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I use a special build of Blender made to work with the Octane render plugin. But I also frequently go into the regular Blender since Octane Blender is sometimes a release behind. What is the best way to maintain my plugins so multiple Blender versions have access?

Currently, I have plugins in each of the installs addons folder. But I also notice my installed addons (like Flip Fluids, Khronos glTF exporter) also reside in the Windows AppData/Roaming folder.

When I want to update an addon, what is the most efficient way of doing this? Do I need to copy the new files into each installs addons directory as well as the AppData/Roaming directory?

Can I delete the addons I want to update from each of the Blender installed script directories and JUST copy them to the AppData/Roaming directory?

Or should I set a custom path where each version of Blender can look for addons? If I choose a custom path, does Blender still look in its own installed addons directory - first for all the addons that come with Blender and then in the custom path?

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  • $\begingroup$ Hi, welcome to the site! On Mac, each version of Blender (normal version, I don't use special builds) uses its own configuration folder, e.g. 2.77, 2.78, etc. Does it use a similar structure on Windows? $\endgroup$
    – SilverWolf
    Oct 27, 2018 at 20:55
  • $\begingroup$ In fact on Windows when You two different builds (normal + Octane) but same version You could install the addon using Blender to have it in all builds of the same version or install it in Blender install directory to have it only in one build no matter what version it is. As far as I know the is no way of installing the addon to have it in all builds and versions which prevents diferent versions of Blender to use addons made for another versions. $\endgroup$
    – Jan Matys
    Oct 27, 2018 at 23:34

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Blender saves its config files in a different folder for each version of blender. If your custom build is based on 2.79 then it will read the same config as the standard 2.79 build. The location and layout of config folders is explained here.

To have the same addon available to multiple versions, you need a copy of the addon in each versions config folder. To simplify upgrading you can use links to have each version read the same file contents. Links are also known as shortcuts or aliases. Create a folder for your addons and put your addons there, then create a shortcut in each config folder that you want the addon to be available. This may be easiest if you install the addon for the current version and then make links from that to any older versions you want to use the addon.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks sambler. Sounds like aliases is the way to go. $\endgroup$
    – SamSax
    Oct 28, 2018 at 2:27

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