Stuck on "Press Any Key To Start": Issue, cause and our solution

[EKSIMRacing]

Hi,

Our foundation creates software since 2007 for sim racing/flying communities to manage usb display devices, virtual dashboard on tablet and motion simulator platform from 2DOF to 6DOF, yesterday we decided to update MS FS2020 to our 6DOF motion simulator and we came across the famous “Press any key to start” the loop.

Obviously we have a super clean install of FS2020 on our 6DOF motion rig and an issue with the installation has been discarded quickly. After some test we found the cause and the solution, this is why we wanted to share it here as no one is providing a definitive answer about this bug on store and steam installation.

The (very frustrating) bug:
FS2020 at startup shows up a screen asking to press any key to start but clicking any controller input (button) or any keyboard key fails back to the same screen, so we are stuck on this screen…

The cause:
The cause is simple the credenttial files are corrupted for watever reason and FS2020 try to connect at startup but the authentification fails and is not handled correctly like showing up a clear error message or something like that, no, it simply returns to its starting loop and keeps asking to press any key to start!

The solution:
The solution is obviously to clean up credential files and sign in again to recreate them, but to do this task the only clean approach we know is to sign out / sign in inside the game… so we need to start FS2020 in offline mode

How to start the game offline:
first thing first be sure you’re correctly connected to internet from your PC, so browse unusual website like our website (https://www.eksimracing.org) to be sure to not using your net browser cache,

IMPORTANT1: be sure to know your credential, go to microsoft website and sign out/in you can also use the Windows store app or XBOX app

IMPORTANT2: you do not need Windows Store or XBox App to solve this issue, so if you have a steam installation you don’t need to install or re-install these apps

Now you are confident you have a correct internet connection follow these steps

1. start FS2020 and wait until you have the “Press any key to start”

2. disconnect your pc from internet
   a) unplug the ethernet cable from the PC
   b) or better if you have a generic firewall included with your fiber network box (typically the parental control settings on A&T Fiber and other box), simply block internet access to this PC from another PC connected or using the mobile app provided by your internet provider.

3)back to the game it’s now time to press a key
A black screen is showing up and after a while a nice prompt asking you if you want to start the game OFFLINE. Great! READ NEXT STEP before cliking switch offline

4. restore your internet connection
   a)reconnect the ethernet cable to the PC
   b)or using your mobile app or another PC unblock internet access to the PC

5)click go/switch to offline
The game is now running offline

6. when it’s ready, sign out and then sign in with your credential email/password
   if an update is pending then it will be downloaded

7. waiting until the game is ready and then restart the game

Congratulations! You have a clean install of your credential files so the simulation can start smoothly.

Hope this helps
EKSIMRacing Team

[Salem978]

Oh, that’s a thing?

I thought it was something I did.

Anyway, my cure, enter button and left click like 500 times as fast as possible, you can plow through it.

[ImpulseCello286]

Press any key to continue…

The scary part is that “Press any key to continue…” is/was by design. They didn’t accidentally paint themselves into a “Press any key to continue…” corner. Someone designed the logic, got it approved and implemented in code.

“Which key do I press to not continue?” or “Why are we doing this?” apparently never came up in the design, approval or implementation phase. And then rather than removing it when it became too annoying for everyone, they just continue to add spaghetti code to try to steer everyone around it.

It makes no sense

[firemedic482]

I am not a computer techy person but I am going to attempt to follow you instructions sometime today.

[OnkelJu]

My solution was to disable autostart for the GoogleDrive process. When this process is not running, I have no problem with the “Press Any Key”.screen. MSFS just does not display this step and continues starting.

When I need GoogleDrive connection for my daily work, I start the program manually.
But then I have to restart my PC and Windows to have a clean environment.

Dropbox and Onedrive cloud connection processes do not cause this issue with MSFS.

[Sparfell5149]

Wow, this seems very promising, I will definitely try this whenever the problem shows again. Congrats to your team ! ( and shame to Microsoft ! ).