Xbox App doesn't let me change install folders in Windows 10 (April 2022)

Hello there, and thanks for being an Xbox Insider on PC! Can you confirm for me that you have the latest updates to the Insiders' version of the Xbox App installed? As in, when you go to the Microsoft Store, there's no additional updates pending for the Xbox app after the beginning of this month?

So you're aware, this is a known issue that was being investigated in the preview versions of the Xbox app, and the latest updates to the Xbox app for Insiders included some fixes for the problem--though it appears to still be happening. If you have the latest updates, and you are still experiencing this problem, it is crucial that as an Insider you submit a bug report through the Xbox app so that our teams can continue to investigate and fix the problem.

To submit a bug report from the Xbox app:

1. Select your profile icon
   
2. Select Feedback
   
3. Select Report a Problem in the prompt that appears
   
4. Complete the report in the Feedback Hub app when it's pulled up
   

Thanks again for helping us help the community!

Hi, thanks for the reply.

So this is going to sound strange, but I think I opted into the Insider features for Windows gaming apps after this problem started occurring, thinking it may somehow correct it. However, I was not aware of any change to the Xbox app itself after having done so. Now after reading your reply, I went and checked the Microsoft Store for updates to the app, which there weren't, then I opened the Insider app and opted out of the preview for Windows gaming apps. Then, I opened the Xbox app again and took a look. Now the install prompt looked different, with the ability to change install locations missing from all but the Settings menu, so I went and changed the location to C drive in that menu, then went to install a game. Again, it defaulted to my D drive. I figured that maybe uninstalling and reinstalling the Xbox app may be necessary, so I did that and... still no change, and now the install prompt was back to the way it was before, showing an option to change the folder/location, which I tried to again, but still the choice didn't save and it defaulted to D Drive.

I went ahead and submitted a bug report per your suggestion, so I guess I'll wait for an update that fixes this for everyone. Thank for you letting me know that this is a known issue though, at least now I know it's not just me.

Well, I think I may have found a solution, which I'll put at the end of this post if you want to skip ahead, but first I'll explain the journey to getting there.

I was reading through some other posts in the forums here and noticed some other people are having an issue with not being able to install games and seeing no options appear on the install location selection prompt. In most of those cases, the solution appeared to be to create a ".GamingRoot" file in the drive where you want to install a game. So, I checked my D drive to see if that file existed, and it did, but there was not one present on my C drive. I copied the .GamingRoot file over to C drive, then changed the default install location to that drive. I went to do a test install of a game, and as usual the install location prompt appeared:





I clicked "Choose a folder for your games on (C" as I usually do, picked a folder, and... no change, the checkmark still stayed on the D drive selection, as it has been. I thought okay, maybe I had to restart the Xbox app so it could detect the .GamingRoot file I placed on drive C earlier, so I did and repeated the install check. Still no change. Then I thought alright, maybe I have to set the default location to C in the app's settings first, so I did that, but it would not allow me to change the C drive folder that it had preselected:





I would have left it the way it is, but I didn't actually have a folder named "XboxGames" on drive C at all. I searched for it in File Explorer, but nothing was found. If I tried installing a game anyway, it would still default back to D at this point. So I could set the location to C drive, but I could not change the folder on C drive, and since the location was set to a folder that didn't exist, I could not install onto drive C. Now this made me wonder if the app would even let me change to a different D drive folder other than the one I had set before, so I tried that, and shockingly it actually worked, and the change did stick this time. Here's where it got strange, and where I get close to the solution. After I changed the folder on D, I went to set it back to what it was before, but then I noticed that the folder I had it set to before was now missing. Gone, completely erased, not even sitting in the recycling bin. I recreated the folder in the same location it was before and gave it the same name, then was able to set it back as the default install location in the Xbox app. This gave me the idea, maybe there was at one point a folder in drive C named "XboxGames", and maybe at some point when I changed the default install setting, that folder disappeared. Maybe what I had to do is simply recreate that folder in drive C and name it "XboxGames." So I did that, and finally, it worked.





I can now install games on the drive of my choice, and I can at least change the folder on drive D but I'm not sure about C. I'm not even willing to check at this point, I'm just glad it works at all. And I have no idea if the .GamingRoot file made any difference.

TL;DR - I realized the folder the Xbox app kept selecting on my C drive didn't exist, so I created it and that seemingly solved the problem.

I'm having basically the exact same problem. No matter how many times I change the install location settings in the Xbox app, the changes will not save at all, and the games will only install to the folder on my D drive that I had selected before this problem started occurring. I tried everything I know how, and none of it worked, which leads me to believe that this is a bug on Microsoft's end, specifically in the Xbox app itself.

The full details of every troubleshooting step I tried are in this post: Xbox App doesn't let me change install folders in Windows 10 - Microsoft Community

You dont as they are runed thru the xbox app not windows store

That doesn't matter. True, they are installed and managed by the Game Pass Beta app, but the games still install to the same hidden Windows Apps folder as standard Windows 10 apps.

To gain access you need to change some simple admin privileges.
This website explains how.