Skyrim suddenly no longer loading .esm's?

[idle]

Hello,

 

all of a sudden (it worked the day before), my game no longer loads .esm's it seems. I get the message that "there is missing content" etc. and a list of .esm's. I can still load into a savegame, but mods no longer work. I veryfied everywhere I could that the .esm's are checked to load.

Anyone got an idea what could be causing this? Much appreciated, I don't wanna lose my current skyrim build I've spent tons of hours on.

 

 

EDIT:

 

Solved! The error came from me having too many inactive .esp's in my data folder. I didn't think inactive files would have any impact on skyrim, since they're...just there. Shoutout to donttouchmethere and all others who helped with suggestions!

Edited July 11, 2021 by idle

[Tron91]

Open your mod manager and fix your load order. Think somehow that file got deleted or corrupted.

 

I mean this file

 

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition\Plugins.txt

 

or

 

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Skyrim\Plugins.txt

Edited July 10, 2021 by Tron91

[Sgt. Marge]

Are you still using the correct file to load the game?  SKSE loader?

 

If you think the files are corrupted and are using steam, you could use Steams file verification but be aware if you are using an ENB you may need to reinstall that afterwards so maybe back your settings for enb up first.

[Heroine HoneyCrotch]

Unless you have mods through steam, I would clear dl cashe in Steam. If not sure how just Google. Never had ur problem so far from confident it will work for but won't hurt anything trying. Last time I used said technique my ck would not launch,tried xamount of times through MO and even with ck.exe and ck wouldn't launch, cleared cache and was golden. 

 

 

 

[Inquizit0r]

You might have more than 255 .esp + .esm files loaded, that is exactly the same message i got when i tried to load a save with more than 255 mods.

 

[Grey Cloud]

You might want to check that the files are actually where they should be, i.e. they are not missing.

[idle]

So here are some of the things I did:

 

-check the .esm's in NMM

-check the .esm's in plugins.txt

-check the .esm's in loadorder.txt

-check the .esm's in the skyrim launcher

-confirm existence of the .esm files in skyrim\data\

-check that there's fewer than 255 plugins in NMM

-clear steam download cache

 

Problem stays the same.

Edited July 10, 2021 by idle

[donttouchmethere]

1 hour ago, idle said:

-check that there's fewer than 255 plugins in NMM

There is another limit: about 500 deactivated esm/esp

Usually if you are over that limit your game wouldn't load any mods anymore and would start with the vanilla intro scene, instead of only failing to load only esm. Still you could check how many mods with deactivated esp/esm are installed.

 

 

Your game says "New Version available for download"

Never saw something like that. I would guess your issues start there.

Are you on LE or SE?

=> okay that's a message from your ENB I guess

 

Did you mix Steam workshop mods with LL/Nexus mods? Maybe Steam tries to update something.

 

 

If you accidentally started Skyrim via the Skyrim Launcher it can mess up your LO, check if the LO is still sorted in an useful way or just alphabetical (also all deactivated plugins might end at the end of your LO, sometimes they even get reactivated/deactivated (if you are below 255 plugins))

 

 

Edited July 10, 2021 by donttouchmethere

[donttouchmethere]

25 minutes ago, donttouchmethere said:

Your game says "New Version available for download"

Never saw something like that. I would guess your issues start there.

Are you on LE or SE?

oha, that seems to be from your ENB and is normal?

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1116190-need-help-just-what-new-version-avaliable-for-download/

 

 

The list of your deactivated esm is very small, are those all esm you have installed?

Edited July 10, 2021 by donttouchmethere

[phillout]

Quote

all of a sudden (it worked the day before), my game no longer loads .esm's it seems

 

Check your hardware. The drive might be giving you troubles.

 

It happens.

[Grey Cloud]

1 hour ago, donttouchmethere said:

oha, that seems to be from your ENB and is normal?

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1116190-need-help-just-what-new-version-avaliable-for-download/

 

 

The list of your deactivated esm is very small, are those all esm you have installed?

I'm not convinced. Those posts are from 2013/14. I've never seen a message like that from Boris and the version I use is a couple of years old.

 

2 hours ago, idle said:

So here are some of the things I did:

Fire up TESVEdit and see if it can read/see them.

[donttouchmethere]

44 minutes ago, Grey Cloud said:

I'm not convinced. Those posts are from 2013/14. I've never seen a message like that from Boris and the version I use is a couple of years old.

Was just the first I found with the Duck ?

I must admit I never ever saw that message, even while I played around with ENB ?‍♂️

 

(also I still find it odd that there are so few esm, maybe it's SE? If all my esm would fail to load the list would be (much) longer and at the end would be something like "more..." because the message box is too small ^^. Maybe something DLC specific is failing. )

 

The more I think about it.... maybe .... ?

