So, I finally got bitten by MS. Never had any real issues with the sim, certainly never any problems downloading/installing updates etc, but I never liked to comment along those lines as I always felt that would be asking for trouble <grin>. It seems that even thinking about that was pushing my luck though.

Last time I used the sim was Monday, didn't fire it up at all yesterday. Clicked on my icon this morning and was told something along the lines of "MSFS not available" (can't remember the exact message now, lost in the haze of subsequent errors). Looked in the MS Store on my system and it was sitting there same as ever, but wouldn't start. After much sniffing around online and checking the stoopid code I'd gotten, I eventually got to the uninstall/reinstall point (all previous advisories having achieved nothing).

Uninstalled ok.

Went back to the store and it was not listed under "owned". If I searched for it it showed up ok, and I was invited to buy it!

Anyway, long story short, after a loooonnnnngggg online chat session I eventually managed to get a working link to the MS Store under my MS account that offered me the install option. In spite of the fact that I'd been to the very same screen at least three previous times in this process and only been offered the chance to buy it again.

So now I'm sitting around watching the progress bar on my 97 gb in-app download, and hoping I can remember all the changes I made to the config.opt file (actually, I don't remember it as being that big so I'm sure I'll recognise everything when I get there).

I've no idea if it was the latest update that did this to my system, although I don't really see how it could have without some sort of "push" type update mechanism as I didn't fire the sim up at all since the update was released, but I tend to assume it has just been another good old Microsoft ****up. I wouldn't trust the MS coders any further than I could throw their headquarters building. (that's MS I'm talking about, not Asobo).

So what's the point of my post? Only really to say that even if things have been going swimmingly, don't get too comfortable - it apparently could happen to you too. I bought a new machine for this sim so the hardware is all up to spec, all up to date with Windows updates etc, and I still got hit by an act of random madness (or "microsoft coding" to give it its proper title).

Oh well, I guess I should have expected it (actually, I always sort of did)

(PS - just seen that apparently initials can offend now. Sigh)

Edited November 11, 20205 yr by andy1252
added postscript

6 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

 

(PS - just seen that apparently initials can offend now. Sigh)

You can be "offensive" all you want on the ASOBO site, but NOT HERE! 

15 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

So what's the point of my post? Only really to say that even if things have been going swimmingly, don't get too comfortable - it apparently could happen to you too. I bought a new machine for this sim so the hardware is all up to spec, all up to date with Windows updates etc, and I still got hit by an act of random madness (or "microsoft coding" to give it its proper title).

I'm with you, and feel your frustation like it was me. This certainly can happen to anybody. I'm not sure I'll be trouble free by having purchased the sim on Steam, but it's certainly more frequent a history like yours coming from those who purchased via the MS Store.

I'm sure you'll get your issues sorted out, and thanks for posting your experience, that way you know you're not alone.

Good luck, Ed

25 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

So, I finally got bitten by MS. Never had any real issues with the sim, certainly never any problems downloading/installing updates etc, but I never liked to comment along those lines as I always felt that would be asking for trouble <grin>. It seems that even thinking about that was pushing my luck though.

Last time I used the sim was Monday, didn't fire it up at all yesterday. Clicked on my icon this morning and was told something along the lines of "MSFS not available" (can't remember the exact message now, lost in the haze of subsequent errors). Looked in the MS Store on my system and it was sitting there same as ever, but wouldn't start. After much sniffing around online and checking the stoopid code I'd gotten, I eventually got to the uninstall/reinstall point (all previous advisories having achieved nothing).

Uninstalled ok.

Went back to the store and it was not listed under "owned". If I searched for it it showed up ok, and I was invited to buy it!

Anyway, long story short, after a loooonnnnngggg online chat session I eventually managed to get a working link to the MS Store under my MS account that offered me the install option. In spite of the fact that I'd been to the very same screen at least three previous times in this process and only been offered the chance to buy it again.

So now I'm sitting around watching the progress bar on my 97 gb in-app download, and hoping I can remember all the changes I made to the config.opt file (actually, I don't remember it as being that big so I'm sure I'll recognise everything when I get there).

I've no idea if it was the latest update that did this to my system, although I don't really see how it could have without some sort of "push" type update mechanism as I didn't fire the sim up at all since the update was released, but I tend to assume it has just been another good old Microsoft ****up. I wouldn't trust the MS coders any further than I could throw their headquarters building. (that's MS I'm talking about, not Asobo).

So what's the point of my post? Only really to say that even if things have been going swimmingly, don't get too comfortable - it apparently could happen to you too. I bought a new machine for this sim so the hardware is all up to spec, all up to date with Windows updates etc, and I still got hit by an act of random madness (or "microsoft coding" to give it its proper title).

Oh well, I guess I should have expected it (actually, I always sort of did)

(PS - just seen that apparently initials can offend now. Sigh)

yea, everyone is a fan of bugsobo and everyone else's computer is garbage, until they get hit by some bug...😁

Edited November 11, 20205 yr by EmaRacing
cancel, wrong post

Honestly I would try to get a refund and buy it through steam...I did. I have read through a lot of topics from the beginning of release and noticed a lot of people having problems with the MS store version of the purchase.  Get a REFUND and join the steam peace of mind.

1 minute ago, Brandon01110 said:

Honestly I would try to get a refund and buy it through steam...I did. I have read through a lot of topics from the beginning of release and noticed a lot of people having problems with the MS store version of the purchase.  Get a REFUND and join the steam peace of mind.

