Sat watching the checking for updates screen again after four restarts Xbox series x. Same things that you described. I see several suggestions on getting past this screen for PC but nothing for x box.
It’s Friday again so we may be waiting for a while. I see it’s been escalated so I await the outcome. Confidence is waining.
I’m running into this right now on my XsX. I’ve restarted the console and the game multiple times, and it is just stuck in Checking for Updates.
There´s no problem to do that. What happens is the following:
- If core game files were deleted → upon launch game will ask you to download them again
- If official files were deleted → user can manually download them again from Marketplace (they will be listed under the “not installed” section)
- Steam and MS Store work in the same way. What both install is just the game launcher (the executable pack). Once launched game behaves the same (connects to game servers) so both will get official patches and Marketplace addons from servers.
IMPORTANT: in case you manually delete anything just delete the whole addon folder, not contents inside it. Game patching system and Marketplace are unable to detect missing content inside addon folders (single files or subfolders), just missing addon folders themselves. They can only patch contents partially (so inside folders) when a version change is published officially.
Cheers
Just for today (I’m on PC):
First it asked me to insert game disc which I don’t have. Next try all my settings are set back to default and now it’s stuck on checking for updates. The last week it’s becoming more and more difficult to play this game with all the (server) issues. I’ve spend too much money on this game to say I’ll delete it all because of all the problems it gives. This is not for only the last week.
The “checking for updates” issues can occur for a wide variety of reasons. Let me offer some suggestions to see if this will help any of you. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is the things that I see most often causing these particular problems. I want to preface this by stating that yes this could be caused by something server sided, but I did want to offer suggestions in case it is not. This can sometimes just be a temporary issue. Before trying any of the steps below, I would advise waiting, rebooting your PC, and trying again later. If the problems persists, then continue with the steps below.
REPAIR GAMING SERVICES (this also can cause the “insert disc” error)
There was an Gaming Services update released in April, and ever since then we have seen an increase in problems due to the app. The dev team has no control over this app, but it is used by MSFS for verifying digital ownership, communicating to the MSFS servers, and connecting in to XBox Live Services.
MS Store / XBox app users:
- Reset the Microsoft Store app
- On your keyboard, press the “Win Logo” + “R” keys
- Type WSReset.exe and press “Enter.”
- A black window will pop up
- Wait until the pop-up disappears and the Store comes up
- Reboot your computer
2. Repair Gaming Services
You can use this tool from the Xbox app or try the downloadable version. For more information on how to run this tool, visit:
MODS
Mods can and often do cause MSFS to hang during this stage. Do not skip this step if you are having problems on PC.
https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886545938-How-to-restore-the-sim-to-its-vanilla-state-to-get-back-in-game
XBox users - this is usually caused by a profile issue.
- Press the Xbox button to open the guide.
- Select Profile & system, and then select Add or switch.
- Select a profile other than the one you were previously using.
- Now restart the game to see if it works correctly under a different profile.
If you can play the sim with a different profile, delete the cloud save. To do so, follow this guide:
If you cannot play the sim with a different profile, clear the reserved space then do a clean installation via the content manager.
- Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide.
- Highlight Microsoft Flight Simulator, press the Menu button on your controller, and select Quit.
- Once you fully quit the game, press the Xbox button to open the guide and then select My games & apps > See all > Games.
- Highlight Microsoft Flight Simulator, and then press the Menu button on your controller.
- Select Manage game and add-ons > Saved data.
- Highlight Reserved space
- Press A then select Clear Reserved Space
- Launch Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Redownload the content via the Content Manager
I have tried all the above suggested fixes, for PC, but still stuck at checking for updates.
I’m on pc and for the first time stuck on looking for updates
Mine just went through
Just took about 20-30 minutes here to get through the “Checking for Updates” without me changing anything on the sim since wednesday. I guess that is somehow related to the outage from yesterday, that something between our clients and the servers got nuked and now needs to be rebuilt by downloading some huge data?
But the question is why isnt it setup to say hey im downloaidng something. Why does it jjst say checki g for uodayes. Further more. WHAT is it downloading? I have gigabit speeds and its peeked at about 600Mbps and ive been sitting here about 6 minites waiting. Again ANOTHER reason a flight sime should NOT be reliant on an internet connection.
