PC Xbox app/MS Store is so broken people can't install or even uninstall some games. Has it happened to you?

[Deleted member 22750]

when theses issues pop up they're a nightmare

ive even had xboxes that wouldn't take updates and install games
ive had updates that just hung on pc
ive had updates go through and mess up my xbox to the point it wasn't usable

when something like this happens you gotta wipe it.
you really do because somewhere in your files something is rotten and its fucking everything up


OOPS SOMETHING WENT WRONG!

 

[flyinj]

If it happens again, you just have to re-install windows again.

WSReset or any other offered solution has never worked for me. And not worthwhile troubleshooting. Doing an inplace re-install of windows is faster and most likely to solve an immediate problem.

Click to shrink...

Like I said in my post, it would take me hours and hours to set up a new install and I would need to get my job's system team involved if I had to reinstall Windows on my computer.

I'm not willing to do that unless I'm positive that the issue won't just come back a week later on the new install.

 

[dunkzilla]

Yeah I had 200Gb or so locked away because the Xbox app wouldn't recognise 2 games and wouldn't let me uninstall them.

 

[JoJoBae]

It's happened to me I think 5 times now since the release of Gears of War 4? And this is with Windows 10 Pro and having automatic updates disabled. It will screw itself up without any intervention. And don't get me started on the toredo tunneling for Xbox Live just deciding to break arbitrarily. At least that has a one button fix now. It's honestly why even though I only have a base Xbox One I'd rather just play all my game pass stuff on there unless there's a good PC only game that's come out on it.

 

[Irrotational]

I hope the thread gets enough traction and noise for more fixes to happen.

AFAIK the OG store was utterly fucked for everyone... They've managed to get it to a place now where it works for most people most of the time BUT when it doesn't, it fucks up completely and seems to force people into windows reinstalls.

It really cant/shouldn't be that hard, and MS and the xbox division specifically, need to keep pushing for it to be fixed.

 

[hey it's that dog]

I haven't had a problem with gamepass installations the last couple of times I subbed for a month. However, when I accidentally install the wrong Nvidia driver package and it tells me I have to download the control panel separately from the Windows store, that NEVER works.

 

[Phinor]

I've had all 3 issues, the install issue multiple times. For the install issue twice the only fix out of the dozens people suggested was re-installing Windows completely.

Luckily I haven't had any of these issues in the past few years but considering people still occasionally complain about these issues, I don't they are completely fixed and I've been lucky.

 

[Rickenslacker]

MS Store was simply not made to support things other than small apps, it's a disaster for games.

 

[MrBenchmark]

Does this help at all.
Uninstall game from add remove programs then.

To actually uninstall the game and delete it completely, go to your Settings, System, Storage, Temporary Files, and it's listed in Delivery Optimization Files.

I had removed all my temporary files which left nothing there. I installed Football Manager (5 Gigabytes) and uninstalled it. When I went to my settings, Delivery Optimization Files now had a size of 5 gigabytes.

 

[Jerm]

It's a cluster fuck that extends beyond the gaming side. I'm surprised they haven't worked out the kinks so far down the line.

 

[Don Dada]

It's awful, how can a platform holder create a store on their own os that has thousands of tried and tested stores on it and fuck up so badly I don't know.

 

[Skytylz]

I can't even play forza 7 on PC or xbox anymore, hard crashes and Microsoft won't do anything to help.

 

[KhandoleezzaRice]

I don't think I have but to be honest at this point I wouldn't even know. You don't have access to the folder and a lot of the games I've downloaded are on the small side so unless I paid attention to the capacity before and after I can't say. I can pay attention moving forward but how would I even tell for my prior games?

 

[Deleted member 7948]

I had this problem with Gears 5. Even if I deleted the game folder, Windows would just redownload the game.

Also, if you play a game with more than one user, you have to uninstall it with each user to get the space back.

