Fixing an Accidental Skyrim Update (GOG) 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 GOG. For the Steam 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 GOG 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
Determine version before re-downgrading
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 Determine version Skip to section 3 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 (expand their respective 'Spoiler' tag).
2.1 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.
2.2 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!
3 Install previous version Now that we've determined the version of Skyrim that we want, we need to clean up the game folder and then redownload the files. 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 Download and install files and prevent updates The Skyrim game version is selected from the installation configuration menu within GOG. This process is outlined below.
In GOG Galaxy, select your Skyrim game.
From the 'More' menu (next to 'Play'), select 'Manage installation > Configure…'.
On the dialog that opens, under the 'Installation' tab, be sure 'Automatically update to newest version' checkbox is unchecked, and select your previous version. You may have to click the 'Show more versions' text to expand the list.
0.1.3905696 refers to version 1.6.1179
0.0.3895161 refers to version 1.6.1170 (but this is erroneous, if you were using this version, your SKSE version would probably mismatch and you should update to 1.6.1179 instead)
Click 'OK'.
Wait for the game to complete downloading files, it will show an 'Updating X%' indicator in the top of the window. Hovering over this will show the status.
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 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 (expand 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 (04/25/2024)
Initial release
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