Xbox Game Pass access denied "you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item"

Sour Barrel · Mar 11, 2022

Around the beginning of the year (this may have coincided with an update to Windows 11, and no, there's no way to roll back to Windows 10, if anyone was about to suggest that) Most, almost all games on Xbox Game Pass do not launch upon clicking, and return an error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have appropriate permissions to access the item." Once upon a time, and I have no clue why it doesn't work now, I could get around this by clicking the search button next to Start and looking up the name of a game (ie. Forza Horizon 5) and then right-click and run as administrator. Now when I try this, nothing happens, until I click the search button again and then I suddenly get the administrator-rights prompt (Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?) and when I click Yes, again nothing happens. This has happened with newly installed games (tried and failed to install+launch Dragonball FighterZ today) as well as older games I installed last year like Sable, only I used to be able to run that with the administrator workaround, and now I can't get it to launch for the life of me. This problem appears to have started today.

Any help or solutions appreciated.

:)

Sour Barrel

Awesome, thank you.

What did the trick was Microsoft Store App > Library button > Get updates. I think specifically it was the Gaming Services App.

Ricardo Lechuga

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

First will be important to check on the windows settings/windows update I there's no pending updates

After that do the same on the Microsoft store app by pressing the library button on the bottom left corner and then the get updates button on the top right

After this follow check the permission on the path you have the games installed, try adding full control to your user

Zachary Watanabe

Compatibility mode did not work, and when i try to run the windows 7/8 launcher installer it says "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item" But I only have one user on my computer and I am the admin so I don't know what I can't access.

Ricardo Lechuga

It should be related to the game permission to access the account information, you probably denied the access to the information when requested as it would have requested it, be sure also to be logged with the same account on the Xbox app, you can see the apps that have permission to access account information here

https://account.live.com/consent/Manage

colesdav

Hi,

I did try it. That's why I am here asking about it.

I installed the XBOX Game Pass for PC Games on an external USB Drive.

There is a WindowsApps folder on that drive.

If I click on it, a popup window appears, with a yellow triangle and ! mark.

"You don't currently have permission to access this folder.

Click Continue to permanently get access to this folder. "

If I click on "Continue" and another popup window appears, with a yellow triangle and ! mark.

"You have been denied permission to access this folder."

To gain access to this folder you will need to use the security tab

I stopped there.

Xbox Game Pass access denied "you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item"