 

[VirtualCloud]

Hell I couldn't even log into my xbox account till the latest windows update hit for some odd reason, I was able to play any games i had installed previously but I couldn't download anything else from gamepass, no clue why

 

[bobnowhere]

I've had all three as well. At the start of gamepass it was impossible to install games on other drives, patching worked maybe 50% of the time at best, if a patch failed it rarely uninstalled correctly and just stayed on the drive hidden, you'd then have to install it on another drive, after that started working, as the old broken install never goes away. Installs would constantly fail because reasons, then the Wasteland remastered completely refused to uninstall for like 6 months. On and on and on.

That being said, it is better now, mostly.

Maybe, Microsoft, if you stopped treating PC users like children who have never seen a PC before and just let them do what they want most of the issues would go away, the moronic hand-holding is holding you back and us back. If I didn't still have 2 free years left, I wouldn't be paying for the service.

 

[killa2max]

Honestly I've never had issues installing, reinstalling, or running games from the Xbox (Game Pass PC) or Windows Store, but I'm probably just lucky. Not surprised at all that people are having some issues with it.

 

[copelandmaster]

To this day I cannont install windows store software on my 840 evo because the newer front end can't detect it for whatever reason (the legacy end works just fine). Just updated to 2004/19041 withing the last month.

 

[RadioJoNES]

Had to reinstall MCC and now Slay the Spire will not open

 

[kubev]

The issue is other people have done this, and then the issue eventually happens again on their new install of Windows.

Click to shrink...

That's why I suggested doing it if it's been a year or two since you last did a clean install. If your installation of Windows 10 dates back further than that, and the Microsoft Store has been broken for longer than that, then I'd recommend doing a clean install. Doing a reset of the Microsoft Store or even of Windows 10 itself generally isn't enough. I do think the Microsoft Store has gotten more reliable over time, but I don't think that's because Microsoft released any patches for Windows that fixed an already botched Microsoft Store installation. I just think it happens to break less often (if at all) now, and you're better off starting from scratch if you haven't tried that in a while. The problem with fixing any Windows 10 issue is that so many people delay the update process (and Windows 10 will purposefully keep updates from you to allow other people more time to test them by not surfacing those updates unless you manually check for updates), so it's often hard to know which version of different problems you're even having. Doing a clean install and ensuring that you have the newest possible version of Windows 10 (by using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool) ensures that you're dealing with as solid a base as possible at the time of the clean install.

 

[ninezeroone]

Have had issues. Said there wasn't enough space to install a game on a 1TB SSD when I had just formatted that drive. The solution was to keep formatting the drive. Hopefully Game Pass comes to Steam.

 

[I KILL PXLS]

Just had a similar issue when I had to reinstall Windows for a separate issue. Couldn't install game pass games to my hard drive that had the old installs on it because the folder was already there. You have to change in Windows settings where to save new programs by default but it was unable to delete it that way. There are a crap ton of permissions on the folder itself (WindowsApps) so you can't just delete it yourself the old fashioned way. You have to have to go through a process to assign yourself full control via security settings in properties. Normally after that you'd be able to just hit delete but that didn't work for me. I had to go through CMD and delete via some commands in there and that worked.

OP, for your situation, I'd try to delete that WindowsApps (and WpSystems folder) or maybe just the related folder to Wasteland inside that via the method I went through before nuking Windows as a whole. I can link some details if you need.

 

[Deleted member 17184]

I never had any of these issues, and the last time I completely reinstalled Windows (formatting the SSD) was around two and a half years ago.

This is a wild guess, and I know it's the worst possible scenario for you, but considering the number of changes you've made to the system, it really might be best to install the latest version (October 2020) from scratch. My suspicion is that, as the Xbox app and the Windows Store are intrinsically integrated into the system, it's somehow conflicting with your changes. It might even be related to the changes made by your work's tech team.

There's a handy tool called Ninite that can download and install dozens of apps at once for you, without any toolbars or the like. It does install on the default location, so you might have to download some of them manually if you want to change that.

It also might be a good idea to have different user profiles for work and personal use. Keep the personal one tied to your Microsoft account and play games on that one. Let your work's tech team do whatever they need in the work profile.

Again, this is all based on my suspicion and I have no guarantee it will work. I understand reinstalling Windows still doesn't solve the problem for some, but it seems like the safest approach for you. It's frustrating, I know, and I also hope it can avoid issues in the future.

