Fixing an Accidental Skyrim Update (Steam) An infernalryan Skyrim Modding Guide
Overview This guide will provide instructions on how to properly re-downgrade your Skyrim SSE/AE installation in the event you accidentally update it through the Steam launcher.
This guide is for Skyrim SSE/AE for Steam. For the GOG version of this guide, click here. Skyrim VR also does not need this process as there is only one game version used by the general playerbase and no future updates are expected.
This guide is intended to get you back up and running as quickly as possible, however, I recommend reviewing my complete Skyrim Initial Setup guide for SSE/AE which contains other useful information which may also apply to your current setup and help provide better compatibility with other mods. Some of the techniques in that guide can be applied to existing save games without breaking anything.
Guide Contents:
Preface including tips on reverting any steps taken in an attempt to fix things
Download your previous version (i.e. "Downgrade")
Install previous version and prevent the game from updating (again)
Run the game and verify SKSE is running
Further reading including compatibility notes and other helpful information
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SPECIAL NOTE – In this guide, there are several references to your '<Skyrim game folder>' as well as your Skyrim '/Data' folder. These folders refer to your specific Skyrim VR installation folder and its /Data folder inside. For example, if you install Skyrim VR into the C:\Games\Steam folder, your <Skyrim game folder> would refer to C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim, and the /Data folder would refer to C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\Data.
1 Preface This guide assumes that you have simply performed an accidental update and are no longer able to launch Skyrim due to SKSE (and other) errors when launching. Skip to section 2 if you have NOT attempted to fix this prior to reading this guide, otherwise keep reading.
1.1 Revert attempted fixes If you have made attempts to manually correct this following the game update by installing and/or updating mods in your load order (to try and get the load order to "work" with the new version), you will (unfortunately) have to revert those changes. There is no possible way for me to cover all possible scenarios, but you will need to resolve all of these issues before proceeding. See below for some tips.
At minimum, you will need to ensure your previous version of SKSE is downloaded and installed. This is what we use to determine your former Skyrim game version if you do not know what it is.
Nexus shows you which files you have downloaded along with their last download date on each mod's respective files page. You can use this to help you find previous versions you may have downloaded and installed prior to the update.
For MO2 users, in the main mod list, you can enable the 'Installation' column. This column shows you the date that you performed the installation of a given mod. If this is not shown (which it is not by default), right-click one of the other column headers (such as 'Mod Name'), and select it from the list. Now you can click the 'Installation' column header to sort all mods by their installation date which can help you determine which mods you may have updated since your game stopped working. NOTE - don't panic if your mod list is no longer in the proper order. Sorting by the 'Priority' column will re-sort your mod list back to normal (lower numbers first).
For Vortex users, in the main mod list (under the 'Mods' tab), you can enable both the 'Installation Time' and 'Enabled Time' columns. These will show you this information for each mod. If these are not shown (which they are not by default), click the 'gear' icon in the top right of the mod list and select these options. Now you can click either of these column headers to sort all mods by these values, which can help you determine which mods you may have updated since your game stopped working.
2 Download previous version (i.e. "Downgrade") The most straightforward way to ensure you are downgrading back to the version you came from is by performing this manually. While there are automatic downgrade patchers available, these aren't really the right fit for this process. I also don't really recommend these in general as they may periodically require updates, and sometimes break, cause in-game crashes, etc.. The manual process for this is not difficult, and will likely never change, so that is the method I am posting here.
2.1 Determine version Skip to section 2.2 if you already know your previous version number, otherwise, follow the instructions below to determine this. The absolute easiest way to do this if you do not remember is by checking your version of SKSE. This is verified differently depending on the Mod Manager chosen and/or whether Root Builder is installed (for MO2 users). Follow only one of the two options below based on your specific setup (open their respective 'Spoiler' tag).
2.1.1 Option 1: Mod Organizer 2 with Root Builder
Spoiler:
Show
Double-click the SKSE mod in the MO2 mod list on the left side of the main MO2 window and ensure the 'Filetree' tab is selected.
Open the ' root' folder.
Your version is within the filename of the ' skse64_x_x_xxxx.dll' file. For example, if you were running version 1.5.97, your filename would be called ' skse64_1_5_97.dll'.
You can now close this folder.
2.1.2 Option 2: Everyone else
Spoiler:
Show
If using Vortex, be sure to deploy mods first.
Open your <Skyrim game folder>.
