# Newbie. Installed Comfy. Says "Missing Models". Downloaded. Put in place. Still says they're missing

**URL:** <https://forum.comfy.org/t/newbie-installed-comfy-says-missing-models-downloaded-put-in-place-still-says-theyre-missing/3789>\
**Category:** Desktop Feedback\
**Tags:** issue, starting-comfyui\
**Created:** [September 12, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://forum.comfy.org/t/newbie-installed-comfy-says-missing-models-downloaded-put-in-place-still-says-theyre-missing/3789 "2025-09-12T13:35:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![OysterMug](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/user_avatar/forum.comfy.org/oystermug/32/850_2.png) [@OysterMug](https://forum.comfy.org/u/OysterMug)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://forum.comfy.org/t/newbie-installed-comfy-says-missing-models-downloaded-put-in-place-still-says-theyre-missing/3789/1 "2025-09-12T13:35:14Z")

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I’m installing ComfyUI for the first time. When I launch the GUI, I get a popup saying “Missing Models” and prompting me to download “controlnet / sd3.5\_large\_controlnet\_depth.safetensors” (Download button does nothing.)

Closing the popup reveals a “Model Links” node. I registered, downloaded the files, closed Comfy and placed the files in the specified locations:

**C:\Users\_{username]_\AppData\Local\Programs@comfyorgcomfyui-electron\resources\ComfyUI\models\controlnet\sd3.5\_large\_controlnet\_depth.safetensors**

**C:\Users\_{username]_\AppData\Local\Programs@comfyorgcomfyui-electron\resources\ComfyUI\models\checkpoints\sd3.5\_large\_fp8\_scaled.safetensors**

Launch Comfy again and I’m still getting the “Missing Models” popup and “Model Links” node.

What am I doing wrong? (Does it matter that I have a very old “GTX970”?)

TIA

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**Author:** ![Uncomfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b38774/32.png) [@Uncomfy](https://forum.comfy.org/u/Uncomfy)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://forum.comfy.org/t/newbie-installed-comfy-says-missing-models-downloaded-put-in-place-still-says-theyre-missing/3789/2 "2025-09-12T19:01:37Z")

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Your gfx card does have CUDA cores so I believe it will work.

Check under “C:\Users\[user]\Documents\ComfyUI\models” as it may be looking there for the models.

If that doesn’t work:  
In the ComfyUI directory, make a copy of “extra\_model\_paths.yaml.example”

Rename the file “extra\_model\_paths.yaml” and edit it to include custom paths and drop the safe tensor files there.

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**Author:** ![RSa](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/user_avatar/forum.comfy.org/rsa/32/802_2.png) [@RSa](https://forum.comfy.org/u/RSa)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 10:51pm UTC](https://forum.comfy.org/t/newbie-installed-comfy-says-missing-models-downloaded-put-in-place-still-says-theyre-missing/3789/3 "2025-09-14T22:51:26Z")

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This windows installer is so confusing. All this %Appdata% and %userprofile% folders just makes it more annoying than it should be. 🤔 I just got tired of all of this and installed the Portable Version from Github. Way easier to understand and control.

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**Author:** ![OysterMug](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/user_avatar/forum.comfy.org/oystermug/32/850_2.png) [@OysterMug](https://forum.comfy.org/u/OysterMug)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 11:24am UTC](https://forum.comfy.org/t/newbie-installed-comfy-says-missing-models-downloaded-put-in-place-still-says-theyre-missing/3789/4 "2025-09-16T11:24:55Z")

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Sorry for the late reply.

I had uninstalled Comfy b/c it was taking up WAY too much room on my C: drive (which I keep small for Backup purposes) and had to reinstall it to try as you suggest.

I don’t know if it mattered, but the required “.safetensors” files I was prompted for before were saved to the same folder as the Setup file, so when I reinstalled, this time no errors. Curious.

Now I just need to figure out how to use the software. 😉

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**Author:** ![Uncomfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b38774/32.png) [@Uncomfy](https://forum.comfy.org/u/Uncomfy)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.comfy.org/t/newbie-installed-comfy-says-missing-models-downloaded-put-in-place-still-says-theyre-missing/3789/5 "2025-09-16T13:23:49Z")

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I have a separate NVMe drive for all my Checkpoints and LoRAs. It helps a lot to have these on a fast drive. You can add external drives to ComfyUI with “extra\_model\_paths.yaml” too.

Happy to hear you got it working 🙂