 

[Kilbane65]

Never had problems installing or uninstalling a game. Patching however, several times.
The biggest issue with GP on PC is that the Xbox app doesn't actually do those things, it's actually the MS Store app that does.
And the MS Store app is a complete POS.

 

[Zedelima]

I have exactly the same problem
The fucking game refuses to unistall...and almost nothing seems to work

 

[True Prophecy]

They need to untie it from the Win10 store make it it's own app like any other store app.

For those that have games "stuck" you can give your account permissions to folders to allow you to delete all of it.

I've had to do it before

 

[Deleted member 34714]

The MS store is really bad for a PC gaming when files are constantly updated or people just want to change some settings. Because of how tied the store is to the OS, the result is that people on PC are getting screwed over. My recent experience is PSO2. The MS STORE decided to redownload 80GB of the game over again TWICE because they think something changed in the folder.

I could go into detail why it happens too and part of the blame is on SEGA but the W10 STORE's structure shouldn't force a full redownload. It should just replace any files deemed not official or whatever like Steam does.

 

[Samanyolu]

Can't believe people would be willing to go so far to fix these issues. I wanted to try Gamepass on my Surface Pro 4, but I had too many issues with it and just let it go. Asked for a refund and that's that.

Lots of respect for the people who are this patient, because I certainly am not; But then again, I'm mainly a console player for reasons like these

 

[Allietraa]

I used to have all kinds of issues, havent run into anything in a while though(knock on wood...). The most frustrating thing about the MS store/gamepass experience was it just RANDOMLY breaking for no reason. I still cannot fathom how the MS store has been around for as long as it has been, the store/UWP has been(allegedly) a focal point for Windows for as long as it has been, and still has the absurd number of problems it does. Just amazing

 

[thediamondage]

I couldn't play gears 5 for months, every time I'd try to install it would give a random different error and never install. Eventually I figured out it was because I was trying to install to my D: drive (my 2TB raid), it apparently only wants to install to C:

probably not the same thing happening to you but maybe try installing to C:

I've pretty much given up on gaming on my PC, everything is always a little frustrating and between driver updates, weird crashes, hackers in multiplayer games, etc I just really find console games frustrating free and easy. the Windows store is absolutely awful, that whole UWP shit was a massive, huge mistake. I still remember it took like 4 months for Quantum Break to run at anything other than 1 fps because I had gSync.

 

[Hidant]

The other week I noticed Halo MCC was STILL hiding on my HDD!!

This was after I attempted numerous uninstalls through the Game Pass app. Eventually it didn't pop up when I selected "installed games" so I assumed it was gone.

Turns out it wasn't.

Click to shrink...

This has happened to me as well.

Click to shrink...

Try unchecking Delivery Optimization, it basically leaves the deleted files on the drive in case you wanted to install it on another PC in the same network.

How to Stop Delivery Optimization in Win 10? Here Is a Guide - MiniTool

Do you know how to stop Delivery Optimization in Windows 10? Now, in this post, we will show you an easy guide to help you solve your issue.

www.minitool.com

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[secretanchitman]

It's still a pain in the ass. I installed AoE3 last week and it doesn't even open (opens the Windows Store and shows the Gaming Services header but nowhere to launch or install). Tried the Xbox app and no go either.

It's the sole reason why I'm dropping my Game Pass subscription next year when it runs out in favor of Steam. I'm just going to buy the games I play there so I don't have to worry about this crap game management and be able to look at the files as I please (not hide/lock them away as the Windows Store does).

 

[Onebadlion]

Happened to me when I moved my secondary drive with all my Windows Store game installs to my new PC. Games wouldn't start and I couldn't delete them either. After trying all sorts of fixes and spending ages messing about with permissions I ended up having to format the drive and start again.

 

[flyinj]

Can't believe people would be willing to go so far to fix these issues. I wanted to try Gamepass on my Surface Pro 4, but I had too many issues with it and just let it go. Asked for a refund and that's that.

Lots of respect for the people who are this patient, because I certainly am not; But then again, I'm mainly a console player for reasons like these

Click to shrink...

