Downloading from Xbox app on PC causing SSD to freeze momentarily

Hello, I'm Felipe and I'm an independent Community Advisor, and I'll do my best to help you.

It sounds like there may have been an issue with the download or transfer process. Here are some troubleshooting steps you can try:

Check to see if the Xbox app is installed on your home PC. If it is not, you will need to download and install it.

Make sure your portable SSD is connected to your home PC and recognized by the system.

Open the Xbox app on your home PC and go to Settings > System > Storage. Make sure that your portable SSD is selected as the default install location.

Try downloading Ark again from the Xbox app and see if it installs to the correct location on your portable SSD.

If the above steps do not work, try deleting the partial download of Ark from your home PC and then re-downloading it from the Xbox app on your work PC.

If none of these steps work, it may be worth contacting Xbox support for further assistance.

Well, I seem to have solved this issue for myself. I actually tried to get MS support but they bounced me around different departments 4-5 times and then after a 30 minute hold, I was disconnected.

Posting here to for anyone who finds it useful in the future.

The only commonality that I found between my two computers with this issue is that they use a SSD for game installs that is not the same as the one that the OS and xbox app run on.

After updating to Windows 11, something about this caused issues for the xbox app. I had some suspicions about this given the text of the error. When I looked into it, Windows/xbox app were now set up to use the SSD that the OS is not (not my gaming SSD) for game and app installs. The games had previously been installed on the gaming SSD. I tried changing back to the gaming SSD but it did not solve the issue (in Settings > System > Storage > Advanced Storage > "Where new content is saved").

Despite being set up to use the OS SSD, the xbox app didn't seem to be writing to it or was unable to connect to it. I could even see that it files in the xbox games folder in the gaming SSD were still being updated somehow based on the file timestamps.

It was as if no matter what I changed, the xbox app was trying to work with the old gaming SSD. So I formatted the old gaming SSD. In the time while it was formatting, the error in the xbox app went away. And as soon as the format was done and the drive was back online, the error came back. Also, the xbox app immediately starting making folders in the SSD that I had just formatted. So regardless of what I changed, it was always trying to use the gaming SSD.

Next I turned off the PC and physically unplugged the gaming SSD. Again, with that SSD gone, the error went away. I plugged it back in and the error came back. Even when it was unplugged and the error was gone, it would not allow me to download games on the OS SSD (it would just put downloads into Pending). During this time I reinstalled the xbox app, gaming services, etc to try to break its obsession with the old gaming SSD. I found an article that pointed me toward registry entries to see where Windows was set up to install apps and games and it said the OS SSD but it would never write there.

So finally I reinstalled the OS on the OS SSD without the Gaming SSD plugged in. From there I was able to use the xbox app without the error and download games to the OS SSD. I plugged in the gaming SSD, formatted it and now I'll use it for Steam, Battle.net, etc but for whatever reason I can not use it with the xbox app without getting the error.

To summarize:

• The issue for me related to games being installed on a different drive from Windows/xbox.
  
• Removing the gaming SSD cleared the error but I still couldn't download games to any drive.
  
• The only way I could get windows to switch to a different drive was an OS reinstall.
  
• I dare not try to use a separate SSD for xbox app games again.
  

Hi and thanks for reaching Microsoft Xbox gamer's community. My name is Josef.
I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft Xbox user like you.

Hope you're doing great today STEVELO539

If you've already set up and downloaded games to that external SSD in your laptop
You can only use the games downloaded from there

Because the games are attached to the "laptop ID" and the Xbox app only recognizes the games that matches with that "ID"

If maybe you want to use the external SSD with your PC and laptop you need to create a new NTFS partition and re-download the games that you want to play on PC there

i cant use the xbox app cause the same thing happens when i try to download something in the microsoft store it just freezes

Hello @tyler45455, I hope everything is going well!

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Xbox Forum support!

I highly recommend following the troubleshooting steps mentioned on the link below:

Troubleshoot game installations on a Windows 10 device | Xbox Support

I wish you a lovely day, and I hope this helps you out!

Kind Regards

Stay safe, and happy gaming