Can I move X-Plane's Custom Scenery folder to a network drive or server?

Moving "Custom Scenery" to a network share – possible, but not recommended

You can point X‑Plane at scenery that lives somewhere else by using a shortcut/alias type approach, and in Windows that usually means a junction/symlink from your local X‑Plane install to another location. That said, putting the scenery on a NAS/server/network share is where things get shaky in practice.

What usually goes wrong over a network

• Performance: Custom Scenery is thousands of small files. Network storage tends to add latency, and that shows up as longer load times and sometimes stutters when new tiles/scenery get pulled in.
• Reliability: If the share drops for a second, sleeps, reconnects, etc., X‑Plane can hang, throw missing file errors, or just fail to load part of a scenery package.
• Permissions/locking: Some NAS setups and Windows credential changes can cause “can’t read file” type issues that look like scenery problems but are really file access problems.

If you still want to try it (Windows checklist)
1) Use a wired connection if at all possible. Wi‑Fi + scenery streaming is asking for pauses.

2) Make the network location stable

• Make sure the share is always available (no sleep/spindown if you can avoid it).
• If you map it as a drive letter, make sure it reconnects at logon reliably.

3) Link only "Custom Scenery" (not the whole sim)
Keep X‑Plane itself local (the executable, core files, etc.) and only redirect the scenery folder.

4) Use a junction/symlink approach
The exact command depends on whether you’re linking to a mapped drive letter or a UNC path, and what your current folder names are. If you want, post your local X‑Plane install path and what the network path would be and I’ll spell out the exact mklink line so you don’t risk linking it backwards.

Practical recommendation
If your main goal is saving SSD space, the most painless setup is:

• X‑Plane + anything performance-sensitive local (especially orthos you fly over a lot)
• Less-used scenery or archives on the NAS

A compromise that often works well is copying the scenery you plan to use this week/month locally, and keeping the rest on the server as “cold storage.”

A few quick questions so we can tailor this

• What OS are you on (Windows/macOS/Linux)?
• Which X‑Plane version (11 or 12)?
• Is the network storage a mapped drive letter on the same PC, or a true NAS/SMB share (and wired or Wi‑Fi)?
• Roughly how big is your Custom Scenery folder and is it mostly orthophotos or airports/plugins?