Literally none of what you suggested has worked. The only thing that worked was letting ut sit and do whatever it was doing. Of course ive no clue of what it is but as i commented earlier more than no it was downloading or doing something that consumer 600+Mbps. Be nice to know exactly what that was.
Edit. Im NOT saying its downloading something but its definitely doing something. I use my old pc as a test bench for games i mod. I leave completely untouched vanilla games on it and it suffered the same “checking for updates” as my main pc. Dare i say it was on the server end abd not on our end.
The problem was gone for a couple of says but is back again. With me it only happens if I have opened a livery in the Community folder for a change.
I am not sure it is actually downloading anything. I think it is doing some sort of verifying or checking.
yes same here, it will eventually stop checking. But it can take a long time.
still get this,pc,close and new start fix it…
or fix it not,all the zendesk way do nothing wat work longer then a few start,sometimes the next do not get over the check.
it get Ridiculus 
I had “The initialization of VR failed” error and not after restart I’m stuck in checking for updates like y’all.
Same here, stuck on “Checking for Updates”. MS Store PC version.
This started on the 10th June 2024.
I tried everything here
https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407168022418-How-to-get-past-the-Checking-for-Updates-screen
What works is to start the Xbox app,
logout then login.
Once, I got errors re-login, then it finally logged in.
Seeing the number of posts in the last few hours, suggests a problem with the servers, especially that there were servers / Online Services problems in the last few days.
It didn’t work for me, nor did the time synchronization thing. This is clearly a problem on Asobo’s part.
Take charge of solving there are many with this problem
I’m on Xbox series X and I’ve started getting this problem today. Managed to get it started earlier today by deleting profile from console and restarting.
Just trying to be constructive here, please don´t get me wrong. I appreciate all efforts as I know myself this problem is a true pain when it happens as it simply prevents users to launch game, so impact is big.
The linked article is dated on Oct 2021 so this is really outdated. For example “Content.xml” has been removed from game many months ago so it has no sense that it still appears as a suggested step. Mods themselves are not the problem either for several reasons:
-
The update loop is stuck at game launch. At that point what is being checked are game patches (SUs and core files updates). The process hangs there, where mods have not been yet processed nor loaded. That is what should be investigated because at that point client is just asking for latest versions to server and server is simply not replying. This is the real problem. There´s no incomming traffic at all and there´s no exit from that step in the code.
-
Third party mods start to be loaded after the previous step is complete. If faulty mods exist then game simply crashes to desktop or fails loading them once you are flying. Anyway for the updating process it does not matter if mods are faulty. It only matters that they have their json file, which is what contains the version string.
-
Where mods can start to be relevant is at the second update check (short before loading main menu after game launch is complete) because there Marketplace updates will be the ones checked and proposed updates will appear by means of the notification icon on top right portion of the screen. Community addons can´t be checked by Marketplace so proposing to empty Community folder has no sense as it´s not really involved in the process at all.
-
There´s yet another update check (similar to the Marketplace one) when you return to main menu after a flight. Sim can also hang there as well as in second check.
However amount of local addon files (those are also core files and official files like WUs or airports, not only third party mods) was confirmed by Asobo as reason for the original problem, and was the reason for first server fix to be deployed. That was also confirmed by several users in the forum prior to get the official server fix as reducing amount of addon folders below a given limit prevented the issue to happen. Prior to the fix the hanging could be also bypassed forcing offline mode. That terminated the waiting for server response and allowed game to start loading content on its own.
So mods are not the reason. Amount of addon folders included in the client request to server appears to be the real reason, or at least appears to matter. Reply from server to client is clearly also a relevant factor. That´s why forcing offline mode bypassed the problem in the past.
So the original problem that was formerly fixed has simply returned. It may be random or involves maybe gaming services as you explained, sure, but it´s clear that the initial fix solved it, at least partially and for several months, so that was a good approach I would say.
Today I was running game (without having seen the issue for months). I quit game for a break and returned. When I launched game, without PC having been switched off and without having modified my local content at all, I faced the problem again once. Afterwards, without doing anything, I could load game fine. How can this be explained? The only variable that changed between the three attempts to launch game is that my client called server 3 times using exactly the same local configuration everytime. Client can´t be the reason. It´s quite evident.
I hope it helps. I really wish problem is gone soon and thanks for supporting us.
Cheers