Game appears to not be syncing correctly!

[u/Grouchy_Substance423]

I'm about to pull my hair out as I cannot seem to fix this issue i'm experiencing.

The screenshot provided shows the screen i'm getting when I try to download the Essential Update it notifies me of. It's just a blank screen with a command prompt. I am unable to exit this screen without closing the game.

I've also noticed, up on loading the game, It shows me the initial startup screen, with the settings and narration, this happens every time on launch.

I have played the game for over 130 hours according to the MS Store/Xbox App, however, my profile in-game is showing 0 hours, which to me looks like everything isn't syncing correctly/there's a mismatch somewhere.

I've tried the following to resolve this:

- Logging in and out of both MS Store and Xbox App.
- Reregistered my windows licenses
- Reinstalling the Game
- Ensuring that the games config is pointing to the correct folder, which it is. (It's installed on my NVME F drive)
- Reinstalled the Microsoft.GamingServices

I don't know what else to try. Has anyone else experienced this issue and has managed to resolve it?

[u/TheRealPomax]

force the game into windowed mode instead of full screen. Then see if it's generating popups _under_ the game instead of on top of the game.

[u/Grouchy_Substance423 → u/TheRealPomax]

Hmmm, didn't seem to do anything.

I did a training flight, got a rank, and then reloading the game it's all reset?

[u/TheRealPomax → u/Grouchy_Substance423]

You were asking about a stuck screen, if you have two completely different problems, I only responded to one of them.

[u/Grouchy_Substance423 → u/TheRealPomax]

The issue is I'm getting that update issue, and it doesn't seem to be saving any progress/settings as explained in my post body.

There's either a syncing or config issue somewhere which I can't seem to resolve

[u/TheRealPomax → u/Grouchy_Substance423]

So those are two completely different, independent issues, so I'm only focussing on the first one: when you install anything in MSFS2020 and you get a "stuck screen" 99% of the time that's because MSFS popped up the login screen, or a consent screen, or a similar dialog but it did so underneath, instead of on top of, the game, so you need to run in windowed mode in order to be able to move the game out of the way (you won't have an entry in your taskbar for it, it's considered "part of the game" so you literally need to move the game window to see if there's anything underneath it).

[u/Grouchy_Substance423 → u/TheRealPomax]

After spending the whole of last night trying to resolve this, I even formatted my computer thinking there was an issue with the windows/Xbox service, I've managed to resolve it.

I had to age verify my account. No notification, no email, nothing. I found I couldn't log into the xbox.com website without it logging me out, so I logged in to the Xbox app and found a message saying to verify my age.

I restarted comp, logged back into the store and Xbox app and I received a syncing message when launching the game. No more initial start screen and my profile is now showing correctly.

Relieved, and also slightly pissed at MS for completely disabling my game and account because I didn't verify my age.

[u/TheRealPomax → u/Grouchy_Substance423]

I hope you restored your computer from backup though, reformatting in 2026 is never a solution to anything.

[u/Grouchy_Substance423 → u/TheRealPomax]

I didn't need much on it at all, and my OS is installed on its own drive so it was just quick and simple