Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?
No and no.
Brief description of the issue:
Very slow download of SU8. Started at around 16:00 GMT on 28 02 2022 and observed very slow download speeds. By 07:00 this morning 01 03 2022 it had downloaded about 3%. I’m on broadband, but not fibre. Speed test is showing download speeds of 34.5 Mbps and Uploads of 8.3 Mbps but it’s downloading SU8 at between 0.9 Mbps and about 0.02 Mbps (screen says Mbits/s) - currently on 0.01 and it was on 0.0 a few minutes ago. At 07:00 it was on about 3% downloaded and so I hit the pause button and then restarted the PC. It then went back to the start of the download - 1/222 and continued to download just as slowly as before.
Is it possible to just go back to using the SIM as it was i.e. in SU7? Or, as it is a mandatory update am I unable to use it until it’s done? At this rate, it will take days.
Are you on a cabled or wireless connection?
If you are wireless, a cable connection could help.
If not, you should consider trying a free VPN.
That has been proven to help in quite a few of these cases.
Probably between your isp and ms servers. There is a lot going on right now, specially if your in Europe. Denial and other attacks are rampant. Just reading all of Toyota’s plants were taken down yesterday, as example.
Yes, I’ve been wondering about connecting via an ethernet cable as well but I don’t have one long enough to reach. I’ve also read about the VPN option. The other thing I haven’t done for fear of making things worse, is deleting the Community folder. I don’t know whether that could be connected to the slow download, but it seems a bit “final”. Current Speed Test with my ISP shows 39.9 Mbps download and 7.9 Mbps upload, but the MSFS download page is showing 0.01 - 0.02 Mbits/s - it briefly touched 0.12 a few moments earlier. But it was still at something like 760 kbits in total. Now in the last few minutes it’s suddenly jumped to 10.33 MiB out of 4.34 GiB and is at over 4.3 Mbits/s. The numbers then tumble down to 0.01 over the course of about 30 seconds or so and the total count drops to 0 and then the speed picks up again to 3 or 4 Mbits/s and the total goes back to 10.33 MiBs and the cycle repeats.
I’m about to see if I can get a longer ethernet cable or an adaptor to join 2 ethernet cables together. But, I’m even nervous about doing that now, in case it drops the link and I go back to zero again.
I’ve always found that trying to download an update the minute it’s released is a hit and miss affair; I usually wait a day or two, find something else to do.
But yesterday I’d forgotten about the update and restarted MSFS to check on something. Of course the update started but for the first time it downloaded extremeky quickly, almost at the ISP download limit (30mbps) that I have to put up with. All done in less than half an hour, rather than all evening and a lot of the night!
My inclination would be to cancel the download, rename the C/F to something else temporarily (I use an addon manager so just delete everything), check for Windows updates also MS updates then do a COLD reboot (switch computer off completely). At the same time reboot your modem as that could also be the blockage despite the numbers you are apparently getting.
Ethernet connection is the most reliable but provided your modem is okay it shouldn’t really make much difference. I actually use a system that connects through the house mains electricty circuit, so avoiding long ethernet runs, without any loss of signal.
If that doesn’t work, shut everything down, go grab a beer and come back to it tomorrow!
No, the community folder does not play a role in the download process.
The only reason they “recommend” you move it is for troubleshooting reasons if the sim CTD’s after an update.
With that folder out of the picture, you know for sure the issue is in the download thus in your sim.
Those speeds sure look like something is inhibiting your access to the servers.
Thanks Terry. It’s a bit frustrating. Seems to me that once you get that screen saying there is a mandatory download you don’t have much choice but to accept it.
Thanks Seven that’s great. I didn’t know what effect the Community folder had. It might be an ethernet cable connector might resolve it, if I can get one. Joining two long one’s together might just give me enough to reach from the router to the PC. I’m just worried about what will happen when I hook it up. As in, will it go back to zero again?
Or maybe I won’t connect by ethernet as it’s now jumped in the last 10 minutes or so to 48.67 MiBs. Download speed has gone up to 8 Mbits/s - but it then tumbles down to 0 before then climbing back up 8. And now it’s hitting 10… I think I’ll leave it alone and go and do something else.
Get a free VPN such as Proton VPN. Connect VPN to USA server. Do the whole thing during smart times when there is not too much load on the networks (usually night times).
I’m now up to about 25 hours after download No.2 started (03 March 2022) and at update No. 73/222 - 236 MB out of 4.34 GiB and 5% of total download. However the update appears to have now stalled and says “73/222 Please wait…” That was about an hour ago. Download speed test from my ISP shows 42.1 Mbps download and 8.3 Mbps upload.
Is it possible to just go back to using the SIM as it was i.e. in SU7? Or, as it is a mandatory update am I unable to use it until it’s done? At this rate, it will take literally days to download. In fact at 5% in a day, about 20 days and the SIM is unusable in the meantime.
do you have ‘enough’ free space on your C-drive ? this might be a problem, the computer needs enough space to temporarly store the files during download / unpacking.
Thanks Steve, but yes it’s fine. The updates are on a 1TB HDD on D:drive and it has about half of it remaining. The initial loader is on C:drive as it’s a 512 GB SSD.
The SIM is on STEAM so I’ve been on to them but they think it’s a network problem. I am going to try and get an ethernet connector and join 2 ethernet cables together and connect it straight into the router.
Thanks Steve, just getting the router hardware checked by my ISP. If they say it’s OK then there is no need for an ethernet cable connection - it sounds like an engineers visit is on the cards.
Prior to it freezing it was as if it is unpacking small packages or folders or files - completing the download and then moving on to the next . It says “100%” and then the download speed goes tumbling down from (say) 10.0 Mbits/s over the course of about 30 seconds or so, to 0.0 and then the speed picks up again to maybe 10 Mbits/s and the cycle repeats.
Do you know if it is possible to just go back to using the SIM as it was i.e. in SU7? Or, as it is a mandatory update am I unable to use it until it’s done? At this rate, it will take literally days to download. In fact at 5% a day, about 20 days and the SIM appears to be unusable in the meantime.
You’re right about the update downloading a package then unpacking it before moving on. This means that the download stops then has to restart again - it never immediately goes back to full fownload speed, just has to wind itself up again and it’s that which causes slow downloads. If there are a lot of small files it only makes it worse - if you watch carefully you can see this happening. If you’ve got a fast connection it isn’t really much of a problem, but if the line is slow for whatever reason it’s a nightmare!
It’s been addressed to MS a lot, asking them to change the way they download updates i.e. do the lot first and THEN unpack, like many other downloads do. But it’s fallen on deaf ears.
Thanks Terrry. I’ve just fitted a new router which seems a bit quicker. Rebooted the PC and restarted it in MSFS and it’s gone back to zero. It appears to have lost the 5% that I’ve spent the last 25 hours downloading. It’s back to 1/222 and 0%.
No, you can’t go back on a sim update, (SU) they are mandatory, as they change the sim core files.
You can however with World Updates (WU) they are optional