A lot of games will not install to External SSD on Xbox Game Pass PC.

BookableSpider · Feb 1, 2022

I have a TOSHIBA External SSD that I used to use on my Xbox One, and after recently switching to pc I reformatted it to use for downloading games. Well- turns out- a lot of Xbox Game Pass PC games will not download onto it. It is formatted as NTFS. I have attempted reinstalling the app, messing with gaming services, changing options in the settings, everything you could think of. Some of the games in question that cannot be installed is any of the halo games, slime rancher, the hitman trilogy. However, games like Sea of Thieves and Fallout Shelter can be downloaded fine. Seriously considering cancelling my Xbox Game Pass PC subscription over this.

:)

Jesse E'

Hello, My name is Jesse. I'm an Independent Advisor and a member of the Microsoft community and I'd love to assist you today.

Please note that not all Xbox games can be installed on the external hard drive. Some require to be installed on the same location with the Xbox app on your PC in order to play. Sorry about this

ACHV HighBounce

This has been covered and been mentioned as it has been a big concern. Right now, yes you can use your external SSD to play Xbox One and Xbox 360 games but you will not be able to play stored SX games on the external SSD. To be able to able to play SX
games they need to installed on the Series X's SSD not the external one.

Turaeon

If anyone is interested, we managed to find that the problem only occurs if the game is installed on an external ssd.

If the game is moved from the ssd to the internal hdd the problem does not occur. Formating the ssd and moving the game back did not fix the problem. Other games launch fine from the external ssd.

The problem seems to be linked to (external?) ssds and (Rise of the Tomb Raider?) DLCs.

s33r

The biggest difference is that if you want to play the Series X/S version of games they must be installed on the internal SSD or the Seagate SSD Expansion card. They cannot be installed on an external USB 3.0 drive, Quick Resume will also not work with any external USB drive. Previous generation games can still be launched from an external drive.

Personally I have the Seagate expansion SSD and prefer the speed and convenience it offers knowing that no matter what I'm installing the best version of the game and able to use all the enhancements that comes from playing on a Series X. It's worth noting that for the price, it's not much more that some of the high performances SSDs available for PC but it is definitely not cheap.

VecaisVaskis

... I suspect the "problem" might be that my Windows 10 system resides on an external hard disk which somehow messes up the installation process for "Administrator approval required for installation" games.

I have similar issues with apps and external storage.

It seems that for whatever reason, external drives aren't "trusted" as much as an internal system drive.

How is the external drive connected? Via USB, or is it an external SATA connector? You might coax the system into believing it's an internal drive, if you use an external SATA connector.

If you actually managed to install Windows on an USB drive (and it's not an official Windows To Go install), that might really be the problem.

The setup is an iMac 2019 with external Thunderbolt 3 SSD drive with Windows 10 Pro installed on it specifically for gaming needs. The problem with Xbox Games Pass for PC is the first (serious, mysterious) problem I have with this setup. Steam, Epic, GoG
- every other online gaming store works as it should and I can play pretty much any game I want, except for the ones available on the Games Pass for PC. I find it somewhat ironic.

A lot of games will not install to External SSD on Xbox Game Pass PC.