Microsoft deems the Documents folder as the proper place to put user profile based permanent data, as such developers are urged to use this structure for settings files and files created through the operation of their software (such as webcam captures, pictures, and actual documents).

The AppData structure is considered part of the system file structure and is not intended for end user access (that's why it's hidden by default). The files stored in here are intended to be working copies only and (technically) should be removed by the application on proper shutdown. (basically a scratchpad for the programs you run). Most disk cleaners will wipe these files as they are within a structure considered temporary.

Microsoft always intended the My document s (and now Documents) fie structure as the on stop shop for backing up user data.

The Documents folder structure is also included in the roaming profile folders and files feature, not that it is likely that a *work* computer would be used to play ;-P but it prevents data loss if the local hard drive were to fail or the OS re-installed. Of course this requires a file server to implement.

Wouldn't webcam captures and pictures be going into "C:\Users\%username%\Pictures"?

In my experience, add-ons for programs would either be in the same folder as the Program is in, or in "C:\Users\%username%\appdata\Local".
Can't say I've ever experienced data there getting erased by disk-cleaners, and I've run almost all of them you can find (ones recommended on technibble, reddit, etc.)

And in my organization, we do have roaming profiles in one domain. And some profiles are stored separately in our RDS and Citrix environments for some groups of users.

It does use the specified path, I set the Documents folder to my second drive just like jgq85 said.

E.g. I have my Documents folder on a second drive, for me the path is this:
Has been since the beginning, never had a problem with it.

I think the Documents folder is the best solution, AppData is just for Software and can't be moved (?) and install dir might need admin rights.

Windows 10 headache
 

This seems so simple now ive troubleshooted it but windows 10 installs onedrive as the default docs location so even with the game minion looking at the right folder on C: onedrive is the location the game finds. Seems so simple now Ive fixed it but took me an hour of saying wtf.

Yes, same here. (I'm on 8.1 though) Took me about 2 hours last night to figure out it is under "onedrive" now. Mine is especially goofy. It is like,

C:\Users\%username%\OneDrive\Documents\pictures\castles and crusades\Elder Scrolls Online\live\AddOns

lol no idea how the game decided to look there. Castles and Crusades is the table top rpg, I have a bunch of pdf's in that folder.

Especially weird to me is if I follow the path to the addons folder through file manager, I never click on anything called "pictures" or "castles and crusades". But when I look at the actual DOS path (if that is the proper term) it looks like what I posted above. My bro said he thinks it has something to do with "libraries". I don't know what that means yet.

( "file manager" might be the wrong term also )

I have installed Win10 a few times now, and never has it done that. I think you can chose if you want onedrive or not, maybe you just didn't read and clicked ok? :D

I checked my documents forder, seems like for europe users the "live" folder is callsed "liveeu". Moving addons there solved everything.

Hey everyone,
I can install addons for ESO, be it with minion or manually, but they don't show up on the in-game menu, and don't have an effect on the game.
I checked a lot of forum threads, but I can't figure it out!

Here are some of the locations:
C:\Users\Marc\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\liveeu\AddOns\SkyShards
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online\Launcher
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online\The Elder Scrolls Online EU
C:\Users\Marc\.minion

I also have to run the ESO launcher as administrator, otherwise it won't start at all, but I don't think that has to do with it.
And I am on Windows 10

Have you tried putting them in this path?:

C:\Users\%username%\OneDrive\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\liveeu\AddOns

Win10 uses onedrive by default (most of the time).

I changed:
C:\Users\Marc\.minion
C:/Users/Marc/Documents/Elder%20Scrolls%20Online/liveeu/AddOns/SkyShards

To:
C:\Users\Marc\OneDrive\.minion
C:\Users\Marc\OneDrive\Elder Scrolls Online\liveeu\AddOns\SkyShards

But still nothing...

I'm also having the same problem as you. if you found a fix by now can you share? :) I used Minion to install ESO add-ons and they not show up ingame. :(

I am the same as the others. In my case, no folders were created in the documents directory (and OneDrive isn't used for anything or set as default). I manually created them and even used Minion to check, and sure enough, Minion recognizes the ones I installed. Unfortunately, ESO still doesn't list them in the addons section.

Make a search in your whole hard drive for file UserSettings.txt

That file and my addons folder are both in the live folder. When I open the settings file I can find

SET ViewedAddOnEULAVersion "-1"
SET AcceptedAddOnEULAVersion "-1"

Are those the only pertinent listings for the addons and are those the correct settings?

what server?

He wrote live folder so it should be the US server.

Logout and try to delete the file "AddOnSettings.txt" in your live folder.

Just to be sure you are changing the files in the correct folder (which the game uses) edit the file "UserSettings.txt" with a text editor and change the following lines from

to

Afterwards login again and you should see the intro video palying again.
If it's not playing you have found the files with the correct name but the game is using some other folders.
-> You should search "all your harddrives" again for the file "UserSettings.txt". Maybe it is somewhere in another folder as well and the game is using this folder then.

I am on the NA server but I only found the one listing of the file on either drive (I installed ESO to C:\) and modifying the .txt to what you specified did not bring up any video, it went straight to character select. I am at a complete loss why nothing seems to work to include things mentioned earlier in the topic. Thank you by the way for helping to try to fix this.

You can try to find the path with the help of windows resource monitor.
Start ESO and filter for the process in the disk tab of resource monitor.
Then log into your character and try to find the entry for ZO_Ingame.lua in the list for Disk Activity.
If that doesn't reveal the path, then maybe ESO doesn't have write permissions for wherever it wants to write the data. Starting it as admin may help in that case.

Right now I have the launcher as admin along with both clients, but I'll give the resource monitor a try to see what I can find.

So after reinstalling from my user account, I found the necessary addon folder in my admin's onedrive documents folder. What a pain, but thanks for all the suggestions and help!