Error Message -- "Access to the Content Servers Is Currently Unavailable"

I realize there are old threads on this subject, but I have a question about the putative "fix." Leaving aside that it is about 20 horrendously complex steps, and involves signing out of apps that may or may not be installed, then re-downloading and reinstalling them all, at the end you're supposed to sign in to the Microsoft Store "with the account used to purchase MS Flight Simulator 2020." I don't believe I can do that. I received the sim as a birthday gift and I have of course redeemed the gift code.

 

I have had the sim installed since August. I have never seen this message before and I don't believe I have exceeded my data cap (if I have one) because my Verizon FiOS has no limit; and, in any case, I've never reached it in any prior month.

 

What's up with this?

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Mac6737

Could your firewall be blocking it? Might be worth disabling it temporarily & trying again. Better still, add MSFS as an exception? Just a thought

 

Regards

Steve

Looks like all Xbox related services are running as of this post, however, you can check the status at the link below to see if there are issues with any of them.

 

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-live-status

 

Otherwise, yes, some people have resolved this by signing out of the Microsoft Store and Xbox apps on their PCs, then logged back in. Regarding the account that purchased the sim, this would be the account the code was redeemed with in your case.

I realize there are old threads on this subject, but I have a question about the putative "fix." Leaving aside that it is about 20 horrendously complex steps, and involves signing out of apps that may or may not be installed, then re-downloading and reinstalling them all, at the end you're supposed to sign in to the Microsoft Store "with the account used to purchase MS Flight Simulator 2020." I don't believe I can do that. I received the sim as a birthday gift and I have of course redeemed the gift code.

 

I have had the sim installed since August. I have never seen this message before and I don't believe I have exceeded my data cap (if I have one) because my Verizon FiOS has no limit; and, in any case, I've never reached it in any prior month.

 

What's up with this?

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Mac6737

 

This is the same thing I got last night. I feel better now!

NEWS FLASH! Ignore my original post!

 

I've said before that this sim is a "hot mess." I erred. It is an amorphous steaming blob of digital gibberish dumped on our collective doorstep. The sensational graphics are the seductress that keeps us coming back for ever more abuse.

 

Even the error messages are erroneous! After I got that error message yesterday, I spent the better part of an hour searching this and the FS support forum for answers, taking and editing a screenshot, and posting my question. When I finally had had enough, i clicked "Quit" on the error screen. Guess what!! The old graphic and "Press any key to continue" appeared. Did so. Then I was "welcomed back" to Xbox. (Didn't know I'd ever left.) Clicked on "Continue." Sim proceeded to install one gig of updates, after which I got the opening screen and was able to go flying.

 

Thanks for your replies.

 

Mac6737

At least it’s working again :)

 

Regards

Steve

I've said before that this sim is a "hot mess." I erred. It is an amorphous steaming blob of digital gibberish dumped on our collective doorstep. The sensational graphics are the seductress that keeps us coming back for ever more abuse.Mac6737

 

But why is the seductress so selective, abusing some folks a lot, and others hardly at all? If the sim is really a mess, why isn't it a mess for everybody?

But why is the seductress so selective, abusing some folks a lot, and others hardly at all? If the sim is really a mess, why isn't it a mess for everybody?

 

With the complexity of this sim, Windows, and modern computers in general, it is very much possible that it is a bigger issue for some than others.

But why is the seductress so selective, abusing some folks a lot, and others hardly at all? If the sim is really a mess, why isn't it a mess for everybody?

 

Some people are less likely to be seduced; some of them, represented on this and other forums, have gone back to to Xplane/P3D/FSX. Plus, I can't say that it isn't a mess for "everybody." A couple months ago, I posted a nastygram complaining that I spent more time on CTDs than flying. But it got better soon after that. Why? I dunno, maybe they fixed something with an update. Releasing a sim that crashes all the damn time qualifies as a "mess," even if things get fixed in due course.

If I had read this series of dismayed complaints about any other product that was for sale, such as a car, I would not purchase it and the product would be withdrawn from sale with profuse apologies. The tone of the posts here does not seem to have changed for the better since MSFS was first sold, and there appears to be no reassurance that it is about to improve to a reasonable standard of reliability. Such as that of Windows 10 for instance? Who would have predicted this three months ago? And who would have bought it if this had been known?

I bought it and I fully expected these complaints, in fact I'm surprised there haven't been more.

Microsoft made it perfectly clear before launch (to me at least) that MSFS is a work in progress and not a finished product. Plenty of folks pay no attention to such disclaimers even when they're all over the internet and not in the small print.

MSFS is a completely standard "XBox Game For PC" and presents few difficulties to anyone who is familiar with modern games. Unfortunately that doesn't include the average flight simmer - some of whom are still having problems setting up P3D, XPlane, FSX and even FS9.

To the average flight simmer, MSFS is radically different to any other flight sim and there's nothing intuitive about any of it, therefore it's a complete mess and shouldn't exist.

