Xbox Game App on W11 - Not allowing me to detect already download games or delete old files.

AshrafSharaf · Jul 5, 2022

Hello,

I have been experiencing an issue with my xbox app on windows 11 that i couldn't install or play my existing game (posted here: Xbox App errors 0x00000001 and 0x80004005 - App Unusable - Microsoft Community) And after trying several solutions I finally decided to go with the painful one and reinstall windows.

On my old windows installations I have the below games under G:\WindowsApps:

- Age of Empires IV - Folder name - Microsoft.Cardinal_5.0.15965.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

- Hades - folder name SupergiantGamesLLC.Hades_1.0.38246.0_x64__q53c1yqmx7pha

And then i had the below under Program Files with properly name folders:

- A Plague Tale- Innocence

- Forza Horizon 5

- Naraka: Bladepoint

Now i reinstalled windows on a new SSD and i have the Xbox app games under C:\XboxGames and i have two issues, 1. I can't use my existing downloaded games ( i tried starting a download then copying in the old folder/files but it doesn't detect it and it just redownloads from scratch anyway). 2. I can't delete the old folders, for example if i try to delete Hades it would give me a permission denied error even though I am admin and I set the folder ownership to everyone.

Could someone please help me? I connected with the live chat support and they literally said this is more complex than they thought and just released the question.

Thanks,

:)

AshrafSharaf

Hi Ricardo,

Thank you for your reply. I did take ownership and still wasn't able to delete specially exe files, but someone suggested that it be done in safe mode and that thankfully worked for me. I was able to delete there.

However, the main issue that I'd like to make the app detect some of the existing games rather than redownload, is that possible?

Thanks,

Ashraf

JosefLBohorquez

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 Ashraf

Sadly right now the Xbox app doesn't have the ability to detect existing games :c
So you need to re-download

Greetings from another Microsoft user!

Ricardo Lechuga

Hi AshrafSharaf! My name is Ricardo an independent advisor ready to help you with this situation!

You will need to delete the files, for this you will need to take ownership of the folders, as those are from a different windows installation, your current user is not the one that created those files, please try the steps here to take ownership of the files

https://windowsreport.com/take-ownership-folder...

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Florian Castelli

Thanks for you answer !

I've tried everything to stay away from reinstalling W11 but seems like it was the only fix possible.

I've created a .iso file via Windows Creation Tool, reinstalled W11 and kept my file.

Xbox app works perfectly now. It's a shame we have to go through all those things to... download a file.

It would never occur on steam for instance but seems like all those hidden files, priorities and exception from Xbox app are a complete mess...

Florian

TristanHolley

I checked my laptop (also W11) and copied the .GamingRoot file to the root of my D: drive and restarted the Xbox app and was able to start a game install.

Thank you VERY much! that was really strange as I never deleted anything I had even installed one game to that drive. Anyway. Great suggestion to check another PC (creating a text file and deleting the filename and just leaving the extension of .GamingRoot didn't seem to help)

Xbox Game App on W11 - Not allowing me to detect already download games or delete old files.