Fab UE Plugin shows as not installed, but Epic Launcher won't reinstall might think an older copy still exists

General Issues & Bug Reporting (Fab)
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1

Summary
The launcher shows “Fab UE Plugin (UE 5.8) — Completed” and “Quixel Bridge (UE 5.8) — Completed,” but neither is actually installed. Neither appears in Edit > Plugins, Window > Get Content, or next to “+Add” in the Content Browser. I traced this down to their manifest files never being created on disk.

What happened:
I installed Fab UE Plugin on 6/23/2026. Later I uninstalled and reinstalled Unreal Engine 5.8, then emptied my Recycling Bin. Since then, Fab has been completely missing. Searching “fab” in Edit > Plugins only shows the unrelated “PlayFab Party.”

What I found:

  • The .item files in C:\ProgramData\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\Data\Manifests for Fab UE Plugin and Quixel Bridge both reference a CompleteManifestPath pointing to a .manifest file inside C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.8\.egstore\.
  • That .egstore folder only contains one manifest file — the one belonging to the base Unreal Engine install itself. No manifest file exists for either plugin, despite both showing as “Installed”/“Completed” in the launcher.
  • Confirmed no “Fab” or “Marketplace” folder exists anywhere in C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.8\Engine\Plugins\.

What I’ve tried:

  • Clicking “Install to Engine” for Fab UE Plugin multiple times — no progress, no error, no change.
  • Deleted the local .item manifest files in C:\ProgramData\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\Data\Manifests to force a re-scan — launcher rebuilt fine, but status still showed “Completed.”
  • Used “Remove” via Library > Installed Plugins for both Fab UE Plugin and Quixel Bridge — this triggered a real uninstall attempt for the first time, which failed with error code IS-EO-Plat-NoFnd-Win-2.
  • Fully uninstalled and did a clean reinstall of Unreal Engine 5.8 itself (engine reinstalled successfully, ~30GB, with its own valid manifest generated correctly). Fab UE Plugin and Quixel Bridge were queued to install alongside it and again show as “Installed,” but still have no manifest file in .egstore.
  • Confirmed engine and projects load fine, so this is isolated to Fab/Quixel specifically, not the engine itself.

Expected Result
Fab UE Plugin and Quixel Bridge should fully install, generate their manifest files in .egstore, and appear functional in the editor.

Observed Result
Both plugins remain marked “Installed”/“Completed” in the launcher with no manifest file ever generated for either, even after a complete fresh engine reinstall. Removal attempts fail with error IS-EO-Plat-NoFnd-Win-2. Neither plugin appears anywhere inside Unreal Engine 5.8.

2

Hi. This problem has been reported to Fab support and they have indicated they are working on a solution. Here is a (forum) link to a workaround that worked for me: Fab is not showing up anywhere at all. - #13 by Farzad_Bagheri

3

Yet, it’s still broken in September, and they haven’t been able to find a fix? I find that hard to believe… 2026 has been such a crap year for Epic and even before that. Simply because, so many things have become broken and Epic has done nothing to fix it. It’s quite frustrating because Fab, and Quixel are integral parts of Unreal Engine and a feature many people use are pretty much broken… This isn’t just a low level problem. This is something that the installer isn’t properly handling such as writing something to manifest files. And could easily move to potentially other plugins for a project or game not properly writing to a manifest file simply because the launcher doesn’t write to it. They seriously need to get their butts in gear and start fixing these problems.

4

have you tried the manual fix that was shared on the main thread?

Before you start:

  • Fully close the Epic Games Launcher and Fab, including any background processes (check Task Manager to confirm nothing named “EpicGamesLauncher” or “Fab” is still running).
  • We recommend backing up any files the script identifies before deleting them, just in case.

Step 1 - Run the diagnostic script
Open PowerShell (not Command Prompt) and paste in the following command:

$pd=if($env:ProgramData){$env:ProgramData}else{'C:\ProgramData'};$ii=Join-Path $pd 'Epic\EpicOnlineServicesShared\InstallHelper\InstalledItems';$lm=Join-Path $pd 'Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\Data\Manifests';$G=@{};$add={param($d,$f,$e)if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($d)){return};$k=$d.TrimEnd('\').ToLowerInvariant();if(-not $G[$k]){$G[$k]=[pscustomobject]@{Dir=$d;Files=@();Exes=@()}};$G[$k].Files+=$f;if($e){$G[$k].Exes+=[string]$e}};if(Test-Path -LiteralPath $ii){Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $ii -Filter *.egi -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue|%{try{$r=(((Get-Content -LiteralPath $_.FullName -Raw|ConvertFrom-Json).PSObject.Properties)|Select-Object -First 1).Value}catch{return};if($r.state -eq 'Installed'){& $add $r.dir $_.FullName $r.manifestData.launchExe}}};if(Test-Path -LiteralPath $lm){$fl=@(Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $lm -Filter *.item -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue);$pdir=Join-Path $lm 'Pending';if(Test-Path -LiteralPath $pdir){$fl+=@(Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $pdir -Filter *.item -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)};$fl|%{try{$d=Get-Content -LiteralPath $_.FullName -Raw|ConvertFrom-Json}catch{return};& $add $d.InstallLocation $_.FullName $d.LaunchExecutable}};foreach($k in $G.Keys){$o=$G[$k];$inst=$false;if(Test-Path -LiteralPath $o.Dir){foreach($e in $o.Exes){if($e -and (Test-Path -LiteralPath (Join-Path $o.Dir ($e -replace '/','\')))){$inst=$true}};if(-not $inst -and (Test-Path -LiteralPath (Join-Path $o.Dir '.egstore'))){if(Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath (Join-Path $o.Dir '.egstore') -Filter *.manifest -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue|Select-Object -First 1){$inst=$true}}};if($inst){continue};$o.Files|%{$_}}

This will output a list of file paths (if any) that correspond to stale, orphaned install records.

Step 2 - Delete the listed files
If the script returns one or more file paths, manually delete each file listed. If it returns nothing, this particular fix doesn’t apply to your setup, please let us know in this thread so we can look into other causes.

Step 3 - Relaunch
Restart the Epic Games Launcher and try launching Fab again.

If you have and it didn’t work, please let us know below.