Only speculating, but I think much of this is inherent to 1) being a XBox title and 2) being tied to a MS streaming service.  I think those two things drive much of the way the PC version must be updated.  So far, knock on wood, things seem smooth for me in the update process "most of the time".  Typically, when I have problems with the MSFS update, it always seems to be when the XBox app is either not logged in or it requires an update.  So many moving parts external to this sim, but this may be something we have to live with.

4 hours ago, cianpars said:

why must we delete our community folder,

You don’t 

4 hours ago, cianpars said:

Do I even need to have both the x box app and the x box companion installed?

You don’t need the companion app installed, only the basic ‘Xbox’ app. You can delete the one labelled companion, It’s obsolete anyways.

Some people don’t even need the Xbox app, it updates fine without it. This issue is weird.

Edited September 18, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

32 minutes ago, SmokeDiddy said:

Only speculating, but I think much of this is inherent to 1) being a XBox title and 2) being tied to a MS streaming service.  I think those two things drive much of the way the PC version must be updated.

Other MS products with those features update fine.

And the steam version has no issues like this.

Edited September 18, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

12 hours ago, cianpars said:

Surely all of the above should just happen when msfs starts up rather than sending users round in circles.

get the steam version and your wish shall be granted.

20 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

Are you sure you got the total update, mine was two different updates of around 500 MB each, plus the content manager update. 

He certainly did. Otherwise he wouldn’t have had the in-game update message.

His Windows Store is definitely set to automatic updates.

As long as he didn’t try to launch MSFS 10sec after starting W10 his PC will have had the time to download the store update in the background without any other notification.