Windows 10: Apps could not be downloaded from store (Xbox One settings blocks)

Some Windows 10 users are facing suddenly the issue, that apps could not be downloaded from Windows Store anymore. This blog post analyses what's the reason and how Xbox One account settings are affecting your Windows Store downloads.


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Windows Store is a kind of "trouble maker" in Windows 10. I've read many forum posts, where users are reporting trouble accessing apps from Windows Store.

Just "another" Windows Store issue

I came across this store issue within a user post in German Microsoft Answers forum. The user wrote.

since 4 weeks I can't load new apps from Store (for instance Surface App, and Nebo). I'm receiving a message "try later" App updates can't be installed too.

I've re-installed Win10 Pro several times on my Surface Pro 4, and I use Windows Defender. Trying the troubleshooting methods suggested within the internet are not successful.

In normal cases, I would recommend a couple of fixes and diagnose steps to solve this store issue. But the statement, that the issue has been also observed after re-installing Windows 10 Pro made me thinking deeper.

There are many sources for Windows Store errors

Analyzing possible source for error during downloading apps from Windows 10 Store, gives me a bunch of possibilities. So I draw the schema below.

Windows Store sources of errors


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We need to separate local Windows 10 client related errors and errors related to Microsoft accounts (mentioned as Microsoft Konto in the schema shown above) during diagnose. And also the Microsoft Store servers can be out of order causing app download errors.

Client oriented troubleshooting strategies, that won't help

The common suggestion to cure app download errors are "check the proxy settings and clean the store cache using wsreset.exe). I've outlined those diagnose steps within my blog post Windows 10: Store downloads causes error 0x80D05001 – but none of those steps will solve the case mentioned above.

Also checking Windows component store (see Check and repair Windows system files and component store) won't solve the issue, because the user reported above, that he has re-installed Windows 10 Pro already. And Windows 10 "Windows Store Apps" troubleshooter (download) can't cure the issue. Going back to the above schema brought me to the conclusion, that a Windows 10 client error isn't the reason for app download problems discussed above. Also my hints given within my blog post Windows 10: Store error "Something went wrong" won't help in the case outlined above.

XBox One account settings are the root cause for blocked app downloads

With the knowledge outlined above we can negate many error sources. If the store server doesn't cause this issue (and other users did not have this issue), something with the user's Microsoft account might be broken. This can be verified using a new created Microsoft account.

If that is verified, the user is in need to find the misconfiguration within his Microsoft account profile.

Within the German MS Answers forum thread someone mentioned, that "PCs are nowadays be associated to Xbox One accounts". I don't remember exactly, but an Xbox Gamer Tag has been assigned automatically to a Microsoft account since Windows 8 (or Windows 8.1). A user suggested to check the Xbox One account settings.

1. So fire up a browser, go to URL account.xbox.com and login with your Microsoft account credentials.

XBox One account

After login we need to go to the Xbox settings page shown above. If the page is not shown, click the user icon (the green ball) and select Xbox settings within the pull down menu.

2. Then select within the left column the hyperlink Privacy & online safety and confirm the additional login data requested for sign in.

XBox One account settings

3. After seeing the page shown above, select the category Xbox One Online Safety, and check your settings.

If within the column Buy and download (Decide what content to allow to buy and download on Xbox One) the option Nothing is checked, Xbox One account settings blocks also other Windows store downloads. Please check an option like Anything or Only Free. Then log off using the pull down menu in the user's icon shown in the upper right corner of your browser window. Afterward Windows store downloads should be possible again.

Just my 2 cents

This case shows again, how difficult the new Microsoft approach is. It's a kind of genius to include Xbox One settings. But if there is a download conflict with Windows store apps, we have another source for trouble. My impression is, that an ordinary user did not have a real chance to solve such issues. Hope, my blog post will help users of Windows 10, affected by this behavior, to solve the issue.

Similar articles:
Check and repair Windows system files and component store
Windows 10: Store error "Something went wrong"
Windows 10: Store downloads causes error 0x80D05001
Windows 10: Dropping App Store Error 0x803F7003
Windows 10 Store stalls with error 0x80131500


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