OrdinaryPilot

Yes, I am 100% sure. Their privacy policies even state that they can decrypt and scan your content on their platforms/software for anything the U.S. and European governments deem illegal, or which goes against their own terms of service, to comply with legal requirements. In order to do this, they are constantly monitoring everything you write or do on said platforms, even if you used their encryption protocols (which they have the key to). Software like this is basically an extension of the NSA and FBI, who tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Meta, etc. are known to openly work with. In order to circumvent the Fourth Amendment (protection against unreasonable searches and seizures), government agencies like them kindly request the data from these corporations, who hand it over willingly, which they can do because they don't operate under the same legal framework as the federal government and you practically signed away your rights unknowingly when downloading or using their products, per their terms and conditions (which nobody bothers to read). None of this is a secret. You can find out for yourself by reading their privacy policies and transparency reports, listening to public statements by these agencies and congressional hearings, and looking at news coverage and research on this matter, as well as statements by whistleblowers and document leaks by organizations such as WikiLeaks, which have demonstrated how programs such as PRISM help the NSA collect data from major tech companies. You can also read about legal frameworks such as the third-party doctrine, which lays the groundwork for government access to user data through tech companies. And if a company refuses to comply, they are met with massive repercussions - just look at the CEO of Telegram, who got arrested by French authorities using dodgy accusations just so they could force him to reveal user data to them.

Yes, that's my main gripe with it. I can't stand the fact that it won't even let me access the settings to stop backing up my things onto OneDrive automatically against my will. The option is there, but it's literally greyed out and won't let me click on it. And because of OneDrive I can't move any of those folders to, say, another drive (which I need to, as I can't put all my mods on my C:\ drive due to space limitations) without getting an error message every time, since OneDrive completely takes over your system, hijacking the file directories. I've tried countless online suggestions and none of them worked. The only thing that somewhat solved the issue is to just delete the system Documents, Pictures, and Videos folders altogether and use registry editor to reference the new folders I created in my other drive for those systems folders... which is an INSANE amount of effort to go through. Even if I did have enough space on my C:\ drive it would then prompt me to buy more OneDrive storage (since we're talking about hundreds of GBs worth of mods), because apparently saving files on your PC doesn't actually save them in your physical hard drive anymore but directly on OneDrive instead (meaning that if you delete a folder/file on OneDrive, it permanently deletes it on your PC). It's quite nefarious that Microsoft forces their Windows PCs to use this sh1tty software of theirs, with almost no way of removing it, so that they can then turn around and charge you for saving files onto your PC.. and there's even a name for it in cybersecurity circles: RANSOMWARE. ...and that's without even getting into the huge privacy concerns this entails, since they're known to scan and decrypt user content on OneDrive, Outlook, Recall, CoPilot, and more. Microsoft is a really scummy corporation (not really a surprise).

Not sure if you realized, but OneDrive has hijacked my entire system, making your approach literally impossible because it wouldn't let me move it via the Location tab and every bloody time I tried to unsync, unlink, and uninstall OneDrive from my PC it would return on its own. It's LITERAL spyware/ransomware.

I tried sending you a normal PM with no attachments and the issue persists. It seems that you are somehow unable to receive messages altogether.

Nope. I used RegEdit to change the system path to my new folder on my external drive. It works like a charm now. But like I've already said repeatedly, this only solved the issue of the game not recognizing my folder. My main issue regarding my mission file not loading continues to persist, which is unrelated.

I just tried, but it says you cannot receive messages for some reason

I haven't moved anything. I straight-up deleted my Documents folder. Then I made a folder called "Users" in the drive I had originally wanted to move it to and made another folder within the new Users folder I just created with my username. Then within the username folder, I created another folder called "Documents" and inside of this new Documents folder I made another folder called "My Games" (instead of Saved Games), and within this folder I placed the DCS folder that I had in my Saved Games folder on my external hard drive (which the game wasn't recognizing for some stupid reason) that contained all of the mods and missions. After that, I started up DCS again and tried creating a new mission on the Marianas map from scratch just to check if the modded units are finally showing up in the dropdown menu again, which they were now. Then I tried loading the mission file that I had worked years on and it would get stuck in the loading screen (see the screenshot and log file in my last comment). So, whilst this approach fixed the issue of modded units not showing up in the mission editor *whatsoever* (as in, not even showing up in the dropdown menu), it did not fix the issue I was having regarding my mission file not loading. Like I mentioned, I spent two *years* working on that mission and it's still not loading in. I hope someone can help me solve this.

I didn't move it. Well, not when you asked me.. but I actually *just* managed to solve that issue right now and get modded units to show up again by deleting the Documents folder in C:\ and making new folders in my external drive (E:) that mirror the way it was set up in the main drive (C:). So, now the units load.. but the mission I worked for TWO YEARS on still does not load. It gets stuck at the very beginning, and I have no idea why. The log makes it seem that the map is bugged, maybe..? I hope someone can help me figure this out - I'm losing my mind. I worked SO HARD on this and now all my work seems in vain. I've attached the log file, in case someone is willing to help me figure out what the issue is. dcs.log

I get that, but I have no intention of updating my game until all of the mods my campaign was using have been fixed. I think you are misunderstanding the issue at hand. The problem has nothing to do with Admiral's boat (which I didn't even have installed), but has to do with the fact that DCS is not recognizing my Saved Games folder for some stupid reason.

I never updated the game, though, since March and back then everything worked just fine

The Oscar? Yes, I did today. Why? Is it broken or something? Edit: No wait, I did not. I never had that one installed. Only the OSA.

No, my folder is on my external drive (E:) and having it under my user directory would require it to be on the main drive (C:), which is not possible for me because the sheer size of the mods takes up wayyy more space than my main drive even has to begin with, hence I needed to move everything DCS-related to a 1 TB external drive - but this has never been an issue before. I did not reinstall Windows recently, but I might have accidentally given them backup permissions at some point when asked (maybe after an update). I still use Windows 10, no way in hell I'd switch to Windows 11 lol Weird that it won't recognize the folder I titled "Saved Games" in my external drive when it's always worked just fine before. I tried to move the location of the actual Saved Games folder like you suggested, only to realize that the actual folder is NOWHERE to be found. What the actual <profanity>. P.S. I just looked into this whole OneDrive thing and it's extremely sketchy. <profanity> Microsoft, seriously.

I don't understand - placing my mods in the Saved Games folder was the only way to get them to work for years, and it worked just fine before. Why can't it access them through the folder titled "Saved Games" on my external drive (E:)? When did it change from Saved Games to My Games? Let me try renaming the Saved Games folder on my external drive to "My Games" and move the files that were on C:\ to it. Hopefully that fixes it. I also don't know why it's referencing OneDrive - I've NEVER authorized my files to be on some sort of cloud. The My Games folder automatically got created in Documents under "This PC." It doesn't even say OneDrive anywhere until I copy the file path. I tried searching my PC for OneDrive and it's nowhere to be found. What the hell is going on even?

dcs.log

I tried creating a new mission on the same map and it loaded in just fine, but all of the mods are missing.. huh??