Do you have any add-ons in your Community folder? If yes, please remove and retest before posting.
Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it? No
Brief description of the issue:: The program runs fine for several days and then during the start-up process “Checking for Updates” I get a black screen with a blue progress bar at the bottom of the screen which is approximately 10% completed and the computer continues downloading until the progress bar reaches approximately 80% where the process “stalls”. I’ve tried all of the suggested fixes with no success. I’ve had to re-download the “data” 3 times and the program runs fine for a week or two, then the same problem re-occurs. I don’t understand why Microsoft has not resolved the problem as it’s experienced by quite a number of purchasers. Why do I have to download 108.66 Gb of data (takes 24+ hours) each time this problem occurs? I feel that Microsoft’s response to this issue is pathetic and I’m considering returning to X-Plane for a couple of years until this ongoing issue is resolved.
Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:
Detail steps to reproduce the issue encountered: Tried all of the suggestions…nothing worked
PC specs for those who want to assist (if not entered in your profile)
Did you submit this to Zendesk? If so, what is your ticket #?
HI. I had exactly the same problem and been reloading msfs 2 or 3 times without having any improvement. Eventually I checked again at the add ons in my community file and discovered that my working title CJ4 was spoiled. Thus when I was uninstalling it from my community in fact it remained loaded cause the spoil of the file made the uninstall impossible. After a total uninstall of both msfs and CJ4 and then a fresh reinstall everything seems to be ok again.
Hope this will help should you have this addon. At least I beleive that any specific addon in the community could cause the problem. So it’s likely to be helpfull to check at all of them one by one.
Thanks for the info. I am really fed up with MSFS, Nothing seems to work and Microsoft/Zendesk response has been nonexistent. I actually called X-Box support and got a person on the the line who barely spoke English and they read for a prepared script: “Is your computer turned on.” They had no useful suggestions. I don’t understand why I have to download the complete application (108 Gb) each time there is an issue.Why are “updates” mandatory? Why does my computer suddenly and w/o warning give me a black screen with a stalled blue bar." I thing this program is really not ready for “Prime Time”.
So far I have W10 2004 i.e not updated to 20H2 but it’s working anyway so I’m not sure that the updates are mandatory actually.
What I think is that something went wrong with X Box recently. Possibly the link to the server or any other funny thing. And this could have been the reason why some files would have been spoiled. Of course it’s a guess. I’ve seen on other forums that we’d better cancel the automatic X Box update in the Microsoft store.
Being a 68 years old french guy you can imagine that I’m not really up to date with all these bloody computer things and my english is also sometimes very lousy so I may have some difficulties to understand everything. Hope you can…
Personnaly I bought the game directly from Microsoft store. Not Steam and I’m flying on PC only.
Zendesk is giving the main causes of possible problems but they are likely unable to answer all the specific questions. With respect to X Box support I don’t know who they are. But I agree that asking if your computer was on seems to be a real lack of skill (To say the least…)
You do not mention if you are having add ons in your community folder. But still, if so, I really think that it could be the main source for this problem. So, even if it’s a pain in the …, I think that a fresh re install of both the game and the add ons (One by one) could be the solution. That’s what I did and it seems to be working correctly again. Considering that up to this X Box link problem my MSFS was perfectly working since last august.
I am having the same problem. The blue line slowly moves across the screen and seems to stall.
The is has happened 3 times…I dont have any answers.
The good news is that I got FS9 installed and is working. I did download some registry cleaning software which was recommended to help get FSX installed. Well until this gets solved, I will just be happy flying Century of Flight!
My MSFS did work great until today. I ran it this morning. I then spent the rest of the day trying to get FSX installed. I was not successful and gave up.
I’ve been having this issue for about a week. MSFS starts fine…at first, seeing all of the intro screens (Adobo, Blackshark, xbox) I then see the opening scenery screen. After a few seconds the screen goes black and the thin blue bar very slowly goes to about 80% loaded and stalls. Task manager shows 0% processor usage for the game. Tried the repair feature in advanced settings in the app menu on the control panel, no good. Finally tried the rest app feature under MSFS in the control panel advanced settings, it appears to have worked.
