On Friday, March 21 a majority of those who participated in Sim Update 1 flighting on Windows PC received an automatic update to 1.3.23.0. This automatic update also reset folders and certain settings within the sim, imitating a full uninstall/reinstall. This issue was triggered by backend changes made in preparation for the start of Sim Update 2 flighting (more detail on this below), and only affected users who participated in Sim Update 1 flighting on Windows PC.
For all the users who were impacted by this, we are incredibly sorry and will take steps to ensure this never happens again. While the behavior which prompted an automatic update on Windows PC is still under investigation, we understand what triggered the issue and have the means to approach it differently in the future.
We recommend any users who still have a pending update on Windows PC (via the Xbox app) to leave the flighting group via the Xbox Insider Hub (instructions below). Per feedback from others in the community and our own testing, this will remove the update prompt.
- Launch the Xbox Insider Hub app.
- Navigate to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Beta
- Select Manage.
- At the bottom of the UI, select “Leave preview”.
- Wait for the process to complete, then restart your PC.
We again apologize to everyone affected for the inconvenience and pain this caused. Your feedback is truly invaluable, and we greatly appreciate everyone who participates in flighting.
-The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team
Below is a summary of the circumstances and events which led to the automatic update on Windows PC.
Sim Update 1 presented a unique situation for those who had previously participated in flighting. The release build of Sim Update 1, which included Marketplace functionality, was 1.3.23.0. The final Sim Update 1 flighting build, which included all other functionality except Marketplace, was 1.3.24.0. Under normal circumstances, the publishing pipeline on Xbox and Windows PC (non-Steam) does not allow automatic updates to a lower version number (to go from version .24 to .23). To update to a lower version number, all users would have to uninstall/reinstall the sim, which is not the experience we wanted for the community. To confirm, Steam is not affected as build publishes function differently on the platform.
To solve this issue for everyone who participated in flighting for Sim Update 1 on Xbox/Windows PC, we devised a means to temporarily remove users from the flighting group, and automatically prompt the update to 1.3.23.0 from 1.3.24.0 (rather than asking all users to uninstall/reinstall the sim). In the hours following the release of Sim Update 1, all users who participated in flighting were automatically updated to 1.3.23.0. This process was seamless and functioned as intended with no obvious user impact.
On Friday, March 21, in preparation for Sim Update 2 flighting, we moved all users on Xbox/Windows PC who participated in Sim Update 1 flighting back to the flighting groups, expecting a similar result. On Xbox, this process was seamless and users were unaffected. Unfortunately, on Windows PC, users who had automatic updates enabled received a mandatory update to 1.3.23.0, imitating a full uninstall/re-install of the sim (despite the fact these users already had 1.3.23.0 installed). We are still investigating the cause of the mandatory update on Windows PC, and why specifically Windows PC was affected (and not Xbox).
We recommend any users who still have a pending update on Windows PC (via the Xbox app) to leave the flighting group via the Xbox Insider Hub (instructions below). Per feedback from others in the community and our own testing, this will remove the update prompt.
- Launch the Xbox Insider Hub app.
- Navigate to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Beta
- Select Manage.
- At the bottom of the UI, select “Leave preview”.
- Wait for the process to complete, then restart your PC.
Today we will also automatically unenroll any users on Windows PC who have not yet been moved to the flighting group. These users will need to rejoin (via the Xbox Insider Hub) if they wish to participate in flighting again.