This updater is SO slow and buggy!

[Espana Pete 357]

1 hour ago, Keto Ketchup said:

If anyone can talk me off the ledge, I'd appreciate it!

Have you tried this official fix?

From the zendesk:

DISABLE AUTOTUNING LEVEL

• In the Windows search bar, type Command and look for ‘Command Prompt’
• In the menu select “Run as administrator”
• Enter: netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable
• Press enter
• Reboot your computer

[Maxis 1,859]

I  know this is not what anyone who has these issues want to hear but unless i got extremely lucky or 6pm EST the server is not slammed i have never had a bad installation experience in terms of downloads or loops.

My config

Comcast cable internet 150mbs / Own Motorola Modem (An ancient one) / TPLink router / PC is connected wirelessly /

Last update i was at work when it dropped but when i got home at 6pm the update was a little sluggish to detect but once detected the download speed was consistent 130-140 mbs/s

Im located on the East coast of the US.

Perhaps there's an issue for the Non US servers or a network hop is not up to snuff ? 

 

I guess you could try the Zendesk solution posted above.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Maxis

[Rucki 10]

There are a few different tips in this thread, please have a look: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/slow-download-speed-megathread/427731

Unfortunately Microsoft doesnt seem to care for this problem. The only unversally way to "partially" solve it seems to be to try out different VPN servers.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Rucki

[edpatino 1,964]

1 hour ago, Keto Ketchup said:

A couple of updates ago, the updater broke my install and I had to wipe everything and start over. I waited until this latest update to do that. Now I'm trying to download 120 GB of data, and it is literally going to take me WEEKS at this rate. I have two specific problems:

1. The download speeds are incredibly slow. I'm getting around 3 Mbits/s - THREE. This is a fraction of my internet bandwidth, but that's the speed the updater is running at. Is there a setting to change this, or is this a limitation of the servers?
2. The updater constantly hangs / crashes. I try to run the updater overnight, only to wake up and find that the updater has frozen early on. Killing it and restarting picks up where the downloads left off, but I'm not going to make any progress at all if I have to do this every other hour. I've tried all sorts of things to fix this - run as administrator, run with no other windows open, etc. Any ideas?

Even if the updater was running at my full internet speed, updating MSFS is a real PITA, because every update is bigger than most full games that I own. What really boils my goose is that I bought this on Steam, and Steam's updater is top-notch, an absolute joy to use, but of course MSFS doesn't use Steam for updates, except to update the updater..

Anyway, as you can tell I'm mighty grouchy about this. Add to the fact that MSFS updater requires so much GPU & CPU to download files (thus costing electricity), and it almost makes me want to say "screw it". If anyone can talk me off the ledge, I'd appreciate it!

As many others can confirm, this is exactly the same I get. Took to me almost one day to download those wasteful 40 + 20 GB that are now to be fixed again. Not really happy about that.

[pmb 5,137]

14 minutes ago, Maxis said:

I  know this is not what anyone who has these issues want to hear but unless i got extremely lucky or 6pm EST the server is not slammed i have never had a bad installation experience in terms of downloads or loops.

It's not only about connection speed. The whole process is clumsy. I first have to download a piece into Steam/MS Store (some people forget this). Next, I have to open the program (why can't all updates be done outside of the program like others do?). Then, the main updater screen does it's thing (if it does - if you're unlucky it's stuck and you have to restart), then I have to go to the Contents manager and redownload another bunch of stuff (another bunch of people forget this).

And all this with the graphics adapter running at full or at minimum half speed (if you switch to windowed and minimize the thing) and high temperatures to show a few animations in the background.

Kind regards, Michael

[Keto Ketchup 240]

1 hour ago, Espana Pete said:

Have you tried this official fix?

From the zendesk:

DISABLE AUTOTUNING LEVEL

• In the Windows search bar, type Command and look for ‘Command Prompt’
• In the menu select “Run as administrator”
• Enter: netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable
• Press enter
• Reboot your computer

Yes, no difference.

[Keto Ketchup 240]

It seems the crashing of the updater may be linked to computer inactivity. If I have it going in the background while I browse the Internet, work on notes, etc, it seems to go without a hiccup (albeit terribly terribly slowly). Any time I walk away and hope it will keep downloading, when I come back it has either crashed or gotten stuck in a loop.

What's weird is that this happens even when I use a power profile that doesn't put anything to sleep to my knowledge...

I might have to write a script to simulate activity (like typing in a word document) and see if I can trick my computer into not idling and see if that helps.

Where's the shrug emoji when you need it?

[pmb 5,137]

2 hours ago, Keto Ketchup said:

It seems the crashing of the updater may be linked to computer inactivity.

Can't confirm this for my system. I had it running overnight with the machine idle and it was ready in the morning.

Of course this may depend on the power saving (and other) settings.

Kind regards, Michael

[Keto Ketchup 240]

1 hour ago, pmb said:

Can't confirm this for my system. I had it running overnight with the machine idle and it was ready in the morning.

Of course this may depend on the power saving (and other) settings.

Kind regards, Michael

Might be something unique to my system, which is a laptop. It doesn't go to sleep in my "gaming" power configuration, but there might be something else idling or throttling.

From what I'm reading in other threads, it might not even be worth fighting it right now. Sounds like this latest update isn't the magical one I thought it would be. Maybe I'll wait a couple of weeks and try again.

[Gazzareth 808]

4 hours ago, Keto Ketchup said:

Might be something unique to my system, which is a laptop. It doesn't go to sleep in my "gaming" power configuration, but there might be something else idling or throttling.

Unlikely, the MS update process is hopeless - updating or installing from Steam works fine every time......

 

G

[Dominique_K 10,137]

1 minute ago, Gazzareth said:

updating or installing from Steam works fine every time......

So far its been true for me, including SU5

[Keto Ketchup 240]

5 hours ago, Gazzareth said:

Unlikely, the MS update process is hopeless - updating or installing from Steam works fine every time......

If only there was a way to install MSFS from Steam. Unfortunately Microsoft elected to use Steam only to install their own installer. I don't understand this, wouldn't Microsoft rather unload a bunch of their server traffic onto Steam rather than have to supply all that bandwidth themselves?

[Keto Ketchup 240]

I'm baffled that this updater uses so much CPU and GPU while downloading. What's it doing, mining bitcoin?

I've tried to force the updater to use my low-power Intel GPU instead of the Nvidia, but it ignores my Nvidia settings. I've tried disabling CUDA for the installer, but that didn't help either. I even tried to limit framerate, but it's still hitting 40-50% GPU to download a file, along with similar CPU utilization. This software is environmentally unfriendly!

I might try disabling my NVidia processor altogether just for the purpose of running this updater to see what happens. Hopefully I don't break Windows in the process!