Your version is within the filename of the ' skse64_x_x_xxxx.dll' file. For example, if you were running version 1.5.97, your filename would be called ' skse64_1_5_97.dll'.
NOTE – If you have MORE THAN ONE ' skse64_x_x_xxxx.dll' file, you didn't remove a previous version before installing a new one, so you will have to perform additional steps. Skip to section 3 if this does not apply to you, otherwise proceed.
To determine the version when you have more than one .dll file you will need to cross-reference the ' skse64_loader.exe' file version with the SKSE mod site.
Right-click the ' skse64_loader.exe' file in Explorer and select 'Properties'.
Click the 'Details' tab and refer to the 'File version' field.
You can now close this folder.
Head to the SKSE files page on Nexus and review the 'version' column of all the files until you see the version from the ' skse64_loader.exe' file.
Expand the entry by clicking the down arrow, and get the Skyrim game version from the file description.
You're done!
2.2 Download files Files for previous versions are downloaded via the Steam console, not through the Steam front end like the current version of the game. This process is outlined below.
2.2.1 Open Steam console
Enter the following in your browser (or Windows Run box with Win+R) to open the Steam Console: steam://nav/console
If opened in a browser and prompted to open the Steam Client Bootstrapper, click the 'Open Steam Client Bootstrapper' button.
Refer to the version list below for complete commands for each respective version.
Run each command wait for it to fully complete before running the next!
Spoiler:
Show
You will know it has completed when you see the text that says (example): 'Depot download complete : "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\content\app_489830\depot_489831" (1 files, manifest 2289561010626853674)'
2.2.1.1 Version 1.5.97 commands Run the following in the Steam console if you were using this version.
download_depot 489830 489831 7848722008564294070
download_depot 489830 489832 8702665189575304780
download_depot 489830 489833 2289561010626853674
2.2.1.2 Version 1.6.640 commands Run the following in the Steam console if you were using this version.
download_depot 489830 489831 3660787314279169352
download_depot 489830 489832 2756691988703496654
download_depot 489830 489833 5291801952219815735
2.2.1.3 Version 1.6.1130 commands Run the following in the Steam console if you were using this version.
download_depot 489830 489831 3737743381894105176
download_depot 489830 489832 4341968404481569190
download_depot 489830 489833 2442187225363891157
2.2.1.4 Version 1.6.1170 commands Run the following in the Steam console if you were using this version.
download_depot 489830 489831 1914580699073641964
download_depot 489830 489832 8042843504692938467
download_depot 489830 489833 5291801952219815735
2.2.1.5 Other versions / languages The above versions represent the most common and/or recent releases (at the time of writing this guide) which are the most likely to have been accidentally updated. If your version is not listed, your commands can be found in my complete Skyrim Manifest List. I have all versions including instructions on determining an unlisted version (in the event the guide hasn't been updated with a future Skyrim version) there. Download your required version using the respective commands in the list and come back here.
3 Install preferred version Now that we've got the version of Skyrim downloaded that we want, we need to clean up the game folder and move these files over. Instructions are below.
3.1 Delete existing Skyrim game files The first step is to remove all relevant stock game files from the main game folder. This is because that version is still the current version, and we need to replace it with our previous version.
If using Vortex, be sure to purge mods to remove managed files from your game folder, then close Vortex.
Open the main <Skyrim game folder>.
Refer to my Skyrim Game Files List and remove ALL files which pertain to the current version of your game (not the version you are downgrading back to).
Be sure to also delete all files for your version highlighted in purple (if applicable).
Do not remove any Anniversary Upgrade files.
You are done!
3.2 Perform (manual) install Next we will move the files we downloaded to the main game folder.
Refer to the Skyrim Console to locate where your depots from above have been downloaded to. By default this is:
Open this folder. There should be at least 3 folders inside it:
depot_489831
depot_489832
depot_489833
Open each of the 'depot_xxxxxx' folders above and MOVE the files and folders inside here into the main <Skyrim game folder>.
Once all files have been moved, delete the 'depot_xxxxxx' folders.
When completed, if you are currently managing Creation Club files as a separate mod in your Mod Manager, delete the following files in your Skyrim /Data folder:
ccBGSSSE001-Fish.bsa
ccBGSSSE001-Fish.esm
ccBGSSSE025-AdvDSGS.bsa
ccBGSSSE025-AdvDSGS.esm
ccBGSSSE037-Curios.bsa
ccBGSSSE037-Curios.esl
ccQDRSSE001-SurvivalMode.bsa
ccQDRSSE001-SurvivalMode.esl
3.3 Prevent the game from updating (again) Before you attempt to launch the game, you need to lock the Skyrim manifest file so that the game can not update in Steam under any circumstances (otherwise all of this work will have been for nothing). This is done by making the file read-only.
