Mod Organizer says Skyrim files are unmanaged

Question

I'm switching from the Nexus Mod Manager to the Mod Organizer to manage my Skyrim mods. I followed this set of videos to get acquainted with it:

It's a good resource.

I installed Skyrim from scratch, pure blank vanilla skyrim (I have all DLC and high res texture packs). When I install Mod Organizer, it does not look the same as the videos: All the default content appears to be unmanaged. It says: "Unmanaged:" before the mod names even though in the Archives tab on the right pane the "Have MO manage archives" selector is checked and they are uncheckable.

How to I have Mod Organizer manage them? The list of mods (in the left pane) currently looks like this:

Mod Name                         Flags  Category  Version  Priority
Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack03   -     Non-MO             0
Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack02   -     Non-MO             1
Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack01  +-     Non-MO             2
Unmanaged: HearthFires           +-     Non-MO             3
Unmanaged: Dragonborn            +-     Non-MO             4
Unmanaged: Dawnguard             +      Non-MO             5

I am using version 1.2.14.

Answer 1

That's completely fine. From my experience, any Official DLC will be listed as Unmanaged, as it is not a mod itself and was never installed by Mod Manager itself. It can still edit the load order if you wish. This is from a recent version of MO, so that's why the old video does not display it.

The Nexus Mod Manager doesn't include this piece of info

TL;DR Its completely fine, it just means those parts were never installed by MO. Just continue as normal

Answer 2

"Unmanaged:" before the mod means it was not installed with Mod Organizer and for the official DLC that should indeed be the case. You can still move them around in the lists to modify their loading order, and you can have MO manage their archives.

The reason why you don't see it in the video tutorial is because it was recorded using an older version of MO, and that version did not mark mods as "Unmanaged", it simply removed the checkbox and changed the category to Non-MO (both of which the new version still does).