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There is a control panel? Where is it. I know where FS9 is, Microsoft games. I cant find the MSFS folder.
I have just had to re-install the MSFS program from the Microsoft Store. Too 24 hrs+. What a PIA. No I also have to download all of the extra aircraft and reassign on the keyboard camera settings. I have read that aircraft and/or livery packs added tot he Community Folder can create problems so I have just added the Fly by Wire A32X and will wait and see what happens. The program checks every time on boot whether there are updates available then it’s supposed to change to the usual upgrade screen with the blue progress indicator and information re what files are being downloaded. For some reason something is telling MSFS an update is needed and it then changes to a totally black screen with no other information that the blue progress bar which sticks around 75-80%. . I have also heard the X-Box program has issues. I’ve unchecked the automatic update feathure within the Microsoft Store. Like pretty much everyone else I love the program when it works properly but this issue is becoming intolerable.
It took 5 hrs to download. The tech at Best Buy said the only fix is to uninstall. 
I am sad right now, I have uninstalled MSFS, how do I get it back on. Do I have to buy it again?
No. Just log onto the Microsoft Store site and your purchase should appear in the list. Just click on the Install logo and the install should proceed automatically. I just re-installed this morning and have been playing all day w/o any problems. I only selected 1 airliner thru the content screen…Airbus 320 and then installed the Fly by Wire Airbus 320NX into the Community Folder. So far so good. I’m not going to make any changes or additions for the next 2 weeks and so how everything goes.
On the left lower corner of your screen next to the Windows logo is a magnifier symbol. Just press that and enter “Apps & Features”. Select that program , then scroll down to Microsoft Flight Simulator and select Advanced Options. You can select Fix to try and fix this issue which didn’t work for me or Reset which will re-download the game but keep all of your settings. That’s what I did and it lasted around a week before the problem "black screen-blue bar re-appeared. No help from Microsoft or X-Box…like they’re on another planet.
Thanks, I will try. I have flying FS9, it works great, I mean you hit the icon and in a blink of an
eye…its on!
Had the same problem re-appear after a week of running the game ok. All ok until the “looking for updates” screen ran for about 30 seconds then a black screen with a blue bar at the bottom appeared as before. Seems like these errors are happening 1X per week. The “Looking for Updates” message seems to run longer and longer each day until a week passes then the error. Same solution as before. Had to uninstall the game completely and re-download (36++ hours this time) and re-start. Royal Pain in the A…" I don’t understand why either Microsoft or X-Box can’t/won’t fix this problem. I’ve tried all of the suggested solutions w/o success. Could this be a problem with X-Box?
Hi Had the same several times and posted to zendesk. Of course got there usual email giving several possibilities to overcome the problem but just like you, it all ended up by a total re installation of the game.
In one of zendesk emails I could see that they were trying to fix the problem and without any other real information I guesses that it was a problem with X-Box live. (Personnally I did not have any problem since the launch in august - having bought from the store- and got this only once X Box live was introduced.
Recently I did an update of the X Box live credentials (I.e making sure that the credentials were exactly the same as those one of the MS account) and re-installed the game.
It seems to be working again whatever the way of opening the sim i.e either from the account or from XBox. For how long…Lord knows…
Hope this will help.
However I think that we have to be patients. This sim is really nice and once we’ll get Aerosoft, QW or PMDG’s add ons it’s gonna be a real piece of cake.
Happy flight
I agree. It’s a great game compared to the graphics, etc for FSX which I played since the beginning. I hope PMDG comes out with a B737-800 series plane. In the meantime I’m stuck with having to re-install the game every week because I can’t get anyone at Microsoft/X-Box to provide a fix for this problem which has affected quite a few people. I wish they would develop and publish the game in 2 parts…1 being the base which doesn’t change and could be downloaded just once and the 2nd part which would be a much smaller download which contained all of the “updates”. At least that way a failure or conflict issue wouldn’t necessitate downloading the full file ,(108 Gb). In mu opinion just a poor way of developing software.
I have since reinstalled MSFS and this time I downloaded the one from the Microsoft store. It was there all along, I didnt think to look there. I had downloaded the one from the X Box folder and that was wrong one. The sim has been running fine now, and I really like the new scenery.
