Good day All,

today I had two power cuts while launching MSFS 2020 MS Store edition.

After the first power cut, MSFS started downloading 29 GB of stuff that I had previously uninstalled, such as bush trips, discovery flights, etc.

After the second power cut and subsequent restart, MSFS is just stuck at "checking for updates"

I tried starting offline (internet disconnected) but I only get an "Insert Disk" message.

This is the first time anything like this has happened in 5 years of happy simming and I have no more ideas on what to try: any help will be greatly appreciated

Alfa Tango

An update on what is going on: with a bit of Vodoo, I was able to start the sim. The solution is disconnecting internet when the "checking for updates" message appears. I get a request to confirm the installation path (which is correct). Press continue and the sim will load. At the initial selection screen (plane/livery/flight/etc) reconnect Internet and everything (well, almost everything) works: all planes/flightplans/controller settings etc. are available, ATC with Azure voices works, etc. and I am currently en-route with the Fenix. 

I thought that maybe there were some updates pending in the and tried to enter content manager, but then again hanged blank - I mean, 0 packages found, 0 updates, 0 installed, etc., - but it was possible to just press "go back" and return to the initial screen.

It looks like MSFS cloud lost knowledge of where the files are and which ones should be installed and which not.

Any MSFS guru has any suggestion how to fix these issues (internet and content manager)? Any help will be greatly appreciated

Alfa Tango

Edited September 6, 2025Sep 6 by alfatango10

It sounds like MSFS is running you under a different user name. I would click on your name icon at the top of the screen and then log out. And then log back in without exiting msfs first. It will ask for your user name and password when you do this.

Edited September 6, 2025Sep 6 by Fielder

Thanks for your suggestion, unfortunaly it did not solve the issue. 

I logged out from both MSFS and XBox App and logged in again, but I am still stuck at "checking for updates". The internet disconnect trick works however.

I have also noticed that in the initial selection panel there are indications of new activities and challenges, which are probably the portion that was downloaded before the second power cut and - at the same time - "marketplace" is indicated as unavailable.

Thanks for your help anyway

Alfa Tango

OK, I sorted out the issue.

I opened a ticket with MS, and got an automatic e-mail reply with some additional suggestions, specifically, one was to go to C:\Users\your_username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Official\OneStore and delete anything older than the last update. 

The solution was to actually do the opposite: delete all files in such directory with a date/time consistent with the second power cut (the one occurred while MSFS was downloading 29 GB of previously disinstalled stuff), including several .part files. MSFS then restarted normally and downloaded again the 29 GB which I disinstalled later via content manager.

The only problem is that somewhere in this process I lost my controller profiles and general settings and I had to re-generate them (luckily, mostly from back-ups), but all add-ons etc. are OK

Wishing that no one else suffers power cuts during a critical phase of MSFS startup, I am sharing this experience in case it may be helpful.

Alfa Tango