• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Gamepass PC is a ticking time bomb that results in permanently lost HDD/SSD space unless you nuke windows

Has the Xbox App / Windows Store done any of this to you:

  • Deleted a game but the space never freed up

    Votes: 791 30.9%

  • Unable to uninstall a game at all

    Votes: 516 20.1%

  • Unable to install a game at all

    Votes: 563 22.0%

  • Had a game installed, but later it became unplayable and you can't reinstall

    Votes: 515 20.1%

  • Other

    Votes: 283 11.0%

  • Never had an issue with the Xbox App or Windows Store

    Votes: 1,221 47.6%
  • Total voters
    2,563
Reader mode
Kent

Kent

Member
Jun 4, 2018
1,098
I know PSO2 has a lot of install problems with the Windows 10 store version - which isn't just the Windows Store problems, but also the fact that it has a super janky way of handling itself on its own, which just compound the two problems. I had nearly a dozen phantom partial installations of the game on my SSD at one point. Thankfully, the Tweaker team seems to have pretty well figured out how to fix all of this and automated the process, including safeguarding it from messing itself up again.
 

reKon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,743
Is it recommended then that I just not install anything else? All I have a Gears 4 and Halo MCC installed.
 
RoaminRonin

RoaminRonin

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,770
It's a known problem. This is my post from a few months ago.

RoaminRonin said:
When I tried to uninstall my 75 gig DL of Fallout 76/PSO2 it says it uninstalled through the uninstaller and the Xbox app, I noticed the storage never deleted off my HDD. I tried all the tips that google gave me, like trying to change permission to the Xbox folder and still it wouldn't work. My only option left are not caring about that 150 gig lost or reinstall windows with a full format.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Cancelled my gamepass not long after because of it. The app on windows is an embarrassment. And once again proves that MS pc gaming initiative are a joke.
 
Lakeside

Lakeside

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,224
The worst thing about all of this is that you'll get gaslighted when trying to get help.

"Check your anti-virus" .. "it's probably your firewall" bullshit. Anything tied to the Windows Store is garbage. My solution was ultimately to nuke all of it and pretend that it doesn't exist. I was initially excited but after going through 2 reinstalls to format C:, then experiencing issues with games breaking and no longer being able to patch, it's just not worth the frustration.

Using Microsoft's storefront is the best motivation to buy an XSX.
 
Serpens007

Serpens007

Well, Tosca isn't for everyone
Moderator
Oct 31, 2017
8,132
Chile
I had this problem with a MCC update. It requested me to redownload the entire game again after the error. I paused the download, turn on the PC at the next day and the download was nearly completed. The Xbox App usually doesn't give me problems, but it seems that when it does it's a big one
 
SolidSnakeUS

SolidSnakeUS

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,617
People may see value in Game Pass on PC, but until MS does a full overhaul of how it all works and have it completely disconnected from the W10 Store, then it's not worth it. I've had my own problems with it and with different games. If MS wants to go full Game Pass for the future, fucking fix your shit.
 

reKon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,743
I'm now concerned. Should I just uninstall my games and delete Game Pass for now?
 
Mr.Deadshot

Mr.Deadshot

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,285
Happened to me as well on my old PC. There are ways to delete these files, but it requires some effort. Probably worth it in your case with hundreds of gigabytes lost.

Gamepass App is trash. Didn't use it since I got my new PC in January. Games on PC are cheap anyway and I prefer to own them on Steam instead of subscribing to them. Will only resub for big AAA releases that I want to play Day 1 but there is nothing on the horizon so far. Only some pretty CGI trailers.
 
RoaminRonin

RoaminRonin

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,770
Lakeside said:
The worst thing about all of this is that you'll get gaslighted when trying to get help.

"Check your anti-virus" .. "it's probably your firewall" bullshit. Anything tied to the Windows Store is garbage. My solution was ultimately to nuke all of it and pretend that it doesn't exist. I was initially excited but after going through 2 reinstalls to format C:, then experiencing issues with games breaking and no longer being able to patch, it's just not worth the frustration.

