Had a power cut while loading MSFS last night.

Although using Starting as Administrator, MSFS is now stuck in the 'Checking For Updates' section.

The 'circle' just goes around & around.

Anyone had this & successfully fixed it without having to do a full reinstall?

T45

I had same a while ago and what fixed it for me is by removing the file :  content.xml  from this path [Store version]

C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache

FS2020 will re-create the file on next startup.

Good luck.

 

My "Checking for Updates" occasionally takes two or three times longer than normal but the spinning circle keeps on spinning and eventually loading is completed. 

On several occasions the spinning circle has stopped moving and nothing happened for several minutes. 

Initially, after the circle stops spinning - all three processors are running at 5% to 40% and the load is moving thru the three randomly.  There is some minor disk activity on the SSD dedicated to Flight Sim.  Memory usage is steady at 7 GB (out of 16 GB available).  There is no GPU and NO network usage.  Eventually all disk activity stops and CPU usage (total over all three processors) drops to 27% but continues to move thru the three processors. 

After that - Windows Task Manager shows Flight Sim is using a steady 27% of the CPU but it is not using any other resources.   And, Task Manager says the Flight Sim process is "Not Responding."

I let Flight Sim sit in that state and EVERY TIME, after several more minutes, "Checking for Updates" resumes as normal and the sim goes on to complete loading.  From then on - everything works as it should.

All of this started with the last major update. 

Edited July 6, 20214 yr by TacomaSailor

Tried emptying the community file?

Quote

 

Tried emptying the community file?

 Yes I have experienced the long wait/Not Responding with nothing in the Community folder

Edited July 6, 20214 yr by TacomaSailor

Here are the ProcMon details for the operation which needed 245 seconds to complete while "Checking for Updates" was on the screen but the spinning circle was paused:

High Resolution Date & Time:    7/6/21 03:35:37.9925954 PM
Event Class:    File System
Operation:    NotifyChangeDirectory
Result:    CANCELLED
Path:    D:\FlightSim 2020\Community
TID:    11188
Duration:    256.5259019
0    FLTMGR.SYS    FltDecodeParameters + 0x1e3c    0xfffff804645b608c    C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\FLTMGR.SYS
1    FLTMGR.SYS    FltDecodeParameters + 0x18e7    0xfffff804645b5b37    C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\FLTMGR.SYS
2    FLTMGR.SYS    FltDecodeParameters + 0x8f6    0xfffff804645b4b46    C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\FLTMGR.SYS
3    FLTMGR.SYS    FltDecodeParameters + 0x66b    0xfffff804645b48bb    C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\FLTMGR.SYS
4    ntoskrnl.exe    IofCallDriver + 0x55    0xfffff80461b185b5    C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
5    ntoskrnl.exe    NtDeviceIoControlFile + 0xd88    0xfffff80461ee2748    C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
6    ntoskrnl.exe    NtNotifyChangeDirectoryFileEx + 0x291    0xfffff80461ead3c1    C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
7    ntoskrnl.exe    setjmpex + 0x7c45    0xfffff80461c085b5    C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
8    ntdll.dll    ZwNotifyChangeDirectoryFileEx + 0x14    0x7ffb510ef114    C:\Windows\System32\ntdll.dll
9    KernelBase.dll    ReadDirectoryChangesExW + 0xbb    0x7ffb4ea5861b    C:\Windows\System32\KernelBase.dll
10    KernelBase.dll    ReadDirectoryChangesW + 0x43    0x7ffb4ea58553    C:\Windows\System32\KernelBase.dll
11    FlightSimulator.exe    FlightSimGetMainHwnd + 0xcfdb94    0x7ff787191174    D:\FlightSim 2020\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator\FlightSimulator.exe
12    FlightSimulator.exe    FlightSimGetMainHwnd + 0xf8eabd    0x7ff78742209d    D:\FlightSim 2020\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator\FlightSimulator.exe
13    FlightSimulator.exe    FlightSimGetMainHwnd + 0x95eaa9    0x7ff786df2089    D:\FlightSim 2020\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator\FlightSimulator.exe
14    kernel32.dll    BaseThreadInitThunk + 0x14    0x7ffb4f557034    C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll
15    ntdll.dll    RtlUserThreadStart + 0x21    0x7ffb510a2651    C:\Windows\System32\ntdll.dll

Looking for problems similar to this in Windows 10 - I find lots of references to:

Certain file types (.ogg, .ogx) take a full minute to rename or delete

Thanks, again! I'm looking through Procmon right now. There's a lot of information there, so it might take a while for me to notice anything useful. At a cursory glance, I'm noticing that there are NotifyChangeDirectory operations related to the name changes with a duration of 70+ (I assume that the duration is in seconds) - I tested capturing renames of both .ogg files and other files, and the .ogg files have that huge duration (not unexpected, considering the nature of the problem that I'm having), and other files have a duration of 8-10. There are 44 pages of operations between the start of the rename and the end of those operations (far more when showing registry activity), so it's taking me a while to find anything relevant.

