Backing up your mod list and load order

From Nexus Mods Wiki
Revision as of 16:58, 12 September 2013 by Dark0ne (talk | contribs) (Overview)
Jump to: navigation, search

Overview

With the introduction of version 0.50.0 of NMM we've changed the installation method for mods installed via NMM as well as their unpacked location.

When upgrading to version 0.50.0 NMM needs to convert all your currently installed files to the new method. The conversion process uninstalls all your currently installed mods and then attempts to reinstall your mods one at a time. Script installers will have to be run again and you will be prompted for each script in turn. As we're as yet unsure how successful the conversion method will be we're recommending people backup their current NMM installations before attempting to upgrade. At no point do we remove your mod archives so the worst thing that can happen is the conversion process fails and you're left with an NMM that contains all your previously downloaded files but with none of them active or installed.

How to back up NMM

  1. Create a backup folder on your Desktop or somewhere on your hard-drive that has plenty of space
  2. Create the following folders inside your backup folder:
    1. Data
    2. ini
    3. Install Info
    4. Plugins
  3. Backup your game's Data folder (eg. C:\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Data for Skyrim) by copying (not moving) all the files and folders from the game's Data folder to your newly created Backup/Data folder (for games like Skyrim you can skip the default BSA files that the game installs in the data folder if you so wish)
  4. Go to your NMM folder for the game you're backing up (eg. C:\Nexus Mod Manager\Skyrim for Skyrim) and copy (not move) the content of this folder to your Backup\Install Info folder.
  5. Go to where your game's .ini files are located (eg. My Documents\My Games\Skyrim for Skyrim) and copy (not move) the Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini files in to your Backup\ini folder.
  6. Go to where your game's plugins.txt and loadorder.txt files are located (eg. C:\Users\{Your User Name}\AppData\Local\Skyrim for Skyrim). You might need to find this folder by using the address bar if you have not turned on hidden files in your computer settings. Copy (not move) the loadorder.txt and plugins.txt files to your Backup\Plugins folder you previously created.


Restoring NMM back to your backup settings

  1. Go to your the game's Data folder and copy the contents of your Backup\Data folder to it (overwriting if asked)
  2. Go to your NMM folder for that game, open the Install Info folder and delete everything that's in this folder. Then copy the contents of your Backup\Install Info folder in to it.
  3. While still in your NMM game's folder, go in to the Mods folder and delete the ModProfiles and VirtualModActivator folders if they exist.
  4. Go to where the .ini files are located and overwrite them with the ones from your backup in Backup\ini.
  5. Go to where the loadorder.txt and plugins.txt files are located and overwrite them with the ones from your Backup\Plugins folder.