Using Microsoft's storefront is the best motivation to buy an XSX.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Bro I was suggested to by a 30$ app that might fix the problem.
 
OP
OP
flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,967
I'm getting differing results between Revo uninstaller and WinTreeStat

In Revo uninstaller, I right click on "Tell me why" to open the install location. It shows it installed in WindowsApps on C: in the folder "Microsoft.Breathless".

In WinTreeStat, that directory doesn't show up in the C: WinApps folder.
 
hwarang

hwarang

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,452
This needs to be addressed. I feel bad for those who aren't as technically intuitive as they use gamepass pc
 
Zukuu

Zukuu

Member
Oct 30, 2017
6,809
Something is definitely weird on your end as well tho. So many errors and weird behavior. Is your SSD busted? Does your company done some bullshit to your setup due to WFH?
 
yogurt

yogurt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,853
flyinj said:
I'm getting differing results between Revo uninstaller and WinTreeStat

In Revo uninstaller, I right click on "Tell me why" to open the install location. It shows it installed in WindowsApps on C: in the folder "Microsoft.Breathless".

In WinTreeStat, that directory doesn't show up in the C: WinApps folder.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
WinDirStat doesn't show all of the game folders for me.

TreeSize, a separate program linked earlier in the thread, does.
 
Kaeden

Kaeden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,915
US
yogurt said:
I didn't try deleting anything, but this worked and gave me access to the game folders.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah it might need some additional tinkering if you do try to delete any files/folders within but typically that involves just picking the correct account if something like Administrators doesn't work. I usually just pick my main one and don't have any issues.
 
OP
OP
flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,967
Zukuu said:
Something is definitely weird on your end tho. So many errors and weird behavior. Is your SSD busted? Does your company done some bullshit to your setup due to WFH?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Nope, SSD is fine. This is happening on all my drives, one physical and two SSDs.

The company has to set up a bunch of stuff in the VPN program, they don't touch anything else. And I'm not running the VPN when I'm using the Xbox app.
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 28, 2017
26,549
I've had this problem a few times as well. The solution ended up being never installing anything to the C:Drive and using a secondary SSD as a games drive. It worked a lot better after that.

Also remember, the issue isn't gamepass, it's a combination of the xbox app and windows store, both of which update independently from Windows update. If I'm having any trouble at all, be it something refusing to install immediately to a game not immediately logging into my profile (which is a chronic problem for me) to the app just being slow, I check to see if there's an update IN THE WINDOWS STORE, and there usually is an update that needs to be pushed.

The app is MUCH better than it was during beta, but its still got a long ways to go. I haven't had problems with it since Creature in the Well, but that game absolutely refused to do anything except take up space. Updating the xbox app and redownloading the game fixed it and reclaimed the space.
 
C.Mongler

C.Mongler

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,881
Washington, DC
It's not permanent; it's a frustrating pain in the ass, and frankly it will feel permanent to those without the patience and technical expertise to deal with it, but it's possible to get around it. Most of the common methods have been shared here. This happened to me when I was trying to uninstall Gears 5 at the beginning of the year, and it took like half a day of fucking around but I finally got it off my system and haven't had issues with the Xbox app since. On that note, I do absolutely agree that it's super fucking embarrassing (and unacceptable) that Microsoft's own proprietary method of delivering PC games to their customers still has so many fucking issues at this point in the game.

I would recommend having a secondary hard drive that you dont give a shit about wiping for Gamepass stuff if you want to be extra safe. No idea how prevalent this issue is though, tbh.
 
Kaeden

Kaeden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,915
US
Serpens007 said:
I had this problem with a MCC update. It requested me to redownload the entire game again after the error. I paused the download, turn on the PC at the next day and the download was nearly completed. The Xbox App usually doesn't give me problems, but it seems that when it does it's a big one
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I literally bought MCC again on Steam just so I didn't have to deal with the MS Store/GP. I hope they iron this out but it's been like this for far too long and haven't seen much in the way of improvements so...
 
