I have recently installed Oblivion GOTY Edition on my computer. I want to download mods, but when I try to start up the game to access the data files in the launcher it goes straight into the game. I have downloaded OBMM but the mods won't appear in its load order. What am I doing wrong?

DVD, Direct2Drive or Steam version?

In OBMM do the normal Oblivion files appear in the list of mods in the left hand pane? Oblivion.esm, Knights.esp and DLCShiveringIsles.esp?

I bought the game from Amazon, don't know how much that helps. Anyway, yes the base, SI and all the DLC appear in OBMM but not the mods.

How did you install the mods? Through OMOD or by dropping directly into the Data directory?

OMODs have to go into OBMM's "mods" directory. Manual installs have to be extracted into the Data directory, and care given to ensure proper placement (as in ESPs and ESMs are in the data directory itself, not a subfolder of the data directory).

If it's a fresh install, you should install the game outside the Program Files directory for best/easiest function.

It IS installed out of Program Files. I installed the mods directly to the data files.

Can you confirm that the ESPs and ESMs you are looking for are in the "Oblivion/Data" folder? If they are, I don't know of any reason why OBMM wouldn't show them.

Oh, wait, found the problem. They were in their own folders, not the data folder >.<
My bad, but thanks for your help =)

That is bizarre. Any chance you could upload a screenshot of your Data directory and an open obmm window to Tinypic.com?

There's gotta be something weird going on.

Did you have a previous install of Oblivion?

Have you tried running the OblivionLauncher.exe directly from the Oblivion folder? That's the file with the original Bethesda Data Files manager. See if they list in there?