PSA 8.1 New folder structure

Preliminary heads up ahead of 8.1’s release : The folder structure will be changing once 8.1 goes live. Once 8.1 is live and your client is updated , You will have one Data folder shared over your retail , PTR and beta installs.

Your wow folder will look like this -

_retail_ (folder)
Data (folder)
.build.info (file)
World of Warcraft Launcher.exe (program)`

All the existing folders (eg Screenshots , WTF , Errors , Logs , Cache etc etc) will be moved into _retail_  All executable programs like Wow,exe or BlizzardError.exe and the DLLs will also be moved into _retail_

Addons should work fine after the migration as the client will now be looking in the new path and the Interface folder should be moved over fine

If you have the PTR installed all it’s stuff will be under a _ptr_ (folder) . I would expect beta to be under _beta_ (folder)

Existing support articles should be updated with this new information

8 Likes

also - this is the folder structure that is currently being used on the PTR except on the PTR it’s in a _ptr_ folder instead of a _retail_ folder.

So for addon updater clients EG Twitch … they should of seen this coming and have a code base update ready to go once 8.1 goes Live.

Just in case they don’t - please feel free to share this post in the apporiate areas for each addon updater client (eg put a ticket in with the Twitch team. I would but I’m about to get ready to head out of town for a few days so don’t really have the time it needs.

1 Like

Ok, does this mean there will be a new folder layer inside the current retail install that contains the version specific stuff in new folder? I’m just a little fuzzy here sorry.

New installs will be this?
C:\Program Files(x86)_retail_ - only that version specific stuff will be there and the rest like addons and stuff is shared?

For those of us without room for multiple complete installs (retail, PTR), how will this impact us? I keep retail on an SSD, but the PTR on another drive.

1 Like

C:\Program Files(x86)\World of Warcraft\ _ retail _. Even old installs will have their folders moved (copied) to the new structure, this happened with the PTR.

Only DATA is shared. Interface, WTF, Screenshots, logs, Cache etc. all have seperate folders under their _ xxx _ folder.

1 Like

AFAIK it’ll probably ignore the PTR copy on the other drive in favour of installing a PTR specific folder on your SSD. This PTR specific folder won’t have any of the large Data files , just the stuff that normally loves outside the Data folder.

Going forward I would expect that if you do have the PTR installed then future installs of the PTR would only download the Data specific to that PTR. Currently downloading the PTR or Beta means you essentially need to recreate your live wow folder + tack on whatever data is needed for that PTR or Beta.

Once 8.1 goes live both live retail and the PTR should be at the same version so your Data folder will grow but not by much (maybe 300-500 MB estimate)

1 Like

i have just received the new update and now i am unable to log into the game !
it keeps saying : “An updated version of World of Warcraft is available. Please launch the Battle .net app to download the update.”
the battlenet app is open without any updating or patch 8.1 ( the files changed).
i tried reopening the app and restarting computer and still same problem and then the app pop up a new message saying “this folder does not contain the correct version of this game. Please check the installation path and check again.”
the update/installation path is : C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft
please help !

If you’re running the Twitch Client exit completely and when you restart it should have the updated folder structure.

I completely rebooted and Twitch still can’t find my addons. My main install is in G:\games\wow but it thinks my install is in G:\games\wow\64bit-client. There’s an empty interface\addons directory in that subdirectory. All my addons are actually in G:\games\wow_retail_\interface\addons.

Fixed. I rescanned for game folders. It lists a bunch of WoW folders from old backups and I found the retail one way down at the end, listed as “World of Warcraft 10”. Selecting that one displayed all my addons.

You can go into the Twitch config and tell it not to manage the others, that’ll trim the list.

Any idea how to install a fresh ptr version into the same folder as the retail version?
It still tries to install into C:\Program Files(x86)\World of Warcraft Public Test.

Not until they update the installers or the BDA. You can try changing the install path to one inside a _ptr_ folder in the wow folder but it’s still going to install into a World of Warcraft Public Test folder within that _ptr_ folder.

That World of Warcraft Public Test folder will still have it’s own Data folder within the _ptr_ folder negating the entire purpose of having it in the World of Warcraft folder.

We’ll need to either wait for the 8.1.5 PTR or an updated for the BDA to be pushed out (or a new 8.1 PTR installer)

Thx for your input. I wasn’t sure if it’s supposed to work already. I’ll wait then and keep them installed in different folders for the time being.

OK I’ve installed manually all my addons (GTFO, DBM, TomTom, etc.) without issue.
Today I go to install a new addon and put it under retail/interface/addons/ and start up the game (done it three times now) and NOTHING.
Is manually doing addons no longer working? The addon was updated three days ago and on the curse page it says it’s for 8.1 so it’s not out of date.
Any ideas?

If by nothing you mean the addon doesn’t show up in the lising under the Addons button at the character select screen then that means the addon has not been installed correctly (manually or otherwise).

To show up in the list an “addon” only needs two things.

A folder that sits directly under the WoW/_retail_/Interface/AddOns folder

A file directly under that addon folder with the same name as the folder and an extension of .TOC.

The .toc file doesn’t need to contain anything (it will show up as Incompatible in the list if empty).

Edit: 3 things. It needs to be installed while you are completely out of the game. New folders/files are only detected when the game starts up.

PROBLEM SOLVED !!
Thanks Fizzlemizz, what you pointed out and I just learned is all other add ons I’ve installed the .TOC life name was the same as the file folder name given to me by the developer. (i.e. GTFO file folder name and .TOC name are the same)
In this case UndermineJournal is the file folder name but the .TOC file name is “TheUndermineJournal” and until I named the file folder in …/…/addons/TheUndermineJournal the addon didn’t show up. Once I changed the name of the folder under /…/…/addons to TheUndermineJournal THEN it showed up.

1 Like

Hello,

I have all my newly downloaded addons in my “D:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft_retail_\Interface/AddOns” folder, but they are still not registering in-game.

I’m on a Mac computer, and I’m running version 8.1.0.28833, and my folder structure has not been changed. As such - addons when I put new ones in there, are not registering. Do I change the folder structure myself? There is no retail folder anywhere, or any of the folders mentioned. I have a BETA installation, but that’s on another hard disk. There is only one main installation.

With the formatting here, I mean to say (underscore)retail(underscore) - guess it didn’t like that.