ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Description of the issue:
Please forgive the length of this description. The issue is complex, and despite nearly half a year of reaching out to multiple support channels, I have yet to find a resolution. I hope this post will finally give my efforts the reward they deserve.
I should mention upfront that English is not my native language. To make it easier for everyone to understand my situation and to help resolve the issue efficiently, I switched the language of my simulator, Steam, and Xbox to English, and I took screenshots and screen recordings. This is not my usual language setting—I normally use Simplified Chinese. Please excuse any expressions that may sound unnatural or awkward.
Let me explain the background of this issue. I purchased Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on Steam on November 22, 2024 (hereafter referred to as “Time A”) and played it for about a year. During that period, I always launched it on Steam by pressing “PLAY” and exited by pressing “Quit to Desktop” each time, to ensure that my progress was properly saved to the cloud. Everything worked fine, despite the many well‑known bugs.
However, things took a turn for the worse after a login issue occurred. Perhaps because I hadn’t launched the simulator for about 40 days, one time after I launched it, the system asked me to log in to my Microsoft account. But when I clicked the verification box, nothing happened. I tried many solutions, but none resolved the issue. I then contacted the Microsoft Flight Simulator Support Team. They told me that my last login had been on November 22, 2025 (hereafter referred to as “Time B”). This meant that from Time A to Time B, all my data had been synchronously saved to the cloud, because I always started and ended the simulator in the correct way. They suggested I try launching it from Xbox, and I followed their advice. I don’t know whether that affected the cloud data. Since that method didn’t solve the problem, they suggested I reset my Windows. Before doing so, I backed up my simulator by clicking “Back up game files…” on Steam. After the first reset, the issue persisted, so they suggested a second reset, and I complied. After that, under support guidance, I performed a series of operations and eventually succeeded in resolving the login issue.
During the period when the login issue remained unresolved, I ended the simulator by clicking “STOP” on Steam, because the simulator couldn’t load. I knew this might cause the local data to not sync with the cloud, but it shouldn’t have affected the data from Time A to Time B. After the login issue was successfully resolved, my simulator began to load. However, just as the loading completed and I thought I could finally use it normally, something unexpected happened. I clicked “Career” on the main menu, and it started playing the introductory animation that initially appears when starting Career Mode. After the animation ended, the simulator asked me from which airport I wanted to start my career. At that point, I realized that my Career Mode progress was completely lost. I exited and re‑entered the simulator, clicked “Career” again, and saw only the same airport selection interface.
I then reported this situation to them and provided the following details:
(1) I had never reset my Career Mode progress before.
(2) I used the same gamertag throughout.
(3) I checked my Steam and confirmed that my simulator was on the latest default public version.
(4) I checked my Xbox Insider Hub and confirmed that I had not participated in the beta test.
At the same time, I told them that I needed my Career Mode progress restored to the state at Time B. They said they could not resolve this issue.
After I discovered that my Career Mode progress had been completely reset, I learned that Career Mode data is not backed up to Steam’s cloud storage, but to Microsoft Azure instead. That means what I backed up from Steam did not include my Career Mode progress, and the owner of this data is actually the Xbox online service. So I decided to turn to the Xbox Support Team for help. After consulting them several times, they still hadn’t resolved my issue. One of their agents told me to contact Steam Support, since I purchased the simulator on Steam, so I did and consulted them several times as well. They then said they couldn’t resolve it and suggested I contact Simulator Support again. Having no other choice, I returned to Simulator Support and created a new ticket.
They insisted that my simulator was in the beta version and repeatedly showed me statistics from the beta server. But this was clearly completely different from what I saw on my end. It is worth noting that, in an attempt to restore my progress, I tried selecting a first‑flight airport. This not only failed to restore the progress, but also recorded that selection as new progress. Later, I tried switching to the beta version and then quickly switching back to the default public version, to see if that would restore the progress, but it ultimately didn’t work. This may have been the reason why Simulator Support kept mistakenly believing that my simulator was in the beta version—because after I switched back to the public version, my Career Mode had no new progress at all; it remained in the state where the first‑flight airport had been selected and I was preparing for the first flight.
During the last few email exchanges in this ticket, a specific agent who was very impatient always replied to me. Even though I confirmed that my simulator was on the default public version and provided many screenshots as evidence, he insisted it was in beta and seemed not to have read my emails—he repeatedly misunderstood my situation and purpose. Not only did he keep thinking my simulator was in beta, but he also absurdly believed that my purpose was to transfer beta progress to the default public version. At the end of that ticket, he even threatened that if I opened it again, they would consider it spam and might be forced to suspend access to my Zendesk account. Since he hadn’t resolved my issue, I had to create a new ticket and stressed that he should not be assigned to respond this time. At first, a new agent replied, but still couldn’t resolve my issue. Then that impatient agent came back. He said I refused to accept the fact that all my problems were caused because I started my career on beta servers. But in fact, I started my career on the default public version—there was no beta version on Steam at Time A. Finally, he didn’t forget to threaten me again: if I continued to reply on this matter, they would consider it spam, and might be forced to suspend access to my Zendesk account.
After careful consideration, I have decided not to contact Simulator Support via email to resolve this issue anymore. Instead, I am posting this on the forum to report the issue. This is currently the last possible way to get this resolved. I hope this issue will receive due attention and be resolved as soon as possible.
FREQUENCY OF ISSUE
Between Time A and Time B, this issue never occurred. However, after the login issue was resolved and I was able to enter the main menu and click “Career,” I discovered that my Career Mode progress had been completely reset, and it has remained so ever since.
REPRODUCTION STEPS
I must first declare that the steps below are a simplified version. The actual situation I encountered was more complex. I am merely speculating on what might have caused the problem and listing the steps chronologically.
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Please ensure your PC is running Windows 11. Launch Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 from Steam by pressing “PLAY”. To compare the effect after following these steps, you need to have an initial Career Mode progress that is not empty. After you have that, quit the simulator by pressing “Quit to Desktop” on the main menu and wait until Steam has successfully saved your progress.
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Launch your simulator from Steam again by pressing “PLAY”, then try to trigger the page that asks you to log in with your Microsoft account. When that page appears, do not log in. Instead, quit the simulator by pressing “STOP” in Steam, and wait until Steam has successfully saved the progress.
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Launch your simulator from Xbox by pressing “Play”, then try to trigger the login page again. When it appears, do not log in. Instead, quit the simulator by pressing “STOP” in Steam, and wait until Steam has successfully saved the progress.
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Repeat steps 2 and 3 several times.
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Back up your simulator from Steam by clicking “Back up game files…”. Please note that this backup will not be used in later steps. After finishing the backup, reset Windows 11 and delete all data. Once your computer finishes resetting and restarts, download Steam. If Xbox is not preinstalled, download it as well.
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Repeat steps 2 and 3 several times.
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Launch your simulator from Steam again by pressing “PLAY”, and trigger the login page. This time, log in, and the simulator will start loading. After loading is complete and you enter the main menu, click on “Career” to see if your progress has been completely reset.
YOUR SETTINGS
What peripherals are you using:
[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?
Neither.
[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?
GPU 0:Intel(R) UHD Graphics
GPU 1:NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?
CPU:Intel(R) Core™ i7-10870H CPU @ 2.20GHz
Memory:16.0 GB
Disk 0 (C:):PC SN530 NVMe WDC 512GB
MEDIA
Screenshots:
Vedios:Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 - 1.7.27.0 2026-05-29 23-19-33.mp4