes up with on future updates will go to the correct folder. Using Addon Linker you'de have to transfer these as and when surely?
But the beauty of doing it with Addons Linker is that you can selectively load only what you're planning on using during that session, which I think speeds up loading the sim. Addons Linker allows you to have unlimited Presets so that before launching the sim, you can have it load only the packages you'll use.
@@Buddy308 yes this is true with Addons but NOT with content originally in the official folders. On sim startup anything not linked will of course trigger the sim to re-download it. The only way around that is to have links to all relocated official content back to the original official location. This of course will not save on loaad times. Only links from addons will do this since the sim isnt dependent on them so wont re-download
@@chrisibbotson6367
Good point, I think. Are you saying that if, on loading, the program doesn't find JSON files for every single Asobo item that it will crash or malfunction? I just assumed that if those items were not in the official folder they'd simply not appear in the sim, but that the sim would function normally and behave as though they were not installed. However, that assumption may be incorrect. I'll move one of those Asobo folders to another folder temporarily and report on the effect. Thanks for the information!
@@chrisibbotson6367 Oh, wow, thanks for the correction and education.!
If my original addon drive is SSD(faster) and move addon to HDD(slower), will it impact the loading stuff?
Yes, the files on the HD will load into RAM slower.
Thank You.
You're welcome!
Sorry to bother you Sir,..any idea when the groupflights will continue?.....first time SU15 for all of us....
Hey Hans! Tomorrow, 5/29, at 2000Z for sure.
@IslandSimPilot Thanks Sir! See you tomorrow!
MSFS Addon Linker is essentual for Addons but rather pointless for official content. You would need to link ALL files using the addon back to the official folder otherwise it will trigger a redownload since MSFS thinks files are missing. What then happens when there is an MSFS update? You need to go through the Official folder and re-move new stuff to the other drive. Why not just move your installation with a single click of a button? No need for MSFS Addon Linker for Official file relocation
I did exactly that - moved all of the Official content to another drive.
Thank you so much for the video. I have a classic installation of MSFS. (C:UsersxxxxAppDataLocalPackagesMicrosoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbweLocalCachePackagesOfficialOneStore) Should in de Linker options the folders on the D-Drive have the same name and structure as on the C-Drive?
That's not necessary. Using Addons Linker for the Community folder, the path on my D: drive bears zero resemblance to the path of the official Community folder on C:. The names of those folders aren't even the same. That's why you put both complete paths in the Settings of Addons Linker -- i.e., it does not assume that the paths are identical except for the drive letter. In fact, it makes it less confusing in the long run to have them different, at least the name of folder in question.
@@Buddy308 Thank you!