Xbox App does not allow me to install a game into a different location then the boot disk

GAME ON Alper! Let's hope this helps other gamers! Happy holidays!

Hi there Alper welcome to the community forum! Christopher here, an Xbox fan just like you and has been on Xbox for years already. I would really love to make your day by helping you out. Tons of users are reporting this issue and some have found this steps as a solution!

Open Settings, click Update and Security and then Windows Update;

Click Check for Updates;

Click the Download and Install Now option, if available;

Also, check the Microsoft Store for any updates on the Xbox apps and its services.

Then try this:

Go to windows settings > apps > search for gaming services app > click on it and select advanced options.

After that, click repair and then restore, open the app and try again.

Then do the same for the Xbox app:

Go to windows settings > apps > search for Xbox app > click on it and select advanced options.

After that, click repair and then restore, open the app and try again.

If it still doesn't work you're going to uninstall the games services using a powershell command, then you're going to open the gamepass app, it will ask you to download and install the game services again :

In the windows search bar type Powershell > Right click and select open as administrator > Type the command: "get-appxpackage Microsoft.GamingServices | remove-Appxpackage –allusers" > Wait for the process to finish and then restart the PC, then open your Xbox gamepass app, it will ask you to install the gaming services again, install it and try again.

Hi Christopher!

Firstly, thanks a lot for your quick response and great explanation.

However, I tried both steps but nothing changed. You can find the details below:

1) I clicked "Repair" and "Reset" from the place you described as you can see













I opened the powershell with admin rights and executed the command: "get-appxpackage Microsoft.GamingServices | remove-Appxpackage –allusers"









I restarted W11 then opened the xbox app and it asked me to install gaming service with Admin approval. I gave the right and it installed the Gaming Services one more time :















Then nothing changed unfortunately









Thanks in advance for your help and looking forward to hearing from you!



Best,



Alper

Hi All!

I solved the issue and everyone can experience this issue if they are perform a format clean install then upgrading their W10 to W11. The issue caused by a folder permission.

Root Cause:

XboxApp is using "WindowsApp" folder to locate the games. However, the owner of WindowsApp folder are local "USERS" and local "Administrators" groups. if you format your old OS and perform a clean installation on C: drive, XboxApp loses the permission of the WindowsApp folder located on another drive. Even if you reinstalled/Upgraded your OS with the same user name, the Windows/AD keeps the UUID of the old users and does not give the permission to write into WindowsApp folder located on the "non-OS boot" drive (like D: or Z.

Solution :

Boot your computer with a live USB Linux distribution. Then mount the drive where your WindowsApp folder located. Then rename (or delete) WindowsApp folder from the drive. Then unmount the drive and restart the computer with W11.

W11 will create a new WindowsApp folder into this drive with the necessary permissions then you can install every game from Xbox App into this non-boot drive without any problem.





Cheers!

Alper

Hi, You can try installing it in a different location and not the one that is by default from the xbox app, i would recommend installing it in a different disk, but if you only have the one disk on your system just try a different path and see if that fixes the problem