I finally have a solve for my Checking For Updates issue. After realising my issues started today I went into my FS Official packages folder and sorted everything by date. I then selected all folders showing the date of 15th June and then cut them into a folder I called TEST on another drive. I then launched FS2020 and after the loading screens, it went straight into the loading screen with the blue progress bar at the bottom and eventually onto the main menu.
I then set about the arduous task of methodically copying packages in the TEST folder back into my FS2020 package folder and checking if FS2020 would launch cleanly. After much pain, I’ve tracked down microsoft-airport-kfhr-friday-harbor as the pesky package that is causing the Checking For Updates issue. With this in my FS2020 packages folder, FS2020 gets stuck checking updates, deleting it allows FS2020 to load to the main screen.
This suggests that the Checking For Updates freeze may not be related to things such as Gaming Services, pending Windows updates, the Xbox app or my Windows Xbox app account but rather the brittleness of the Installation Manager and Content Manager systems that download packages from the Marketplace. There really needs to be package management logic and maybe even separate tools that come with FS2020 to detect and repair installed packages that become faulty for some reason or another.
I’ve zipped up the microsoft-airport-kfhr-friday-harbor folder and am wondering if there’s a mechanism where I might send it to the devs or support staff to have a look at?