Just wanted to share this for PC players.

The first time I played Dawnguard, I chose vampires' side and it kinda happened unintentionally, I didn't want it, but just happened so I just followed the story, I didn't have an earlier save and I was stuck with the decison. As in Skyrim special edition, all dlc's are built in and you can not disable them from in game menu.

However, you can disable them manually, very easily.

1-Save your game and quit.

2-Go to your game directory, (where your game is installed, obviously)

Go to Skyrim Special Edition/Data, find the file Dawnguard.esm and just rename it. (something like xxxdawnguard.esm) or however you like. Just make sure you don't lose the actual file name.

3-Start your game, load the game you just saved before changing the file, you will realize you no longer have anything related to dawnguard anymore. It worked! yay!

4-Save again and quit again.

5-Go back to your game directory and rename the dawnguard dlc properly, just the way it was originally. (Dawnguard.esm)

6-Start your game, load your last save, go to riften, talk to a guard and restart dawnguard questline from scratch.

This time make sure you choose dawnguards so you can get the awesome dwarven cross bow and a chance to get a husky as follower.

Yay!

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/nope.gif - I would have a good read of https://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/3676-skyrim-information-baked-into-saves/&page=1 if I were you.

No doubt your save, continued game, and any further saves from now on will be borked, after temporarily removing masters your save was dependant upon and continuing your game. We dont even do that with mods plugins for this game.

The best bet would have been just to start again with a new game, as is pretty much the best option open to you now.

Save game cleaners are also not guaranteed to solve such problems as you have just created 100%

And any bug reports you have from now on to mod authors can not be relied upon until you start anew.

We really ought to have a modding 101 for such things, Do's and Donts

But for now, there are lots of useful topics in that KnowledgeBase forum

Yeah, it's really not smart to advertise a method which is guaranteed to ruin your save file.

Actually, I'm playing right now, and have encountered absolutely zero problems so far. Doing what I posted simply removes the dlc and everything related to it, reactivating it is like newly installing the dlc. I don't see what harm it can do ?

One thing, I'm not using any mods, just the vanilla game.

Only for once, I used a map marker mod for thieves guild unusual gems quest, I removed the mod after I completed the quest. My save files are still showing with an M next to them but it doesn't bother me.

No problems at all so far. No crashes, no bugs, all ok.

As long as I can play, and everything works the way they were suppossed to, I don't care what happens with my save files in the background. borked or whatever who cares.. not me.

Yes we know you dont understand what harm it can do ..

But the forum is public, and there are impressionable noobs about will also read this .. And before you know it a few hundred people turn up in the Unofficial Patch comments saying "Your Mod broke ma gamez!!!! and grannies toaster", when really all of their problems can now be attributed to following veronicas example a few months / years ago.

So it kind of wastes a lot of peoples time looking into complex bugs which are really due to bad practices if your innocent claims of nothing is wrong becomes accepted

Dig ?

Try and understand the points brought up in the topic I linked, even if you do not care about your own game, dont be making other people think there is nothing wrong with what you have done, that attitude in these communities where people come for help and good advice is kind of irresponsible.

Yes its just a game, but people invest a lot of time in their setups, characters and playthroughs.

You're incorrect, deactivating the DLC does NOT remove everything related to it. All the stuff will remain in your save, deactivating the DLC (or a mod) won't remove them. A lot of stuff get permanently baked into a save.

Things may seem to be fine but they are not. Eventually strange and nasty glitches will appear.

I believe no one's bothered to explain "save-baking" stuff to veronica.

This is a very good topic from Arthmoor of AFK Mods (one of the premier modders for Skyrim): https://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/3676-skyrim-information-baked-into-saves/

The original post is yes from 2013 - but it is a current thread, with the last post Jan 24 of this year. I think it would be of value, veronica, for you to read it.

I believe you also did not follow the link in post #2

That is the same page wOnkydOnky already linked to.

EDIT: Oops, ninja'd

I'll be so glad when we finally move this forum to the new community and I can be alt3rn1ty again

Edit : Oh hey! Speaking of which it looks like things are progressing that way

https://bethesda.net/community/category/97/mods

An Oblivion section ( among others ), and the site is no longer in beta

Maybe I'm missing something, but they've had an Oblivion section since they went live in October. And the forums are still in Beta (when I click on your link the tab on my browser reads: "Mods I Community Beta.".

Yep the tab label does, but thats just a detail they forgot to change like the Fav Icon in the Tab ..

.. but the URL no longer does, its now a permanent web address instead of a beta web address

From

https:// beta.bethesda.net / community / category / 97 / mods

Or

https:// bethesda.net / beta.community / category / 97 / mods

To

https:// bethesda.net / community / category / 97 / mods

I have noticed a lot of redirections going on at various stages, the change to those beta URLs has only happened over the last day or two I think.

I dont think I am going nuts anyway . Bed time.

As you guys have a lot more experience than me about playing with skyrim game files, I respect your opinions of course. And you are probably right but on the other hand, changing game files, using unofficial mods by itself, adding or removing stuff from the game files, all those actions are always at users own risk so I don't think my post can necessarily mislead anyone. I just say, I did it, and it works for me. Doesn't mean it will 100% work well for everyone else. If we think like that, suggesting someone to use mods can be considered as a bad thing as well. Unofficial mods that are programmed by fans almost always break any game in this or that way. In that sense, I think you are a little bit over-reacting. I was just trying to help to anyone who might have had the same problem of choosing the wrong side, and not wanting to play the whole game all over again just because of dawnguard. This game has a fixed storyline no matter which character or race you choose, so playing it over and over again makes no sense (to me), anyways that's another topic's subject...

Shortly I was trying to help. Let's leave it like that.

Sorry wonky/alt - that didn't show as a link for me for some reason (happens a lot here lately - links I make show up just fine, but things that are supposed to be links in other posts don't "link"....)

I'm not going to be happy, however, when this forum isn't around any more. And (probably with cheers from some people) I won't be using the "new less than wonderful" one.

The thing is, removing a mod/DLC doesn't always cause problems immediately. The game might run fine for for a day, a week or even longer but eventually it's going to cause problems. Not trying to gang up on you since I know you're trying to help but this isn't a good idea.