That’s the bit that’s avoided by renaming the folder… the uninstall then seems to only remove the core files. My (part) reinstall took probably less than 2minutes.
The important bit is that its working although I’d suggest that formatting a drive is the very last resort.
Hold down: Ctrl,Shift,Esc and open Task Mgr. ..Scroll down to Game Services and rt. click- press “end task”. Restart Game… worked for me.
But I wasn’t allowed to rename the FS folder. I’m sure that I mentioned that earlier. Access was denied even though I took ownership. I tried everything to take ownership with zero luck. Believe me, I would have renamed my fs folder if I was allowed 
As an aside, I’ve never been able to delete or move anything in or out of the community folder either - access denied. In past updates, all I could do is rename the community folder by adding an underscore followed by “old”. After the update, I would delete the newly added community folder, then rename the old one back to “community”. Why I am denied access to the community folder is something I never understood. I had to live with it.
If I tried to install the sim after using its uninstaller, I would get that mandatory update message (1.18.14.0) because it only installed 1.18.13.0. Something in my D’\ SSD (my dedicated fs drive) was preventing a proper installation. I looked at my D drive to see if it was empty but it wasn’t. There was 690Mb of FS stuff in there which I couldn’t explore or delete - access denied.
This left me with no choice but to wipe the D drive which is my dedicated sim SSD. Only then would it install and this time included 1.18.14.0. After formatting and initialising D, when I went to install fs again there was 1.1Gb of data which is correct. Prior to formatting, FS downloaded exactly 690Mb - exactly what was left after using its uninstaller. That is not correct. It’s how I realised something in my D drive was preventing a clean install.
Very strange behaviour indeed
Try to rename it after start windows in safe mode. This works for me.
Good suggestion. I haven’t thought of that. Thank you 
PS. Seeing that I’m not allowed access to the FS folder where FS. Exe is, (so I can set its properties to run as administrator), would safe mode allow that?
Yes, access is denied. But not important for renaming. Just rename in safe mode:
Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe to i.e. orig_ Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe
in your folder C:\Users<your_username>\AppData\Local\Packages\
reboot PC for normal access, uninstall MSFS, rename it back and install MSFS again.
Hello,
have the exact same issue.
Tried renaming, resetting store, uninstalling, … nothing works. Stuck on 1.18.13.0
Ending Game Services in Task Manager and then restarting MSFS worked for me as well.
Thank you!
This also worked for me. I searched for Services and loaded the Services App as Administrator. I scrolled down to Gaming Services and stopped both services, one is listed under startup type as Automatic and the other Automatic (Trigger Start). I then started Flight Simulator and it’s now downloading a 127.96GB file. Oh joy! At least it’s working again.
Before this issue, I was on version 1.18.14.0
I did not realized there is one more new version 
Baut for me, it dose not work. I have again to rename installation folder in secure mode, uninstall msfs, rename install folder back and install msfs again.
i have tried everything - restarting, rebooting, logging out, logging in, loggin out, restarting, restarting gaming services…nothing works and cannot play.
I just ran into the same issue. I went into the Store and there were a couple of available updates but none for the sim. However, after I logged out and in the sim was suddenly undated in the Store! I didn’t see it download and install any update but it was apparently doing that in the background for some reason. So, perhaps you should let the Store be opened for a while and then log out and in again.
Same issue, no update for 1.18.15.0
I have logged out and in about 30 times over a space of 4 hours so far. Nothing
when starting MSFS i got a message from virus scanner IDS.GENERIC found and blocked.
I cannot play the game, because it doesnt update.
Please help me,
Thanks in advance
Install the XBOX App from MS Store. run that and it will show an update for MSFS. then back to Store and check for updates again and it shows.
This is the first time I have had to do this but it works.
Your method worked for me as well. Thanks!
Same problem here too.
I got a list of some apps in the store to update. MSFS is at the bottom. Seems like the store only updated the first two, Gaming Service and xbox app. All the other apps in the list are saying latest update 30.07.21. When I start FS it says update is needed, but the store says all app are up to date, even though there is still a handfull of apps in the update list.
Tried resetting the store, troubleshooting, logging out logging in etc. nothing helped.
Then I shut down gaming service via taskmanager.
Now I am able to load FS but I am still on version 1.18.14.0.
So, did I just found a way to circumvent any further updates?
The update process for this sim is utter tripe. Not sure if this is due to the Microsoft store or the sim itself. I think they are both dreadful. The delivery of a major title should not be this completely broken.
I had this problem. I installed xbox app and tried to launch the game there. After that the update showed up in the Store. Do not uninstall or mess with the files. Have patience friends! Developers are the best, it is the producers etc. who mess this up. They have decided that the direction is towards console. I think upcoming xbox cloud gaming is a huge factor here.