Yesterday, Dec. 7, I flew 2 flights. Entered the sim, entered a flight plan and flew the flight. Normal in all respects, and I then exited the sim normally. An hour or so later I re-entered the sim and flew another flight. Again all was well and after the flight I exited the sim normally. I then played solitaire a couple times, started a movie on Hulu, watched it for an hour or so then exited it and had dinner. About an hour later decided to fly one more flight–that’s when I noticed the MSFS icon was different–it no longer had the MSFS picture, it was just a generic looking page. When I clicked on it nothing happened. Tried that a few times. No joy. Opened Start menu to start the sim from there. Missing. Entered File Explorer and began to search for the sim. Looked in Programs, Programsx86, and Downloads. I then went into C:Local/Users/Me/appdata/lLocal/Packages etc (whatever that actual path was). No sim. Searched that path to Microsoft and examined all the entries there. No sim.
Completely puzzled I went into the Store and found all three versions of MSFS 2020. The Premium Deluxe (the version I have) had a note that said You Own This. All three versions had a button saying Install Using Xbox App. I thought about that for a while but couldn’t think of anything else to do so decided to push it to see what it would do. Boom, immediately started installing the sim. So I let it continue.
It installed for about 6 hours thru the night. When I checked this a.m. it was installed. I entered the sim, installed a couple of the Content Mgr apps and decided to try it out. Exited the sim, restarted it, selected the A320Neo and began the flight. All seemed normal, most but not all of my settings were there including my joystick/throttle settings. Flew the flight. Everything normal (lost ATC voice after a bit but that happens anyway).
So, I assume two kinds of magic are at work here,; a. Black magic that deleted the sim and, b. Good magic that saved my settings. But how can the sim be deleted without me knowing, and how can the sim be deleted in well under two hours when it takes 6 plus hours to install it.
Seriously, anyone have an explanation for how this could happen? I’d like to avoid it in the future.
Thanks for reading.
I have no idea how the sim was deleted, but GBs of files can be deleted rather quickly because all Windows has to do is mark the sectors used by the files as free to assign to new files, Windows does not actually erase the data in those sectors.
All - In another post it was shown how to backup this sim to another drive/location. I did that because it takes me 5 days to download with very slow internet here. In fact, think I should put it in two places now after reading this. If it fails again, I am done with sim period. Although having spent some money on planes for this sim, the frustrations are starting to weigh on me more than the fun it used to be. Believe, based on comments in other threads, that in line with issues with NVidia latest driver, and the beta testing for SU8, the next one is going to finish me.
My last good movie was Godzilla Vs King Kong (new version), since then unable to find anything to capture my interest. Sad really sad, was a movie buff since childhood, and that was long, long time ago.
Yeah, I hear ya. I’ve had similar feelings about this sim now and then–particularly after a CTD. I’ve only had one of those since SU7 knock on wood. On the other hand, I have had so many awe inspiring moments, particularly in external view, and so many white knuckle experiences when an instrument approach goes horribly wrong, that I just love this sim to death–most of the time. Like you, I await each update with concern and when something goes awry immediately after an update I get very frustrated, consider going back to X-Plane 11 or trying something else, but in the end I expect I’ll stay with this sim and tough it out. It really is amazing and mostly works beautifully. Twenty years ago I had no conception of how exciting and engrossing and realistic a flight sim could be.
The sim is actually installed under Windows Apps directory, which is under the Programs directory, I think. Something like:
C:/Programs/Windows Apps/Microsoft Flight Simulator… Etc.
You may not have permissions to enter Windows Apps path.
The only weird I experienced was a full update in an entire different path from where is was originally installed. I had the main sim (Program code) on my C drive and the content on D drive. That weird install put everything on D drive, under a long path that caused errors for a mod because the long directories/file length was too long for the system maximum file length.
Thanks Prop. I just took a look and I don’t have anything in Programs/Windows that looks anything like the sim, just several misc. files. When the delete first happened I did a pretty thorough search of Progams and Programsx86. Don’t think I missed it.
My memory… It is C:\Program Files\WindowsApps for which I do not have permission to access (even as Administrator) and I do not want to “Take ownership”. There are a lot of WindowsApps there. You can right-click WindowsApps and select Properties, Security, Advanced. then change Owner from TrustedInstaller to your . then you can see the files under WindowsApp directory.
I placed my content folder on another drive and I can view and edit files in the Community directory.
I imagine your content files are under:
C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe