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Help my workshop menu is broken!

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Broken workshop menus is one of the most common problems that mod users have. Your Furniture or Structural menu may have disappeared. Or perhaps a mod that you're trying to reinstall to the main menu level isn't showing up. Maybe you're one of the unlucky few that doesn't have a broken menu but for some reason a new mod you're trying to install just won't show up for some reason and you're on the mod author's page asking if their mod is compatible with X, Y, and Z mods because they install to the same location in the menu and they work but the new one won't for some reason. Welcome to the vagaries of the Fallout 4 workshop menu.

In order to understand the current problems it is helpful to understand the history of Fallout 4 settlement building mods, but if you would prefer to skip this section I'm sticking it in a spoiler.
In the beginning the quote "640 K ought to be enough for anybody" was misattributed to Bill Gaits regarding computer memory. Well Bethesda didn't learn that lesson and in the beginning Fallout 4 had a ridiculously small keyword limit. Since keywords are the key component in making workshop menus this meant that additions to the workshop menu in mods was a serious problem. The settlement mod building community came up with the Settlement Keywords* framework in an attempt to standardize and improve on the vanilla workshop menu structure. The armor and weapons community had the same problem adding items to the crafting workbenches so the Armor and Weapons Keywords Community Resource (AWKCR) was also created. Thankfully Bethesda finally extended the keywords limit and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

*There were initially three different settlement keywords mods, 2 were eventually deprecated and hidden with Settlement Keywords Expanded by Sharlikran (SKE) being the surviving framework.

However there was still the challenge of mod compatibility when making settlement building mods and altering the vanilla workshop menu. Some major mods such as Homemaker adopted SKE. Other mods were forced to use patches. It was still a problematic situation. Then DarthWayne came along with a modders resource to script inject mod menus. Much rejoicing was had and nearly all mod authors adopted this approach. Until the bug reports started coming in.

This was great for mod compatibility but had the fatal flaw of expecting everyone to read the uninstall instructions. This method requires an uninstall chem to avoid breaking the workshop menu. So huge numbers of users began complaining of broken workshop menus. Eventually Cadpnq came along with a new approach to settlement menu injection in his Settlement Menu Manager mod (SMM). It requires that SMM be installed, but also means that settlement mods using it can be safely uninstalled without an uninstall chem.

How to avoid breaking your menu

Since I originally wrote this topic I've discovered new ways to actually permanently break a workshop menu (specific to a save game only). Please go see the "When Menu Rescue Isn't Enough" section of the installing workshop mods thread on Bethnet.

For those who skipped the history lesson, there are currently two primary methods for script injecting a mod's menu into the vanilla workshop menu. One method requires an uninstall chem, the other method requires that Settlement Menu Manager (SMM) be installed. It's the former method that is responsible for breaking workshop menus. They get broken when you don't use the uninstall chem. My rule of thumb is to double check the description page of every single settlement building mod you use before uninstalling it to see if you need an uninstall chem.

How to fix the broken menu
Luckily fixing a broken workshop menu is very simple and safe. If you have SMM installed it has a Menu Rescue option in the holotape (if you don't have your holotape for some reason see the mod description page for console instructions). If you don't have SMM installed the original script injection method also comes with a Universal Missing Menus Fixer file (check the files tab).

SMM Menu Fix Instructions
1. Run the Menu Rescue. Normally this is the only thing you need to do.
However if the above didn't work for you (rare) then check the spoiler below.
1. Run the Settlement Menu Rescue option and wait a minute (this much time is just in case you have significant script lag)
2. Create a full save game (not just an exit or quick save)
3. Exit the game completely to desktop. It cannot be running at all, not even at the main menu.
4. Uninstall and reinstall the mod that disappeared from your menu (do NOT open the game in between the uninstall and reinstall)
5. Once your mod is fully reinstalled you may now load the full save game you created in step 2

Universal Missing Menus Fixer Instructions
1. Assuming the mod you were trying to remove is already uninstalled, install the menu fixer esp and run it in game a minute (this much time is just in case you have significant script lag)
2. Create a full save game (not just an exit or quick save)
3. Exit the game completely to desktop. It cannot be running at all, not even at the main menu.
4. Then uninstall the menu fixer mod. You do not want to keep this mod running full time.

Note: If you attempt to reinstall the mod you had previously uninstalled incorrectly hoping to fix it that way, it will not work. Not only will it not fix your workshop menu but the mod itself usually won't even show up at all in the menu.

Rare Bugs
If you have multiple mods that use the older DarthWayne script injection method (the one needing an uninstall chem) that all install to the same section of the menu it is possible to encounter a bug where installing a new mod just won't show up in the workshop menu. It's common to then ask the mod author if your mods are compatible. They are. All script injected settlement building mods are compatible with one another. The problem is actually with how the script creates the menu. The non-technical explanation is that multiple mods going to the same place can basically get in each other's way.

Due to the rarity of it saving and reloading is my best advice at this time. Creating a full save game, exiting to desktop, the restarting the game usually causes the mod to install on the second try. Some users claimed switching load orders helped but since load order doesn't matter from a technical standpoint in this instance I suspect that it was just the act of reloading the game that actually fixed it. At least one user had to reload the game several times. I suspect that script lag contributes to making the problem worse.
 
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