Xbox App not launching games/accepting invites & Game Bar not starting up

Hello,

let me get straight to the point.

The issues

- the Xbox App on the PC doesn't really work for me. I can open it up, I can add friends and I can download games, but that's about it. Neither can I start downloaded games, nor can I accept invites (Sea of Thieves). For the latter, it gives me a screen inside the app that says something like "oh no, looks like it crashed. Try restarting the app". Signing in also doesn't work, if I log myself out. Most buttons inside the app literally do nothing. I can click them, but absolutely nothing happens. This goes for things like the sign-in button, the "create Desktop shortcut" button, the online/offline status, the play button etc.

The app also constantly shows the green banner at the bottom where it asks if I have trouble with installing or starting games. According to my friends, they don't have this when they start it up.

- the Game Bar does nothing. Yes, it's activated, but pressing Win + G on the Keyboard or the Xbox button on my controller (yes, also activated) do nothing. Nothing pops up. The task is running in the task manager.

- therefore I am not able to join other peoples games in Sea of Thieves. I have to be the one that invites them, which at least works.

- at no point do I get any error messages

All of this worked at some point and then just stopped one day, by the way. It's been months, so I can't remember when it happened. But it happens both on Win10 and 11.

What I tried

Literally everything, but let me list it before I get a copy paste solution with everything I've already done 5 times.

• uninstalling/reinstalling the Gaming Services/Xbox App/Game Bar
  
• used the built-in Troubleshooter
  
• made sure all Updates are installed
  
• upgraded from Windows 10 to 11 (yes, I am that desperate)
  
• did a repair install of Win11 with the provided ISO
  
• installed the old Xbox Companion App which actually lets me start the game, but can't receive any invites
  
• repaired Gaming Services/Xbox App/Game Bar/Sea of Thieves
  
• resetted Gaming Services/Xbox App/Game Bar/Sea of Thieves
  
• re-downloaded Sea of Thieves through the Xbox App
  
• date & time are set up correctly
  
• logged in with the same account on MS Store and Xbox App
  
• deleted Gaming Services via registry
  
• restarted many many times ofc
  
• installed another game (Forza Horizon 3) to make sure it's not SoT's fault.. but FH3 has the same issue
  
• made sure all the required Xbox services are not disabled
  
• disabled Game Mode
  
• disabled the Teredo Filter in my Fritz Box Router
  
• activated UAC
  
• did wsreset
  
• as well as all the PowerShell commands I could find, provided by MS employees on these forums
  

My current Windows version is 11 22H2 with all current downloadable updates.

I noticed in the task manager, that when I click the Play button of Sea of Thieves in the Xbox App, the Gaming Services get a tiny bump (ony a few kb) in memory usage that falls back to normal in a matter of 1-2 seconds. So there is SOMETHING happening, but then again nothing at all.

So yeah, I'm out of ideas and can't find any other solutions. Might have forgotten a few in the list that I already tried. A complete and fresh reinstall of Windows is not an option for now.

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category***

:)