Starting today, when I try to launch MSFS (1.17.3.0, Steam install), it asks me to sign in to my Xbox Live account. I enter my username and password, then it tells me:
Your account or password is incorrect. If you don’t remember your password, reset it now.
I’m using the same account that I’m using right now to post this. I have successfully logged out of Xbox Live in Chrome and logged back in. I’m positive I’m entering the password correctly in the in-game login window (I tried both using copy-and-paste and typing it manually, both in fullscreen and windowed mode) and I verified that the game client is using the correct keyboard layout.
It should not ask me to sign in in the first place. It hasn’t shown this behaviour for any of the previous updates since the initial install in August 2020.
So something is awry, but it doesn’t seem to affect the majority of PC users, judging from what’s going on in Discord, Reddit and other places, where people are busy discussing download speeds and how to improve them.
Note that this occurs before the client would even check for updates, so it’s not related to a failed or incomplete update. I’m still on 1.17.3.0 and I believe this is a backend issue. My last successful application launch was around 14:00Z, the first time it showed the behaviour I described was around 17:00Z.
I ran Steam’s “verify the integrity of game files”, which, of course, can only tell whether the MFS launcher is correctly installed, and got the message “All files successfully validated.”
My Community folder has been empty before the login issue reared its ugly head. (When I read PMDG’s warning about “a vast number of breaking changes” in this update, I figured I should probably remove all 3rd party content before even attempting an update.) But I believe it wouldn’t even matter, because the Xbox Live login happens very early during the application launch.
Anybody got an idea what’s going on, or whether there’s a workaround?
PS: I was wondering what could be “special” about my account, and the only thing I can come with is that I changed my “gamer tag” at some point in the past year. But since I’m logging in using my mail address, not my “gamer tag”, I can’t imagine that how that would be triggering the failed in-game login.