Well, I'm signed up for 3 years of Gamepass so I'm not just going to walk away from that.

 

[Duxxy3]

All of the above. It's why I don't have gamepass for PC. The install/uninstall/update system is god awful. You shouldn't have to format a hard drive, or know how to take ownership of a folder, just to uninstall or install a game.

 

[Bede-x]

I never had the uninstall problem, but installing something has gone wrong several times. It does feel like it's improving though.

 

[a_mad_bag_of_cats]

Had uninstall and install problems. In one case an install reserved space. Failed then wanted to reserve another slot of space (I didn't have) to install.
Had problems uninstalling where I had master chief collection on game pass, but let the trial expire, uninstalled then bought it on steam and for some time I kept getting updates for both versions

 

[stat84]

Does this help at all.
Uninstall game from add remove programs then.

To actually uninstall the game and delete it completely, go to your Settings, System, Storage, Temporary Files, and it's listed in Delivery Optimization Files.

I had removed all my temporary files which left nothing there. I installed Football Manager (5 Gigabytes) and uninstalled it. When I went to my settings, Delivery Optimization Files now had a size of 5 gigabytes.

Click to shrink...

Wow thanks i just saved 70GB because of this.I don't know if it was any gamepass game but i did install several of them in the past

 

[Deleted member 34714]

I never had the uninstall problem, but installing something has gone wrong several times. It does feel like it's improving though.

Click to shrink...

Nothing has improved. It's the same as it ever was since launch of W10. The folder that W10 store puts files in are completely encrypted and will not tolerate change. That is why so many issues keep popping up with install/redownloads or folks just can't even delete the files.

 

[MrBenchmark]

Wow thanks i just saved 70GB because of this.I don't know if it was any gamepass game but i did install several of them in the past

Click to shrink...

No problem discovered this a while back as I use a 512gb NVME for the games I play currently.

 

[canderous]

I haven't had issues installing, playing, and uninstalling from the Xbox app, but I am just installing games to the default drive. I heard putting them on secondary drives can be problematic.

Also messing with WindowsApps folder permissions can sometimes make the problem worse. You can try here for solutions to restoring those permissions to default.

Other things to try would be launching a game as administrator and see if it opens, can also try booting into safe mode and it may let you access the windowsapps folder for deleting stuff as well.

They really need to drop the windowsapp folder nonsense.

 

[stat84]

No problem discovered this a while back as I use a 512gb NVME for the games I play currently.

Click to shrink...

Yeah me too so 70GB is pretty good

 

[mordecaii83]

Yep, I've had all these problems. Granted I haven't tried to install anything new for about 18 months, so it could be better now. I go out of my way now to avoid using the MS Store/Xbox app and it's why I wouldn't even consider continuing PC Gamepass once my super cheap 3 years runs out.

 

[asmith906]

Have you tried updating windows. A few years ago my Windows Store was so broken I couldn't even open it. Microsoft pushed out a big update to windows and after that I was able to open the store fine. Before that I would have needed to reinstall my entire windows.

 

[Teamocil]

I have had zero issues with the Game Pass app. Every time I read stuff like it's it seems just bizarre to me that such big issues are so prevalent.

 

[molnizzle]

I have to fully delete and re-download the entire MCC every single time they patch it.

First time I had to do this I couldn't launch the game for days afterward because I had the Xbox game bar thing disabled. I still have that nonsense turned on now, just for MCC.

 

[Deleted member 4212]

This is why I won't install any Game Pass games on my boot drive. I'll install on my other drives in case I need to format them later.

 

[Atolm]

I had tons of issues with games not launching.

 

[Kida]

I've not had any issues personally but I can't understand why they haven't moved away from the Windows store and UWP. With Game Pass for PC they actually have a chance to be a competitive launcher and storefront if they can get their shit together. They've been trying for years to fix these issues and it seems they've made almost no progress.

 

[Horp]

Can you imagine that the nr 1 reason MS removed Windows as one of the companies 4 primary legs, and relegated it to being just one of many apps is because they saw so little engagement and revenue from the win 10 store.
Like... how about creating a store that actually works, first.

(Source:worked there during the big reorg)