Anyone else finding XBox Game Pass PC creates duplicate game data?

GraemeMasciuch · Nov 16, 2019

It's atrocious how hard it is to access the installation folders in the first place. Most people probably won't notice easily if they also have this issue. It took some messing around with permissions to access the install folders at all.

When you get that figure out look in the "MSIXVC" in "WindowsApps" in your XBox Game Pass install directory. You will likely see duplicate data of installed games taking up your SSD space. I had a duplicate of The Outer Worlds taking up almost an extra 40GB!!!

I suspect it's update and/or download data that is not being deleted properly.

The people programming XBox Game Pass need to make install directories easily accessible. Besides killing modding possibilities it's just a garbage way to approach it in the first place.

For reasons like this too. Consider how people are likely affected by this but have no idea because they cannot access "WindowsApps" without some permissions meddling many would be too scared to do.

:)

mareledanut

Hi, never had this issue in the past.

GraemeMasciuch

So I realized they have their package installed, and the folder you access if you change permissions is kind of a "virtualized" folder in the sense it's not a real folder and you're looking inside the install package through an "emulated" folder.

You can see two instances of identical disk space, but only one is real, because the folder is kind of "virtualized" and is more a representation of what's in the package files. Only the package file counts as used disk space.

They should install the games like normal games.

Modding on XBox Game Pass is more or less killed by this, which is a bad idea.

It's also a pain in the butt when it comes to troubleshooting and customization.

They really need to change how they handle installations w/ XBox Game Pass PC and allow PC users the flexibility we play on PC for. Doing it like PC Games are windows apps is just silly. And bad for XBox Game Pass's viability overall.

FrabjousDay

I had this exact issue. I started a thread here in the community, and someone closed the thread without providing any kind of feedback or assistance. A couple of people made comments about uninstalling the apps, which I wasn't asking about at all. I was
concerned about the space issue, just like you. It'd be nice if Microsoft would at least acknowledge the existence of this issue and provide some explanation as to why it is this way and whether or not they have any intentions of changing this behavior.

Gradseph

I'm having this same issue as well. That combined with the ridiculous permissions in this folder make me unlikely to continue my sub past the intro rate.

Zero420override

I haven't noticed this but I'll make sure to keep an eye out for the issue.

Anyone else finding XBox Game Pass PC creates duplicate game data?