Thrill_house

Thrill_house

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,630
God damn it is a nightmare. GP is great for console but the pc experience is a fucking abortion. I don't understand how Microsoft hasn't fixed these issues. I have had games install take up 2-3 times the required space, have had a few games I could not uninstall without jumping through serious hoops for and all kinds of crazy issues with the service.

I won't touch the service again with a barge pole and its a shame because it is an amazing value. Holy hell what a mess that was. The individual that decided to put the installed games in folders you can't access should be fired.
 
RedOnePunch

RedOnePunch

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,628
yeah it's awful and the fact that windows store has been this way for years now it's unacceptable. As long as the games come out on Steam, I don't care at this point. I haven't been a Gamepass subscriber for a while now anyways.
 
OP
OP
flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,967
Well, I signed up for three years of Gamepass so I don't really have the option of "dropping Gamepass"
 

basic_element

Member
Oct 25, 2017
467
Yep, I couldn't get Wasteland 3 and Crusader Kings 3 to work either. I only did the 1 month gamepass trial but I'm done with Microsoft gaming services. Their Microsoft Store games are ass also.
 
neon/drifter

neon/drifter

Shit Shoe Wasp Smasher
Member
Apr 3, 2018
4,065
Yep, I've got 2 copies of gears tactics on my PC and no way to delete the one I don't read from.
 
Tallshortman

Tallshortman

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,635
Thrill_house said:
God damn it is a nightmare. GP is great for console but the pc experience is a fucking abortion. I don't understand how Microsoft hasn't fixed these issues. I have had games install take up 2-3 times the required space, have had a few games I could not uninstall without jumping through serious hoops for and all kinds of crazy issues with the service.

I won't touch the service again with a barge pole and its a shame because it is an amazing value. Holy hell what a mess that was. The individual that decided to put the installed games in folders you can't access should be fired.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yep it's absolutely unbelievable they took it out of beta and raised the price when the EXACT same major issues continue to plague the gamepass app. I've gotten this error before but not sure if it stole a chunk of my SSD, will be checking tonight. I'll repeat that it continues to make no sense that the gamepass version isn't the same version as as what's available on other platforms (unless it uses steamworks). I mean there's literally games that still have no multiplayer or is significantly behind on patches because of this shit.

I mean anyone reading reviews of games that aren't first party will often find it full of complaints about crashes. Games like MW5 will literally not even launch for me.
 
OP
OP
flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,967
Ok Grounded is also not showing up on in the Xbox app even though it is installed.

If I type Grounded into the search bar, it will run.

However, if I search for Grounded in the Store, it says it needs an update. It tries to update it and gives the 0x87E00017 error.

I also can't uninstall Grounded from the Apps control panel.

So it seems that many games I have installed try to auto update, they can't update because of the 0x87E00017 error, and the game disappears from my list of installed games in the Xbox app. They are however still installed and can run, but they can't patch.

I just tried a few other games, and found that "It Lurks Below" needed an update. I clicked on update, and it updated fine. Both It Lurks Below and Grounded are installed on the same drive.

There is no rhyme nor reason as to why some games can't update or be uninstalled while others can.
 
thepenguin55

thepenguin55

Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,816
It's staggering to how many people have had issues with Windows Store games over the years cause I've been using the Windows Store since it's inception and the worst thing that's ever happened to me was a few times when the game wouldn't download but eventually that issue corrected itself. How has MS not fixed this shit?
 

Deleted member 20831

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,951
Tatsu91 said:
Or run certain programs for checking all storage as an admin it lets you do this as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That is correct, opening an application with 'Run as administrator' should show the location of the game folder.
Example: I can see the Xbox Game Pass installation folder size with a tiny 10KB tool called Diskitude (its really cool one) to check files/folder sizes, with 'Run as administrator'.
 
