I’m on #PC, #Steam version of MSFS. Thanks for the clarification, i’ll admit that i’m losing track a littlebit, because i read and posted comments in several of these threads in hopes of finding a working solution.
So there was a specific workaround for my particular version of the problem? Because i didn’t have the “stuck at 50%” version, people complained about months ago, i had the “blue bar fills all the way, then it stops and hangs around until i task kill the sim” version.
I was even using resource monitor to see what files are accessed by the simulator when the flight is loading (even before the bug happened [thx to long loading times], so i had a general idea how it’s supposed to look) - and it looked exactly the same as when it worked normally. But then it just stopped instead of showing the “ready to fly” button.
I got news, though - i’m flying again. The problem is, that i haven’t done anything specific to fix the issue. But i’m gonna describe everything that i did anyway in hopes that it’s going to help someone else. Probably won’t (since people even tried to do a complete reinstall and the thing kept happening even afterwards), but there i go:
Since i kept trying to start various flights, and the sim got constantly stuck on the loading page, after each restart i got the “do you want to run in SAFE mode?” question. Even though i didn’t have any 3rd party addons installed (empty community folder), eventually i decided to try the SAFE mode.
To my surprise, after starting MSFS in SAFE mode, it immediately claimed that i need to download the Standard content Mandatory update, and Deluxe content update (together around 30GB). I was super surprised why this happens, because i was 100% sure that this exact stuff was already downloaded during the initiall installation of the game (i bought MSFS VERY recently, so i do remember). Nevermind, i downloaded the 30GB, tried to start a flight from LFMN and voilá - IT WORKED.
BTW - my MSFS Library folder (Standard edition + Deluxe content + all free world updates + flying hospital) was cca 170GB in size. When the simulator started the download in safe mode, i was so puzzled, that i checked the size of the MSFS Library DURING the install and found out that the size was significantly lower. Which means that the installation became damaged at some point. Unfortunately, i have no clue whatsoever about when or why that happened.
As i stated before, my only interaction with the game folders was copying the Prague landmark pack directly into the Community folder. I never touched the Official folder (well, TBH i checked some of the default livery textures in Irfan View, but i doubt that an image displaying software leaves destruction in its wake).
So, to recap - after SAFE mode told me to download some stuff, i did, and managed to start and finish a flight afterwards. But it didn’t end there.
I finished the flight, returned to the menu, and selected quit to desktop.
After i ran the simulator the next day - there it was again. “Do you want to run in SAFE mode?” - Since i spent some time on these forums, i already know that this is a manifestation of a completely different bug - MSFS offering safe mode every time you run it. But that’s irrelevant here.
So, i selected NORMAL mode, because i wanted to find out whether it’s going to work as well.
And once again - there were downloads to be made. This time it was related to the World updates (The Japan, the Scandinavia, Germany, UK etc… Not the whole updates, just few megabytes here and there, it also prompted me to download the flying hospital again, so the overall size was around 3GB.
After the downloads were done, i restarted the sim in NORMAL mode (it asked, yet again, despite me “properly” quitting the sim), attempted to do a short flight and it worked.
As far as i know - there weren’t any patches or official new content downloads in the last two days. So it looks like my installation of MSFS became damaged at some point, and starting the simulator in SAFE mode triggered redownload of certain assets, which apparently fixed it. But how or why the installation became borked - i have no clue whatsoever. One day i finished a normal flight from LXGB to LFMN, the next day i couldn’t fly anymore. Oh and another thing. Don’t know if it affected something, unfortunately. I stopped using the steam link to run the game. Instead i created an admin shortcut to the FlightSimulator.exe.
So - i am flying again, but unfortunately i have no clue what was actually wrong, how it happened, and why was the redownload/repair triggered only in safe mode.