 

...maybe something overwrote the skyrim.ini and the following lines are missing:

Spoiler

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa

 

 

And maybe like phillout said: something with the gears: if the HDD is nearly full and virtual memory can't be written anymore?

Edited July 10, 2021 by donttouchmethere

[donttouchmethere]

Oops, sehe ich ja jetzt erst, das MCM Menu ist auf Deutsch.

 

 

Noch ein Ansatz der vielleicht hift bezogen auf:

8 hours ago, idle said:

all of a sudden (it worked the day before), my game no longer loads .esm's it seems.

War da möglicherweise ein MS Windows update dazwischen?

Möglicherweise hilft das (zumindest hilft mit das mit Skyrim LE, passiert höchstens einmal alle 12 Monate):

Entweder MS Windows update hat Admin Rechte entfernt (lese/schreibe Rechte für NMM, FNIS usw...) oder Steam meckert das du solange schon nicht mehr online warst. (ich hoffe du hast Steam und Skyrim NICHT im Standard Programmdateien  Verzeichnis installiert)

• geh online mit Steam und such das Menü für deine Skyrim Installation und suche nach "reparieren", einmal Reparatur durchlaufen reicht, das Ding repariert immer wieder die gleichen Dateien
• starte einmal den vanilla Skyrim Launcher
  • Vorsicht das erzeugt eine neue skyrim.ini und skyrimpref.ini, also mach ein Backup falls du da viel drin rumgespielt hast
  • Check deine LO danach ob die Reihenfolge noch stimmt
  • Beth.ini laufen zu lassen danach kann auch hilfreich sein
• starte Skyrim und hoffe das alles wieder funzt! ?

 

=> Ich vermute das deine Skyrim Installation die 3 DLC nicht mehr findet und deswegen alle Mods die die DLC als Master haben ebenfalls nicht mehr geladen werden.

Edited July 10, 2021 by donttouchmethere

[idle]

14 hours ago, donttouchmethere said:

There is another limit: about 500 deactivated esm/esp

Usually if you are over that limit your game wouldn't load any mods anymore and would start with the vanilla intro scene, instead of only failing to load only esm. Still you could check how many mods with deactivated esp/esm are installed.

 

 

Your game says "New Version available for download"

Never saw something like that. I would guess your issues start there.

Are you on LE or SE?

=> okay that's a message from your ENB I guess

 

Did you mix Steam workshop mods with LL/Nexus mods? Maybe Steam tries to update something.

 

 

If you accidentally started Skyrim via the Skyrim Launcher it can mess up your LO, check if the LO is still sorted in an useful way or just alphabetical (also all deactivated plugins might end at the end of your LO, sometimes they even get reactivated/deactivated (if you are below 255 plugins))

 

 

Thank you, this was it!

I didn't know there's another hidden limitation to .esp/.esm's. I suspected many things, SSD failure among them or steam messing things up.

The "new version available for download" is normal and I think comes automatically, since I use an older ENB.

 

You saved my skyrim build, thanks a lot.

Edited July 11, 2021 by idle

[donttouchmethere]

16 minutes ago, idle said:

Thank you, this was it!

I didn't know there's another hidden limitation to .esp/.esm's. I suspected many things, SSD failure among them or steam messing things up.

The "new version available for download" is normal and I think comes automatically, since I use an older ENB.

 

You saved my skyrim build, thanks a lot.

Awesome! ?

 

@Grey Cloud pointed me at this limit a while ago.

Rescued my Setup a while ago ?

 

20 minutes ago, idle said:

The "new version available for download" is normal and I think comes automatically, since I use an older ENB.

Good to know.

[Grey Cloud]

1 hour ago, idle said:

The "new version available for download" is normal and I think comes automatically, since I use an older ENB.

How old and which ENB do you use? I'm using 366.7 with Bixie ENB and have never seen that message (not that I want to )

[idle]

31 minutes ago, Grey Cloud said:

How old and which ENB do you use? I'm using 366.7 with Bixie ENB and have never seen that message (not that I want to )

I'm using 0.236 dlls with an edited version of konan enb 5.04...so yeah quite old. IMO not much has changed/improved though in terms of screenshotting characters.

Edited July 11, 2021 by idle

[Grey Cloud]

2 hours ago, idle said:

I'm using 0.236 dlls with an edited version of konan enb 5.04...so yeah quite old. IMO not much has changed/improved though in terms of screenshotting characters.

Older than the oldest thing on Old Street in Oldtown. ?

[worik]

On 7/10/2021 at 9:40 PM, donttouchmethere said:

There is another limit: about 500 deactivated esm/esp

One reason more for MO since Skyrim won't ever see any deactivated left pane stuff

 

[Grey Cloud]

6 hours ago, worik said:

One reason more for MO since Skyrim won't ever see any deactivated left pane stuff

Maybe Skyrim is smarter than you think.

[worik]

6 hours ago, Grey Cloud said:

Maybe Skyrim is smarter than you think.