Open the 'steamapps' folder in the base Steam location you installed Skyrim to. For example, if this was 'C:\Games\Steam', open 'C:\Games\Steam\steamapps'.
Locate the 'appmanifest_489830.acf' file.
Right-click the file and select 'Properties'.
Under the 'General' tab, place a checkmark in the 'Read-only' box.
Click the 'OK' button to save.
3.4 Reopen Vortex (Vortex only) Skip to section 4 if you are not running Vortex, otherwise, proceed.
Spoiler:
Show
Open Vortex.
Since we have updated files outside of the program, the following prompt may appear indicating specific file(s) that have been added and/or removed:
You can safely ignore this message. Click 'Apply Changes'.
4 Run the game! After all of this prep work, you're finally ready to test launching the game from your Mod Manager. We will launch the game and verify SKSE is working.
4.1 Launch Skyrim Be sure to launch the game from your Mod Manager. Follow only one of the two options based on your Mod Manager of choice (open their respective 'Spoiler' tag).
4.1.1 Option 1: Vortex
Spoiler:
Show
Open Vortex if it is not already open.
Deploy mods.
Launch the game via the 'play' button icon in the main SSE graphic at the top of the Vortex Application.
Skip to section 4.2 when done.
4.1.2 Option 2: Mod Organizer 2
Spoiler:
Show
Open MO2 if it is not already open.
Select the SKSE executable from the executables dropdown list. Example:
Click the 'Run' button.
4.2 Verify SKSE is running Skip to section 5.1 if your game is still not launching, otherwise, once in the game, you will need to make sure SKSE is loaded properly. If it is not, you will need to revisit the steps above to ensure you are launching with the SKSE launcher. Follow the steps below.
At the Skyrim main menu (or in-game if you've started or loaded a game), press the tilde ('~') key to open the console – This key is typically directly to the left of the '1' key, although this may be missing on custom/small form-factor keyboards and accessible only with a function key combination – See your specific keyboard documentation for more info).
With the console open, type 'getskseversion' (without quotes) and press <Enter>.
This should show the SKSE version number if you've done everything correctly up to this point.
NOTE - REMEMBER THIS VERSION OF SKSE! While this should be visible in your Mod Manager (under the 'Version' column), this is the version which may be referred to by other mods when noting their compatibility (example, "Compatible with SKSE 2.0.20"). You don't have to commit this to memory, just remember where to find it before grabbing additional mods which require SKSE to prevent crashes.
Exit the console by pressing the tilde ('~') key again, and quit Skyrim. If you are stuck in the opening carriage ride (and cannot open the main menu), you can open the console again and type 'qqq' (without quotes) and press <Enter> to exit the game.
Your Skyrim installation should now be repaired
5 Further reading See below for some last minute information and recommendations.
5.1 Still not launching? If the game fails to launch or otherwise crashes when loading, it is likely because all files and mods have still not been reverted back to their pre-updated version if you previously attempted to make your load order "work" with the new Skyrim game version. Please revisit section 1.1 if this applies to you. In a worst case scenario, if you feel the damage is too great to undo (it happens), I recommend reviewing my Skyrim Initial Setup guide for SSE/AE to start from scratch and ensure you are on the right track from the start.
5.2 Compatibility and troubleshooting I have created a separate guide on compatibility and troubleshooting which covers many topics to help you prevent, identify, and fix common problems. I recommend reading this at some point to gain a better understanding of possible issues you may encounter through the course of your playthrough.
5.3 Other Guides See my guides page on Nexus for other helpful Skyrim modding guides.
5.4 Changelog See below for changes made to this document.
Version 1.12.1 (04/25/2024)
Added section 3.4 for Vortex users
Added steps for Creation Club files
Updated section for deleting existing game files to refer to my Skyrim stock game files list
Other minor corrections and formatting changes
Version 1.6.6 (04/04/2024)
Slightly increased default font size for article readability
Other minor corrections and formatting changes
Added changelog
Version 1.3 (03/14/2024)
Initial release
Please leave a comment with any issues or suggestions!
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