The BeamNG.drive Mod Manager explained: active, inactive, unpacked, and the habits that keep a long list working

24 Oct 2026 · 3 min read · ModsDrop

Pictured: Lamborghini Urus, from the ModsDrop library.

Every mod you install in BeamNG.drive passes through the Mod Manager, and most of the questions people ask about mods are really questions about this one screen. Here is what each part of it does, what the buttons mean, and the habits that keep a long list under control after the 0.40 update.

Where it is

From the main menu choose Mods. The screen has two halves: the Repository, which is the in-game browser for mods hosted on BeamNG’s own site, and the Mod Manager, which lists everything in your mods folder regardless of where it came from. A zip you downloaded from ModsDrop appears only in the Mod Manager; it has nothing to do with the Repository and will never update through it.

What the list shows

One row per zip. The name comes from the mod’s own information file where there is one, otherwise from the file name. Next to it: the size, whether the mod is active, and in 0.40 a note when the archive could not be read. Clicking a row opens its details, including the files it contains and, for Repository mods, the author and version.

Active, inactive and deactivated

The toggle on each row switches the mod on or off without touching the file. An inactive mod costs nothing: it is not mounted, its vehicles do not appear in the selector, and the game behaves as if the zip were not there. This is the right way to park a mod you are not using this month, and far better than moving zips in and out of the folder.

Deactivate all does exactly that for every mod at once; Activate all is the opposite. The pair is the fastest way to bisect a problem: deactivate all, confirm the game is fine, then activate half the list, then half of the remainder, until the culprit shows itself. The game remembers the on/off state across updates, so a mod you switched off in 0.39 stays off in 0.40 until you switch it on.

Unpacking and packing

A mod can be unpacked into a folder under mods/unpacked. The game then reads the loose files instead of the zip, which lets a modder edit them in place. For a player there is no benefit, and two costs: loose files load slower than a zip, and an unpacked mod can no longer be updated by dropping a new zip in. If you unpacked something by accident, pack puts it back into a zip.

Delete

Delete removes the zip from disk. There is no recycle bin inside the game; if you want the file back you download it again. Deactivate first if you only want to test without the mod.

The button that disappeared in 0.40

Older versions had a “show possibly broken mods” button. It was removed in 0.40, and the 0.40.2 hotfix made the manager tolerant of corrupted archives instead: a damaged zip no longer hides the healthy mods around it. If a mod you know is in the folder does not appear in the list at all, the archive is damaged or it sits in the wrong version folder; see the guide on mods that do not show up.

Sorting and finding

The list can be sorted by name, size and date. With a long list, sort by name to spot duplicates (two versions of the same car, usually one with a version number in the name) and sort by date after an update to find the mods that were added most recently, which are the usual suspects when something breaks.

What the Mod Manager does not do

It does not check for updates of manually installed mods. The author’s page does that; the Repository tab updates only Repository mods.
It does not resolve conflicts. Two mods that change the same stock car’s parts load in an order you do not control. If both must stay, ask the authors; if not, deactivate one.
It does not scan for malware. Zips of models and textures are harmless; mods with Lua scripts run code. Every file on ModsDrop is scanned on VirusTotal before publication, which is the check to read before the download, not after.

A routine that works

New mod in, game started, Mod Manager open: confirm the row is there and active.
Spawn the vehicle or load the map once. If it works, done.
If something else broke at the same time, deactivate the new mod and check again before touching anything else.
Once a month, sort by name, remove duplicates, and deactivate what you have not driven.