Users, Microsoft reporting significant MSFS 2020 outage (updated)

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Microsoft Flight Simulator doesn’t seem to be quite able to catch a break at the start of this year as MSFS 2020 servers have been experiencing an outage for several hours now. Here’s what we know!

Server outage

For several hours now, community members have been reporting issues logging into Microsoft Flight Simulator. Most users are reporting being stuck on the update screen during start-up. Microsoft have communicated that they are aware of the issue.

Hi there,

We’re aware of an issue preventing some players from launching Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, where they get stuck on the “Checking for Updates” screen. Our team has been actively working on a fix the past few hours to get users back in as quickly as possible.

Jummivana, Senior Community Manager

Microsoft’s Online Services Monitoring thread meanwhile reports a major outage for MSFS 2020 is currently occurring as of 4:00 pm EST.

The issue doesn’t seem to affect all players as some have been stuck unable to access the sim for hours while others, likely myself, seem to be able to sign in without trouble.

Users are being encouraged to report issues on a merged thread on the forums or stay tuned as they work through the problem.

MSFS 2024 is reportedly unaffected by the outage.

Update: January 11 at 8:26 PM EST

The Online Services Monitoring page has now listed MSFS 2020 as ‘operational’ again. Hopefully that means that services have resumed and everyone is able to get in and fly again.

11 responses to “Users, Microsoft reporting significant MSFS 2020 outage (updated)”

  1. dryheat94 Avatar
    dryheat94

    Thank you for posting this! I’m so pissed right now. I spent all morning on this sim trying to figure out what was wrong. No mention of servers down. I usually have the sim (2020) in offline mode. This morning I turned it to online and since then it crashes when it tried to load. I ended up trashing it and trying to reinstall, only to get content servers down warnings. Spent hours online looking at old posts trying to understand why. I’ve had enough of Microsoft and I think this is the end of the road for me and this sim. btw, the online servers didn’t show as down when I checked over and over this morning. So dang angry right now. Again, thanks for posting this so I know it’s not on my end!

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      It’s definitely not on your end. I do wish their system tracker was updated a little more quickly when services go down, though I do know from experience that sometimes the thing that does the status check reports everything as ok but the server itself is offline so… maybe that happened. Things break unfortunately.

      While MSFS 2024 gets its things together, I’ve got three other great sims to choose from personally. I do recommend when one is being fussy (and they’ve all had their issues) that maybe finding another one is a good idea. That way you can have some fun one way or the other!

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      1. dryheat94 Avatar
        dryheat94

        I gave up trying 2 hours ago. I spent a good 4 hours this morning trying so many things. The irony is that I haven’t played it in quite awhile. Last night I put a new drive in, so first thing this morning I moved the packages folder over to that drive. Easy, peasy. Then I decided to toggle it online and that’s when it took a dump. Of course I figured it had something to do with my changes this morning and after spending 2 hours I gave up and decided to do a clean install. Then another 2 hours looking at the update screen and checking online for outages, messages, any support docs I could find. 4 hours of a wasted Saturday because their online reporting page wasn’t updated. Not a happy camper. Really thankful for your post. I thought it was me all this time and was so frustrated because I couldn’t figure it out.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        I feel your pain. I’ve spent all day troubleshooting stuff before too. Hopefully you get some good downtime and some fun flying time soon!

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  2. dryheat94 Avatar
    dryheat94

    FYI It seems to be back up now. New installation downloading. Sigh…

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      Good luck! 🤞

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. Charles Avatar
    Charles

    seemed like 2024 was slow to update today. I ran the update, but it was super slow.

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  4. Harry Chalcroft Avatar
    Harry Chalcroft

    It’s not only Microsoft that gets us dismantling our systems when the problem isn’t on our equipment.

    Surely professional organisations ought to put up a CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE sign whenever they are needing to shut down for a bit.

    Thirty years has taught me as much about computers as aviation.

    Golden rule. Don’t get too upset/pissed off too quickly. Your computer may be just fine.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. dryheat94 Avatar
      dryheat94

      At the least, it should have been programmed to go into offline mode (in the case of MSFS 2020) when there is no Internet connection. For me, it was a matter of circumstances. Started up fine, moved packages folder, started up fine, toggled to online mode, broken. Never occurred to me that in this was on MS’s end, especially when their site showed no servers down. Anyways, back in business and lesson learned!

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    2. rickyzeng Avatar
      rickyzeng

      I can totally feel the frustration. I used to regularly play a bit of MSFS2020 during weekend mornings because that’s when the internet streaming speed is fastest. It’ll definitely be a bummer if it just happens to not load for no apparent reason. Fortunately I’m been tied up with other SIMs recently and haven’t touched MSFS for a while (waiting for 2024 to sort it out itself).

      And BTW it’s never your own computer/system’s fault. Early on when MSFS2020 had loads of issues and when I searched the web for solutions, most of the answers ended with “re-installing the game / windows system” (probably a lot of them were AI answers), and I was like WTF? Not spending so much effort on that kind of thing. Turned out the best way was just to spend time with something else and let the game dev sort it out.

      MSFS had more “leave you stranded on the side of road” type of tech issues than anything else that I’ve experienced, which is alarming. Honestly I cannot think of another major SIM or game that was so prohibiting like this.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  5. dryheat94 Avatar
    dryheat94

    I did get a nice warning from my Internet provider that I’ve now used 50% of my monthly bandwidth limit in the first 5 days of my cycle, so thank you Microsoft for that. 🙂

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