An issue occurred during the weekend that is affecting a subset of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 users, basically wiping their sim’s installation clean.
The update appears to affect users with the Windows PC version of the simulator that have opted into the beta of Sim Update 1 and have not opted out afterward, and have “Enable Automatic Updates” selected in their Xbox App.
If you’re part of this group of users, the issue may have already affected you, and in that case, you’ll find all the folders inside your %localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community\ empty.
This means that your settings within the simulator and your Community folder have unfortunately been wiped clean (as a matter of fact, the Community Folder is entirely gone).
If you’re affected, you’ll need to reinstall your add-ons and reselect your settings. Basically your simulation has been reverted to factory settings.
If you have not been affected yet, you should launch your Xbox Insider Hub, select Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Betas, and opt out, then restart your PC.
If you see an update for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 listed on your Xbox App or if you’re prompted to install it when launching the simulator, it’s dp mpy install it before Microsoft solves the issue. In my case, it’s a whopping 8.7 GB update.
Microsoft is currently investigating the problem and is keeping users informed via the official forums. We will keep the situation monitored and if they provide more information or a solution, we will update this post.
At the moment Microsoft does not believe this issue affects Steam users.
Update: Microsoft posted on the official forums basically reiterating the steps above. If you have already been affected by the ghost update, unfortunately you’ll have to reinstall your mods and re-select your settings, as these are lost. If you have not but you are in the Sim Update beta, opt-out from the beta and restart your PC so that you’re not prompted to do the update.
The company apologized for the inconvenience and mentioned that it’s taking steps so that this won’t happen again.
On Friday, March 21 a majority of those who participated in Sim Update 1 flighting on Windows PC received an automatic update to 1.3.23.0. This automatic update also reset folders and certain settings within the sim, imitating a full uninstall/reinstall. This issue was triggered by backend changes made in preparation for the start of Sim Update 2 flighting (more detail on this below), and only affected users who participated in Sim Update 1 flighting on Windows PC.
For all the users who were impacted by this, we are incredibly sorry and will take steps to ensure this never happens again. While the behavior which prompted an automatic update on Windows PC is still under investigation, we understand what triggered the issue and have the means to approach it differently in the future.
We recommend any users who still have a pending update on Windows PC (via the Xbox app) to leave the flighting group via the Xbox Insider Hub (instructions below). Per feedback from others in the community and our own testing, this will remove the update prompt.
1: Launch the Xbox Insider Hub app.
2: Navigate to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Beta
3: Select Manage.
4: At the bottom of the UI, select “Leave preview”.
5:Wait for the process to complete, then restart your PC.We again apologize to everyone affected for the inconvenience and pain this caused. Your feedback is truly invaluable, and we greatly appreciate everyone who participates in flighting.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is available for PC and Xbox Series X|S following its recent release in November. If you want to see the massive visual difference against Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, you can enjoy our video and screenshot comparison.
A few weeks ago we published an extensive interview with Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann about the present situation of the sim and the plans for the future.
Incidentally, just a few days ago Microsoft shared an extensive update about its plans for the sim, so you may want to read it to integrate what is said in this interview.
You can also check out our in-depth analysis of how much data the simulator downloads from the cloud, clearing the air from some widespread misinformation that made the rounds over the past few months.