Hi Brandon, and yes, I did think about that. I'm probably way too late to get a refund, but I'll give it another chance for now. If I get another incident like this though I probably will get a steam version. I'd go for the DVD version if it didn't apparently need a dvd in the drive permanently to run - that's a bit too eighties for my taste!

13 minutes ago, edpatino said:

I'm with you, and feel your frustation like it was me. This certainly can happen to anybody. I'm not sure I'll be trouble free by having purchased the sim on Steam, but it's certainly more frequent a history like yours coming from those who purchased via the MS Store.

I'm sure you'll get your issues sorted out, and thanks for posting your experience, that way you know you're not alone.

Good luck, Ed

Cheers Ed. I'm not a great fan of Steam either, but at least it's never done anything like this to me, so we'll see. Re-install is almost done, and I had everything already rigged to be portable/recoverable anyway so I don't anticipate major problems once it's back up (whoops - I should not have said that!)

8 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

I'm probably way too late to get a refund, but I'll give it another chance for now. If I get another incident like this though I probably will get a steam version.

If you wait til you get burned again by the MS store version it just might be too late at that point.  Start the process right now.  what do you have to lose?  You can even put the reason for asking for a refund by saying your gonna turn around and purchase the steam version per recommendation by the community.

30 minutes ago, Brandon01110 said:

Honestly I would try to get a refund and buy it through steam...I did. I have read through a lot of topics from the beginning of release and noticed a lot of people having problems with the MS store version of the purchase.  Get a REFUND and join the steam peace of mind.

It's just not true--honestly:   https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/588646-installation-woes-via-ms-store-how-widespread/?do=findComment&comment=4397895

 

 

1 hour ago, andy1252 said:

...and hoping I can remember all the changes I made to the config.opt file (actually, I don't remember it as being that big so I'm sure I'll recognise everything when I get there).

Any other edits, hacks, community projects added in?  Bert P conjectures maybe this is what happened to him when the update turned into a mega GB download--he had inserted someone's fall season hack .bgl files and he thought perhaps the sim recognized them as bogus and decided it need to install a whole lot more than the update.  This probably contributes to the various problems people have when things go awry.  Also, the convoluted relationship between the MS Store and Xbox App and MSFS needs to be considered:  before any updates be sure you're correctly signed into these apps.  For some reason pre-recent patch I was signed out of the Store app and this prevented Live Weather and the Marketplace from working in-sim. 

4 minutes ago, Noel said:

It's just not true--honestly:

So its just coincidental that i'm currently reading about the new patch and i'm on page 4.  I see someone is having an issue through the MS store.  I'm just stating that when I read through the forums I notice more issues with MS store than Steam.  Why would I not recommend a solution that could help him avoid some probable issues? 

I had the same thing, wouldn't start. So I did some research and sure enough I found out that I had to update Windows 10, did that and the MS Store and FS updated and it worked like a charm

 

2 minutes ago, Brandon01110 said:

So its just coincidental that i'm currently reading about the new patch and i'm on page 4.  I see someone is having an issue through the MS store.  I'm just stating that when I read through the forums I notice more issues with MS store than Steam.  Why would I not recommend a solution that could help him avoid some probable issues? 

Your comment, "and noticed a lot of people having problems with the MS store version" is hardly the case when you look at the numbers:  87%+ had NO PROBLEMS with ANY PATCH, nor the initial install, and of those who had problems the majority were solved by MS Support.  So yes, I think it's worth noting the extent of the problem is not sufficiently described by your statement.  Plus, putting Steam in just adds a whole potential layer of problem as you are now depending on Steam to fully keep up w/ changes.

17 minutes ago, SierraHotel said:

I had the same thing, wouldn't start. So I did some research and sure enough I found out that I had to update Windows 10, did that and the MS Store and FS updated and it worked like a charm

 

This is something to keep aware of:  keep Win 10, the MS Store App, and the Xbox App up to date.   This is an area that needs to be front and center because I'm sure some have resorted to draconian actions like uninstalling MSFS or even reinstalling Win 10 when all that needed done was keeping updated and signed in.  It's probably a very good idea to do this before attempting any update process.

Edited November 11, 20205 yr by Noel

9 minutes ago, Noel said:

Any other edits, hacks, community projects added in?  Bert P conjectures maybe this is what happened to him when the update turned into a mega GB download--he had inserted someone's fall season hack .bgl files and he thought perhaps the sim recognized them as bogus and decided it need to install a whole lot more than the update.  This probably contributes to the various problems people have when things go awry.  Also, the convoluted relationship between the MS Store and Xbox App and MSFS needs to be considered:  before any updates be sure you're correctly signed into these apps.  For some reason pre-recent patch I was signed out of the Store app and this prevented Live Weather and the Marketplace from working in-sim. 

Hi Noel, nothing complex added. I had changed a few parameters in the config file, like the LOD settings and a couple of other things, but all my other addons are just scenery packages or liveries - no actual mods as such. Plus, all my addons are via symlinks and very few were active when I left the sim working fine on Monday. Plus plus - I couldn't even start the sim today to let it do the latest update, so unless MS is using push technology to access the MSFS files directly without the sim up and running (which seems a bit sinister for even a conspiracy theorist) it can't have been anything to do with the latest update. Hence my suspicions about the actual store itself.