If I had read this series of dismayed complaints about any other product that was for sale, such as a car, I would not purchase it and the product would be withdrawn from sale with profuse apologies. The tone of the posts here does not seem to have changed for the better since MSFS was first sold, and there appears to be no reassurance that it is about to improve to a reasonable standard of reliability. Such as that of Windows 10 for instance? Who would have predicted this three months ago? And who would have bought it if this had been known?

 

The analogy to buying a car vs. a flight sim program is not valid. Cars are not designed as projects to be refined and improved over time. There has never been a flight sim that was perfect and complete on launch, and likely never will be. This is true in part because computing and data-managing technologies are continuously changing, but also because individual computer systems, as well as the computer skills, level of experience, and priorities of flight simmers vary so widely. It is very clear from this and other forums that, while MSFS certainly has its bugs, many -- not all, but many-- issues that come up have arisen because of the considerable differences between this new sim and its predecessors and the resulting learning curve. After many years of experience with FS9 and FSX I have had to learn to fly all over again with a whole new system, and it takes time and patience. No one is making me do this; it's my choice. Others have chosen to stick with older sims, at least for now -- their choice.

Let's take the car analogy a little farther. You buy a Pontiac (I know they don't make them anymore, humor me). You then install a high performance cam, two 4 barrel carbs, a supercharger, some homemade headers, and jump the rpm up 1000 over redline. Are you then going to have the audacity to go into the Pontiac dealer and complain? If you look into some of the threads around this post, you will note the "problem" turned out to be a custom weather program, another an addon livery package, still another an addon scenery package. This is a new program with a file structure the community marginally understands, and it is rapidly evolving. This is not the time to add every new gimmick and addon that shows up! If you are very fastidious, and remove and clean before each update, you probably won't have problems, but if you just install and don't follow directions (the developers tell you to clean out the community folder before each update), then you will have problems.

I have been running this program since it first came out. I have had two CTDs (both related to opening and closing the map before that bug was fixed) in all that time. My aircraft have never dived into the sea or pitched into the vertical. I have found two missing airports and a few elevation errors, but those are just annoyances. I have wholeheartedly enjoyed this program. I can explore the world in a detail vastly beyond any other simulator.

What creates the distinction between those with problems and those that don't? It isn't one answer! As mentioned before, this program works very differently than previous MS sims. From FS2000 to FS2002 to FS2004 to FSX, everything worked about the same. People got used to a set of conventions. This program works very differently. You can't just jump over from FSX and work the autopilot. The commands to work the flaps are different. Some of the "problems" are experienced simmers who refuse to go watch the videos and read the tutorials because they have been running sims for years.

Another group fall into the casual operator category. These folks will have a problem running almost any complicated software. It is interesting that some of the folks that complain about the sim, were also the same folks that found the member survey too daunting to complete.

A third category contains folks that just have to have every new addon and finagle that shows up on some obscure board. Many of these addons will create conflicts sooner or later.

Then there are the folks that try to push the limit. As an example of this, there was one fellow with an I7-7700K and a GTX 1080ti trying to run multiple 4K monitors at not just ultra settings, but EVERYTING completely maxed. Now that is a nice computer, but it can't do that. He was complaining about a data lag artifact that appeared on the runways. If he had just turned down a few settings and maybe just one 4K monitor, he would have been fine! Others try to run the program on DDR3 computers and 5th generation processors that just can't handle the data transfer. Some have very weak internet connections. To understand why this is a problem you have to understand the scope of the magnitude of data this program is working. It would take MORE than 400 4TB SSDs to hold the data this program uses. You went from two or three DVDs to 420 giant SSDs!!!!

Just keep it simple and run it on modern hardware and it will work.

Now there is one more common problem simmer. This is the guy with the latest I9 and a RTX 3090 and a 72inch 4K monitor. This guys also tends to have a yoke, a joystick, 2 keyboards, a mouse, pedals and three other USB devices. All this complexity creates conflicts.

One more time, keep it simple and it will work.

I will also add, this program will disappoint those that want study level airliners. That is probably 12-16 months away. If that is what you like, you probably need to stay with another program for that time.

Edited December 9, 2020 by plainsman

Much of what Plainsman says makes sense. I have 2 more comments

 

1. No manual! Many problems that have plagued us have turned out to be, as he said, because some of us thought the stuff we knew from P3D/FSX was transferable. It isn't. E.g., see my earlier thread about failing to find add-on liveries -- because I was looking in the thumbnail gallery, like I do in P3D. I spent 2 months baffled by that misperception.

 

2. I don't think I am fairly described by any of your categories. And yet . . . . While I am suffering many fewer CTDs than I was in September, my CTD rate >90% when loading saved flight parameters. That is extremely limiting, obviously. Also, when I minimize a flight in Windows mode, FS2020 eventually shuts itself off. That wouldn't be a big deal, if only I were able to save flight parameters.

Mac6737, I concur, it was a massive mistake to not include a manual as much as they changed!

There are still some real bugs. The saved flight one must be real. I never save a flight so it has not affected me, but it would be a real problem if you want to fly across the Pacific!