Whenever I update MSFS content, the simulator freezes for a long period of time.

Even after restarting the PC, the same issue happens and it continues freezing until the update is eventually completed.
 

Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas what could cause it or how to fix it?

Small freezes with content updates are normal.

I just leave the sim be and refrain from clicking out of the program window until it finishes.

Edited August 17, 2025Aug 17 by blueshark747

10 minutes ago, blueshark747 said:

Small freezes with content updates are normal.

I just leave the sim be and refrain from clicking out of the program window until it finishes.

I'm experiencing long freezes of up to 5 minutes.

33 minutes ago, Andreas79 said:

I'm experiencing long freezes of up to 5 minutes.

Yes however long it takes for the download/install to finish.

The Marketplace/Content Manager download/install process doesn't like to be disturbed on my end.

I que all updates and simply go find something else to do until everything installs.

The freeze stops and mouse/keyboard/Windows Tabbing functionality is restored once everything is done.

Edited August 17, 2025Aug 17 by blueshark747

1 hour ago, Andreas79 said:

I'm experiencing long freezes of up to 5 minutes.

totally normal

All the world updates after SU16 were fast for me. Two fairly large addon scenery updates today were very quick. Sometimes updates do freeze for a little bit before they start, and sometimes during. Normal thing to happen. Only if it happened every time over a long time period would I worry.

I’ve never experienced freezes that long after any update trough the Content Manager. Sometimes just 30 seconds as much.

I also try to update not too many items at the same time, but by portions depending on the download size of each of them.

 

5 hours ago, edpatino said:

I’ve never experienced freezes that long after any update trough the Content Manager. Sometimes just 30 seconds as much.

I also try to update not too many items at the same time, but by portions depending on the download size of each of them.

 

In my case, it was the World Updates and City Updates (I found they weren’t installed at all) — which explains the long freeze time.

12 hours ago, Andreas79 said:

In my case, it was the World Updates and City Updates (I found they weren’t installed at all) — which explains the long freeze time.

Most of the time, the World Updates are quite big and contain POIs and several airports that together sum up a huge download size (several gigs). That's why I recommend to open up the list (bullet section at the right of the World Update) with the the items included in the package, and then to download the items by portions to avoid possible "cluttering". That maybe help explain why I've never experienced those freezes that you describe.

For the City Updates, they're very tiny in size (several Kb's) so they shouldn't be a problem and most probably won't cause any freezing. I always download them trough the Content Manager and not directly from the Marketplace after "purchasing" them.

Edited August 19, 2025Aug 19 by edpatino