Add-on keeps reinstalling itself (PS5)

spartaxoxo

There's an addon that I tried out and liked at first but ultimately decided wasn't for me. I uninstalled it and that was that until Update 47. Now it keeps reinstalling itself every time I uninstall it and I don't know why.

DenverRalphy

A couple of players reported that removing any Bookmarks you have at https://mods.bethesda.net/en/elderscrollsonline/all
fixed that issue for them.

Login there and go to the Bookmarks tab and see if you have anything there.

As per https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/682726/bethesda-net-add-on-settings-overwriting-console-add-ons#latest

spartaxoxo

Thanks for the information. I can't see my bookmarks but searching up the offending add-on showed that I was indeed subscribed.

fizl101

Library is the place to check, they will keep re-installing if they are in your library.

DenverRalphy

Add to this.. addons are automatically updating as well. I thought something was strange when I was expecting to update an addon yesterday, and thought my recollection was off when it was already at the latest version. Today I went to Browse Addons first thing before logging in my first char and sure enough, one of my addons was automatically updating itself.

While some might see that as a nice feature, I view it as something that should require confirmation from me.

raystormusa

For each installed Add-On, you can toggle on “Ignore Updates”, under the Browse Add-Ons menu, either in “Browse All Add-Ons” or “Installed Add-Ons”.

Select the add-on, then choose the 3rd option from the top.

Unfortunately there isn’t a toggle-for-all option. It has to be done one-by-one.

DenverRalphy

raystormusa wrote: »

For each installed Add-On, you can toggle on “Ignore Updates”, under the Browse Add-Ons menu, either in “Browse All Add-Ons” or “Installed Add-Ons”.

Select the add-on, then choose the 3rd option from the top.

Unfortunately there isn’t a toggle-for-all option. It has to be done one-by-one.

Yeah I saw that. I thought that was to disable to the nag/warning you received while browsing the addons. Nothing should ever automatically update without express consent.

raystormusa

So this pertains to players with multiple accounts on console (PS5 for me).

Not much of an issue with single account players - as described by others above, ensure to login and remove all Add-Ons from the Library tab on the ESO mods.bethesda.net webpage. Ive done this on my main account, and its mostly fixed except for a persistent AutoInteract and some libraries that refuse to stay uninstalled. No matter, libs I will keep and AutoInteract I can disable.

For my alt accounts, I never made any account for them on mods.bethesda.net. The auto-install happens on every one of them, its been a frustrating tedious loop of uninstall and auto-install of 20+ add-ons. Out of curiosity I made an account on mods.bethesda.net for one of them to see if they had any entries in the Library tab. There were none (zero, 0). So the instruction to auto-install deleted mods must have come from somewhere else. I had already cleared cache on PS5, and deleted the 100MB new local save file, so this instruction I can only assume comes from ZOS’ cloud save of our game option settings - which we know has been gradually expanded over time (most noticeable “Effects Volume” as I always changed this after every Save File delete and now my preferred setting - 3 slider clicks from left - is pre-loaded fresh off a Save delete).

For these to properly uninstall and stop auto-installing, these steps worked.

1. Delete local console save file (3.15 MB old U46 version, 108.1 MB new U47 version).
2. Start game, navigate screens until Select Character menu.
3. Enter Options, Add-Ons, Browse Add-Ons, accept EULA, and wait about 15 secs on the Browse All Add-Ons menu, which should have no Add-Ons installed. After 15 secs, the game “phones home”, auto-install begins, without any user input.
4. Allow the installation to run its course. Do not enter or close the game until all auto-installed Add-Ons have finished their thing and there are no more spinning Ouroboros circles.
5. Close the game.
6. Restart the game.
7. Navigate to Select Character menu, enter Options, enter Browse Add-Ons, go to Installed Add-Ons. Wait 15 secs, if more Add-Ons start auto-installing, go back to Step 4. If not, go to next Step 8.
8. From Installed Add-Ons, uninstall all Add-Ons one by one. Begin with non-libs, then libs. This avoids a looping re-auto-install of missing libraries for any Add-Ons with lib dependencies.
9. Wait another 15 secs. Verify if further auto-install is happening. If yes, go to Step 4. If no, next Step 10.
10. (Finally!) Select character and enter the 3D game environment.
11. Again verify in Browse Add-ons if further auto-install is happening. If yes, go to Step 4. If no, next Step 12.
12. Edit Options settings to your preference. Force-trigger auto-save with enter-exit any Options sub-menu twice (2 times spinning Ouroboros circles seen). Close game when done.

At Step 12, if all goes well, the Options settings and Add-On state is “clean”.

* Add-Ons, Manage My Add-Ons should read “No add-ons are installled”.
* Add-Ons, Browse Add-Ons, Installed Add-Ons should read “No results found”.
* No auto-install should be happening.

This entire procedure is done to arrive at this result :
* avoid any hidden corruption of the local console save file from problematic Add-Ons.
* (my assumption) upload to servers the state of zero Add-Ons to stop further auto-installs.

Yes, “hidden corruption”, as many have already described settings not saving properly even though we no longer see a Save Error message. I strongly believe the Save Error still exists, with the U47 change being in hiding this message entirely aka sweep it under the carpet. This is not helpful, as I must now assume the worst in all cases, that any Add-On can trigger the (now hidden) Save Error, and the Save File is indeed corrupted if settings do not hold.

spartaxoxo

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_CouchTato @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

raystormusa

My PS5 has arrived at the state where -
Account A: persists to auto-install AutoInteract and 5 other libraries. No way to fix, despite repeated attempts to uninstall all add-ons. I can manage this, no problem.
Account B: no add-ons installed, no auto-installs.
Account C: no add-ons installed, no auto-installs.
All accounts have accepted the Add-On EULA.

In tests, I have observed Add-On installations behaving differently from the last update (U46).

In U46, one install of any Add-On applies it across all accounts on the same console. There is no need to install new copies of the same Add-On for each account. All accounts can ‘see’ the Add-On regardless of which account installed, or uninstalled it (in which case one uninstall applies across for the entire console).

In U47, each install of any Add-On is treated independently per account. Using the example of 3 accounts, switching between A, B and C :

Case 1: A to B to A
* A has LazyWrit installed and running,
* B has MiniMap installed, but not LazyWrit. Upon logging into character, Minimap is active, but LazyWrit is not visible, and appears to have auto-uninstalled.
* Going back to A, auto-install immediately begins for LazyWrit, Minimap is not active and appears to be auto-uninstalled.

Case 2: A to B to C to A
* A has LazyWrit installed and running.
* B has LazyWrit installed and running.
* C has nothing installed, upon logging into character, there are no add-ons active or installed.
* Going back to A, auto-install begins immediately for LazyWrit as logging into C seems to have auto-uninstalled all add-ons across the entire console.

The takeaway: to avoid re-auto-installing add-ons repeatedly after switching accounts, all accounts must firstly install the exact same set of add-ons. This must be done for every account, and mis-matched add-ons on any account will make them candidates for immediate auto-install or auto-removal. Even if you do not intend to use the entire set on every account, they need to be individually installed, and simply DISABLED if not in use.

An alternative - with the non-acceptance of the Add-On EULA coming into play. If an account has no need of add-ons, that account may simply decline the Add-On EULA. Doing so prevents that account from overriding (and auto-uninstalling) any Add-Ons installed by other accounts. It can run without, and when returning to an account with Add-Ons, the pre-existing Add-Ons remain intact and will not enter a re-install phase.