Edited July 6, 20214 yr by TacomaSailor

4 hours ago, SAPilot said:

I had same a while ago and what fixed it for me is by removing the file :  content.xml  from this path [Store version]

C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache

FS2020 will re-create the file on next startup.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for your input. Tried your suggestion, but to no avail.

However, I recalled that  I had loaded several liveries & a freeware aircraft into Community last night.

I put Community aside & MSFS started ok.

I put Community back & got stuck at the Updates screen, so I took last nights additions out & MSFS ran again successfully.

When I get time I will add the Community deletions back one by one to ID the culprit.

T45

I was about to tell you that too, T. In my case it turned out that I had the Carenado Waco installed twice, one in the Official folder and by me one more time by mistake in the Community folder.. After that  one had been deleted, all was well again.  

44 minutes ago, Treetops45 said:

Thanks for your input. Tried your suggestion, but to no avail.

However, I recalled that  I had loaded several liveries & a freeware aircraft into Community last night.

I put Community aside & MSFS started ok.

I put Community back & got stuck at the Updates screen, so I took last nights additions out & MSFS ran again successfully.

When I get time I will add the Community deletions back one by one to ID the culprit.

T45

Glad you could solve it !!

Yep .. community folder is most of the time the culprit. Should have suggested that first. Anyway, the advice in my original post did work for me in the past.

Whenever the sim starts acting up .. I sit back and say to myself .. "what have you done in the community folder lately ... ??"

After all the CTD problems I had for the first couple of months with MSFS, I have kept from putting anything in the community folder, cause the sim is running great now. I have 3 aircraft, and a pushback app and two other things and that is  it. Not going to mess with success. 

2 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

After all the CTD problems I had for the first couple of months with MSFS, I have kept from putting anything in the community folder, cause the sim is running great now. I have 3 aircraft, and a pushback app and two other things and that is  it. Not going to mess with success. 

6 items in Community?😂

I have 238.

Hmm.😀

But I should acknowledge it can take up to 5 minutes to reach Scenario Set Up after starting MSFS.

I think some culling is necessary.

T45

Edited July 6, 20214 yr by Treetops45

4 hours ago, TacomaSailor said:

My "Checking for Updates" occasionally takes two or three times longer than normal but the spinning circle keeps on spinning and eventually loading is completed. 

On several occasions the spinning circle has stopped moving and nothing happened for several minutes. 

Initially, after the circle stops spinning - all three processors are running at 5% to 40% and the load is moving thru the three randomly.  There is some minor disk activity on the SSD dedicated to Flight Sim.  Memory usage is steady at 7 GB (out of 16 GB available).  There is no GPU and NO network usage.  Eventually all disk activity stops and CPU usage (total over all three processors) drops to 27% but continues to move thru the three processors. 

After that - Windows Task Manager shows Flight Sim is using a steady 27% of the CPU but it is not using any other resources.   And, Task Manager says the Flight Sim process is "Not Responding."

I let Flight Sim sit in that state and EVERY TIME, after several more minutes, "Checking for Updates" resumes as normal and the sim goes on to complete loading.  From then on - everything works as it should.

All of this started with the last major update. 

I occasionally had this issue before. It seems to happen once in a while. To me, is nothing related to the content in the CF, but a server communication process (MS) that slows things down when this happens.

I have two MSFS setups. Tested first in the laptop with few items in the CF and then after on my desktop with full configuration (more than 300 add-ons in the CF, 312 to be exact) and in both cases when the spinning circle in "Checking For Updates" seems to be going forever, my two machines behave in the same way, it takes an unusual time to complete the loading process in both.

Cheers, Ed

 

32 minutes ago, edpatino said:

and then after on my desktop with full configuration (more than 300 add-ons in the CF, 312 to be exact)

Ed? Why with the Addons Linker at your beckoning would you ever do that?

26 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Ed? Why with the Addons Linker at your beckoning would you ever do that?

I use the Addons Linker extensively, this is maybe the most useful add-on that exists for MSFS. I have no issues when dealing with around 300 add-ons on my CF, that's why I think the CF has nothing to do with the OP issues.

15 minutes ago, edpatino said:

I use the Addons Linker extensively, this is maybe the most useful add-on that exists for MSFS. I have no issues when dealing with around 300 add-ons on my CF, that's why I think the CF has nothing to do with the OP issues.

But Ed, with all due respect, it seemed you indicated you had over 300 in use.  At one time?  If not, and you use Addons Linker expediently, then you perhaps unknowingly led us astray about the number you stated you had in use.  If not, 300+ seems well over the top relative to one flight.