Connot find simulator

Karsten, you should NEVER!!! ever remove the folder manually - use always the app for this. When you can´t use the app for some reason, a workaround is to delete the content.xml file and re-start the sim, re-install the sim is not necessary and very, very time consuming :wink:

Cheers,
Richard

Gah… You should have told me that 5 minutes earlier. :wink:

Well that was the problem, since the app didn’t see the installation I thought my only option was to delete the folder manually. I guess the content.xml file pointed to the missing navigraph data, and that is why my sim showed no navdata?
Well… lesson learned. Maybe it will help with the problem of the app not detecting the sim in the first place, though.

Just to report:
Reinstalling MSFS, as long as it took, did not change a thing.
The Navigraph App still does not see the sim as being installed.

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I am having a similar issue, with 1.0.0-beta.14 it works fine and can find the simulator and update the Airac with no issues but when I install the new installer it can’t find any simulator.

This is installed by the MS Store and there is no other versions installed.

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Hi @Farlis and others

Please try out this pre-release version of the NNC which has code that should resolve all symbolic links:

Even with the latest version provided by @m4rkus I’m facing the same error as before (image below).

My MSFS is from Microsoft Store. I have the rights to the file UserCfg.opt.

I tried to install Navigraph as a normal user (just for me) and as an administrator. In both cases, the same error.

It worked fine for me up to beta 20. Since then, I can’t use Navigraph anymore.

Is it possible to provide a way to configure and select the location just as the regular Navigraph Data Manager?

@m4rkus
Unfortunately I get the same result as @daniloraisi.
No simulators detected.

@Farlis
Ok, I am leaning towards that this has nothing to do with symlinks then. I will prepare a special version for you and @daniloraisi that will output debug information from all critical parts of the simulator detection tomorrow and we will take it from there.

Kind regards,

Markus

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To anyone affected by the “Cannot find simulator” error:

Please install/run this special version of the Navigraph Navdata Center

In the program directory (which by default is %localappdata%/Programs/Navigraph Navdata Center/) you will find a file called log.txt. Please either post this file here or send it directly to me at markus.hamburger@navigraph.com.

Kind regards,

Markus

@m4rkus
Here you go.
log.txt (2.5 KB)

Looking at that log the program is looking in the totally wrong folder. Of course it won’t find anything in there.

How my filesystem is organized I wrote to you via e-mail on the 28th of May.

To find the symbolic links it is looking for it should look in
C:\Users(username)\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache

It’s looking in the wrong Appdata folder.

Hey @faris

I know how your filesystem is organized, but it looks like your Windows Registry does not agree on this :slight_smile:
When the app asks Windows about where the location of your Appdata/Roaming folder is, Windows responds with “F:\Appdata”. Windows keeps track of this using an entry in the Registry which seems to be outdated on your computer for reasons I cannot tell.

If you open regedit.exe and go to the path Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders you will most probably see that the AppData key is set to “F:\Appdata”. This key should be set to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming to reflect how your filesystem actually looks.

You should also check the key in the registry above @daniloraisi.
The NNC was actually hardcoded to use C:\Users\<username>\AppData at some point, but as we had bug reports from many users with exotic locations of their AppData folders this was changed into instead rely on the Windows Registry as is recommended.

Kind regards,

Markus

@m4rkus
The problem is that I can’t simply change that registry key. If I do that tons of stuff will cease to function properly. I can’t even access my explorer shortcut in the taskbar if I change the key away from F:\Appdata, Chrome doesn’t find my personal information any longer etc…

@Farlis

I am sorry to hear that and I know this is not want you want to hear, but there can only be one Appdata folder in Windows and the simulator should be installed into AppData/Local (or what %localappdata% is pointing to). This is not a bug in our application, but an non-standard configuration issue on your part that we are unable to support.

I would suggest that you revert to only use a single Appdata folder which corresponds with the registry , but I don’t have the knowledge to provide you with Windows support on how to revert your current situation in a foolproof way, sorry.

Kind regards,

Markus

Then why do all other installers that deal with MSFS on my system have absolutely no problem detecting where everything is?

I can only reiterate what others already have said: Give us the option to manually point the application to the appropriate folders.
You can’t have it both ways.

  1. Telling users that giving them this option would lead to support problems and therefore you won’t do it.
  2. Telling users that moving their appdata folder to a different location will lead to a non standard installation that you are unable to support.

I explained my reasons why I moved the appdata folder using the tools that windows actually gives me for this. I simply can’t move it back because I will run out of space on my system drive. (The Folder holds 4.17 GB of data and I have only 3.1 GB left on my C drive where it used to be.)

I fail to understand where the difficulty lies in providing the end-user with the option to pick the folders by hand, if the application fails to automatically detect them.

I usually don’t use the “paying customer” card, but I have a subscription for your services and I can expect a little flexibility from you when it comes to giving us options when the standard route fails.

Found here the problem.

For specific reasons, I moved my Roaming folder from C:\Users<username>\AppData to another drive.

After creating a symlink at this other folder pointing to C:\Users<username>\Appdata\Local it worked!

Thanks, @m4rkus!

Could you be a bit more specific?
I have only occasionally worked with symlinks directly.

You can put your AppData folder wherever you want, but it needs to be reflected in the registry. Your real AppData folder is in F:\Appdata which is why Chrome and Windows in general becomes instable when you point it to the “AppData” folder in your User-folder which is really just a normal folder which happens to be placed where the standard location of the AppData folder is. I perfectly understand your reasons for not having the Appdata folder on C:, but your simulator should have been installed into F:\Appdata and you would have no problems.

Just like Chrome and the tons of stuff you saw failing when redefining the location of Appdata, our application is dependent on that the registry containing correct values of where the AppData folder is located to function. Other applications might use the standard-location of AppData to find your simulator, it does not mean it works better for all users just because it works in your specific case. I can take responsibility for only our app, which is dependent on correct registry/appdata-folder for properly auto-updating the application, saving temporary files etc.

Letting users choose an AppData folder which is not the real AppData folder would lead to tons of failed installations, we simply just cannot do that.

Kind regards,

Markus

In your case, just open a Command Prompt as Administrator, navigate do F:\Appdata and run the following command:

Remember to replace <username> with yours.

mklink /D Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe

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That’s an interesting idea @daniloraisi it might do the trick :slight_smile:

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