Last edited:
KamenRiderEra

KamenRiderEra

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,154
I dont know if its because I have an windows exclusive disk, and use two other for games and aplications (hdd and a sdd), but I never had any issues. Sorry to hear OP, despite the xbox app evolution, it still has much to implement.
 
a_mad_bag_of_cats

a_mad_bag_of_cats

Member
Dec 4, 2018
285
United Kingdom
Yep had the problem with forza horizon. "Uninstalled" it when game pass expired and actually bought it separately after: it still had the space occupied. Then went to reserve the new space all over again... it then failed to install after downloading and I had to do it all over. the problem was it then wanted me to reserve the space all over again. I eventually got it to work but I haven't got around to sorting out this dead space taken up twice.
For something so trivial they sure fucked it up.
And yeh sure you can just boot into safe mode to remove the folder/file but your casual player doesn't know how to do that
 
OP
OP
flyinj

flyinj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,967
a_mad_bag_of_cats said:
Yep had the problem with forza horizon. "Uninstalled" it when game pass expired and actually bought it separately after: it still had the space occupied. Then went to reserve the new space all over again... it then failed to install after downloading and I had to do it all over. the problem was it then wanted me to reserve the space all over again. I eventually got it to work but I haven't got around to sorting out this dead space taken up twice.
For something so trivial they sure fucked it up.
And yeh sure you can just boot into safe mode to remove the folder/file but your casual player doesn't know how to do that
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The issue with me is that even if I am able to remove the game folder, the Xbox app and Store will not allow me to ever re-download it and gives me a 0x87E00017 error.
 

Dis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,955
bingo said:
Boot into safe mode and you can delete whatever you want!

flyinj ^^^
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is what I did, I spent 2 hours trying all different tips and tricks online a couple of months ago to get rid of MCC that I thought was uninstalled but actually had 100gb of space taken up on my drive still, eventually I found someone say to boot into safe mode and you can just straight up delete the folder inside the windows app folder then with no issues, thats what I did, I haven't had the same issue since then but at least I know what to do if it happens, it still sucks that this shit is even a thing just because Microsoft still have shit tied to their shitty store instead of just ripping xbox out to it's own store front or something that isn't in anyway linked to that piece of shit store that's been an issue since day 1.
 
SpoonyBob

SpoonyBob

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,492
Arkansas
Ah shit. I'm pretty sure I've had issues with The Outer Worlds and PSO2 when I tried mucking around with windows store issues... Now I'm worrying about lost space.
 
Azai

Azai

Member
Jun 10, 2020
3,970
Had this problem on steam. Refunded the game and wasnt able to uninstall after because uninstall button was gone. Even on windows apps.
I was able to manually delete them but it still showed it as installed...
 
KarmaCow

KarmaCow

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,161
This wasn't the only reason but it was the most significant reason why I didn't bother with Gamepass on PC after the free trial ended.
 
Nacho

Nacho

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,121
NYC
Mesoian said:
I've had this problem a few times as well. The solution ended up being never installing anything to the C:Drive and using a secondary SSD as a games drive. It worked a lot better after that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


I've never had an issue with the PC pass store outside of the first few installs when it was like FIRST released, BUT this right here is the solution to most problems. People at this point should pretty much always have secondary HDD/SSDs for game installs. It's not even just for windows store games, but any issues that may arise, you don't want borked programs or other issues like a failing drive, or any other issues, affecting your main install. The OS also tends to move a lot quicker when it's not sharing a drive.
 
a_mad_bag_of_cats

a_mad_bag_of_cats

Member
Dec 4, 2018
285
United Kingdom
flyinj said:
The issue with me is that even if I am able to remove the game folder, the Xbox app and Store will not allow me to ever re-download it and gives me a 0x87E00017 error.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

i wonder if there is some registry value or conflict or config file preventing it from installing correctly?

al I know is. Microsoft fucked up something as trivial as "install" and "uninstall", the Microsoft store is a terrible app..
 
Muffin

Muffin

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,342
The Microsoft Store is a huge piece of shit and whoever decided to just bolt it to the Xbox App should be fired.
 
Putzballs

Putzballs

Member
Nov 5, 2017
505
Even though there are workarounds this is crazy. Microsoft should make a deal with steam and drop their store

gamepass on steam please
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.