Unable to play "Installed" games from GamePass PC ( I'm Lost)

Failkon · Nov 7, 2019

Hello, I don't know what to do anymore. Wall of text incoming.

I was playing The Outer Worlds on PC with GamePass. After a few days I wanted to change some ini files in the game to disable certain options that aren't currently present in the game to make it run smoother. To change these ini files I had to get to the
WindowsApp folder which was hidden. Getting into the Outer Worlds folder was easy enough except when I tried to edit a ini file it said I wasn't an administrator which I found odd and of course I wasn't the only one. So I was changing security permissions
inside the folder which for some reason didn't work...SO I decided with my big boy brain to change the security permissions of the WindowsApps folder itself. I believe this is where I went wrong. I have tried multiple "fixes" and "workarounds" to fix my mistake,
even going to try a system restore, BUT an error popped up saying the system restore could not be completed several times. Trying to look in forums for fix after fix of problem after problem. I narrowed it down to where at least when the Xbox Beta App wants
to work correctly which at the time i'm writing this post it isn't even after reinstalling it for the fourth or fifth time I've lost count, certain games I have recently played or installed and decided I wasn't going to play and then chose to uninstall will
not reinstall from the app or the microsoft store. HOWEVER, I was given false hope when I reset the gaming services app on the store and the store itself. I was able to reinstall The Outer Worlds, actually seeing the progress bar fill normally not super fast
and giving no indication of being able to be played. But to my final sadness, once again The Outer Worlds that was supposedly installed on my drive had no "Play" button for me and wasn't in my Store library. Thus leading to me dealing with fix after fix for
3 days which resulted in nothing of note.

I will provide any error codes or proof when needed if I actually get answers to this post. I know most support forums I go on they will have me go through the standard procedure to make sure I didn't miss anything. I have no problem doing this, believe
me. Honestly this is not a gigantic issue for me per se, but I would be so relieved if there was something I missed or could actually do that doesn't include formatting my HDD.

Any and all help from staff and community would be appreciated, I will try to get whatever is asked of me done when I have the time between work and family. Cheers to those that read this and thank you no matter the outcome.

:)

RGallius

I have a problem due to the encrypted game pass folder.

I have a drive for games where I have things from Steam, Epic, Origin, ect saved. I also put my Gamepass Games on that same hard drive. That drive is not my boot drive and not where I keep Windows installed.

I had to wipe and format the boot drive due to unrelated issues. Are you telling me I need to completely wipe my game drive if I want to reclaim my disk space from the game pass games? I haven't changed any permissions or anything.. I was frankly expecting
that it would simply recognize that I have permission for those games like Steam and Origin and let me play them again without having to reinstall several hundred GB of games.

Failkon

Hi ,

Thanks for the update on the issue. To make long story short, we recommend to completely reinstall windows and that on the PC. For game pass games, the files are hidden and locked for a reason as you do not own these titles. In the
future it is best to always make a back up for files and folders, if plan on changing anything. That way if anything goes wrong can revert back to the back up. It is very hard to determine the exact fix as you have changed permissions for folders and such.
So best thing to do is start from scratch and do a clean install of windows and all the components unfortunately.

Thanks,

Brad

If I am to reinstall windows, would that mean I would have to format the drive or would there be an option not to do that?

G v zauBerBerg

Hi Failkon,

sorry to hear. Maybe ther are still filres from the first Setup of tha games at your harddisk. This can block the new Setup. Please try first to actually uninstall the game and delete it completely, go to your Settings, System, Storage, Temporary Files,
and it’s listed in Delivery Optimization Files.

Hope this helps and please keep us informed

Zak707

I don't know why you recommend backups of Store items??

Backup of store (game pass file) are useless! You restore a whole partition or a mirror and store wants to re-install. You move an external HD and the game want to re-install. There's a patch and if it fail or stop for any reasons you need to re-download
re-install games. The outer worlds, 37Gb installed 7 times thus far:

- 2 due to pre-install not working and needing a reinstall. (1x initial pre-load, 1x redownload because preload did not work)

- 2 due to bad patch, redownloaded and reinstalled whole game instead of patch.

- 1 because I needed to move games from C: to D: and apparently just moving or copying is not an option. (encryption and stuff)

- 2 due to imaging my 2nd HD (D) to a new SSD in my laptop. Store then did not recognize the files anymore because drive was different. Reinstall, then that failed too, so another reinstall was needed. (Note that EVERYTHING else on this drive worked perfectly
after the mirror, including games on ..aham another game store)

Over 250Gb download just to play a 37Gb game. Store have no backup/restore feature what so ever and if you copy those files yourself (including a full mirror) Windows thinks you are tinkering with them and want you to re-install). You got to pretend to want
to install file onto any new drive (settings\storage\default app location) before you can start to install there.

Oh and if this happen to be an external HD you use between a laptop and main PC you know so you don't have to download and/or install several time over, Windows won't allow that when you initialize Store to save on this drive on computer B, stuff from Computer
A MUST be deleted! It can't even coexist by verifying my ownership or at very least in something call 'folders' which is a pretty simple concept. No, delete stuff before I can use this drive for another machine. So stupid, I own the game and both PC and it
is my account that is sign in when I want to play on either machine...Nope got to have separate drive and INSTALL on each because no copy or backup/restore is possible between machine either.

Why oh why can't you just encrypt your files based on my account and not my very specific computer and HD???? That way wherever my content is I am still the only one that can play it, not need to be specific machine on specific drive of specific color, dang
it.

You know like some other store that allow easy backup/install. Thank god my spouse do not play this because unlike another store you can't just backup/restore file on another PC and it verify if you have a license based on your account...no full download
for every machine you want to play this or each license you own!

XBF Chris J

Hello Boooi,

Thank you for posting here on the Xbox forums. This thread is a bit old, so it will be locked due to its age. If you haven’t already, please go ahead and make a new thread detailing this issue and any troubleshooting steps (if any) you’ve
tried so far. That way we can tailor our support specifically to you. We will be happy to help you there!

Thanks again

Unable to play "Installed" games from GamePass PC ( I'm Lost)