Thanks for the reply...
Its never worked yet. Some times it shows in the steam downloads screen, sometimes not. Mods do not show up in the mod folder or launcher tab. I didn't do the Win Defender exclusions till now, but there's no difference, I've tried everything else. I don't have the ransomware folder control on. I've followed all the guides. I will try going into the game and re-downloading with launcher open again.
I've seen someone post that they changed they're download region location, I'll try that... no difference.