Where Does Mod Organizer 2 Store Mods and Profiles?
Mod Organizer 2 portable versus global layouts, and why moving folders in Explorer breaks deploys.
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Mod Organizer 2 never touches the game folder: mods stage in mods/ per isolated folder and inject at runtime, while profiles/ holds modlist.txt, load order and per profile INI overrides. Portable installs keep this tree next to the exe; global installs keep it under %LOCALAPPDATA%\ModOrganizer\<Instance>.
Changing Paths in settings moves nothing by itself. Close MO2, move the folders by hand, repoint, and back up the profile first or order resets. The overwrite/ folder deserves regular attention: tools dump runtime files there that would have landed in Data, and cruft accumulates silently.
Where Mod Organizer 2 stores this, by platform
<MO2-Install>\profiles\<ProfileName>\
Portable layout beside the exe (force with portable.txt): mods/, downloads/, overwrite/, profiles/ with modlist.txt, loadorder.txt and game INIs. Global layout mirrors under %LOCALAPPDATA%\ModOrganizer\<Instance>. Only the ini pointer, logs and dumps must stay in AppData.
Frequently asked questions
How do I move Mod Organizer 2 mod storage to another drive?
Close MO2 completely, move the folders in Explorer, then repoint Settings, Paths (Base Directory). Moving while open or changing the pointer first resets mod and load order.
What is the overwrite folder in Mod Organizer 2?
Files tools wrote at runtime that would have gone to the game Data folder. Review it after tool runs, drag keepers into proper mods, and clear the rest so it never bloats.
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