MSFS Troubleshooting Guide

Updated: November 1, 2025

This batch script can be ran on Windows 10 & 11, and automates some of the debugging steps laid out in this guide. Both the Steam and Windows Store versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 & 2024 are supported.

The following actions can be performed with the script:

MSFS 2020
SceneryIndexes and the SceneryCache can be removed and will be rebuilt upon next sim load. This can fix various oddities with terrain and airports. There may be a slight impact to load times on your next flight as the SceneryIndexes cache is rebuilt.

MSFS 2024
The script supports two options for 2024 – SceneryIndexes or Full Clean. The SceneryIndexes option works much like the option for 2020, whereas a full clean performs this action, but also removes your current StreamedPackages. This can be helpful if you are running into issues with your sim content. This directory can get a bit clogged up with stale files over several updates. These files will be reacquired (~1 or 2 GB) on your next sim load, which will cause the sim to load slower this one time.

If you prefer to do these actions manually, continue reading for the steps below!

Xbox troubleshooting is very limited due to the locked-down nature of the Xbox OS.

If you experience anything such as crashes, pink (missing) textures, or other odd behavior, please try the following suggestions in order:

1. Completely restart your Xbox.
2. Uninstall the add-on experiencing issues, close & restart MSFS (or your Xbox), then reinstall the product in question.
3. And if you still have issues at this point: Uninstall nearby airports or scenery one-by-one, restart and see if the issue is resolved.

If step 3 does not solve your issue, please post a Discord support thread or email us saying that you completed all the steps in this guide and detail what the exact issue is that you are still experiencing.

If step 3 does solve your issue, and the issue returns when reinstalling the 3rd party product, please let us know so we can investigate further!

Memory Issues on Xbox Series S – Users playing on Xbox Series S may experience out of memory errors, reduced texture quality, models slow to load, or even stuck LODs. This is due to the Series S having limited VRAM, which can quickly become saturated depending on where and what you fly. If this is happening, you may experience black avionics screens, as well as lower quality textures and object meshes as your console attempts to manage the VRAM. This will eventually lead to a crash.

Issues with MSFS add-ons are commonly caused by leftover files from overwriting an add-on or old cache files.

If you experience anything such as crashes, pink (missing) textures, or other odd behavior, please try the following suggestions in order:

1. (If installing from Marketplace) Restart the sim before using the add-on.
2. If you manually overwrote the add-on after an update, delete the add-on completely and reinstall it. Always make sure that you do clean installs for your add-ons when updating. Overwriting can leave behind leftover files which are known to cause issues. (Follow this up with step 3!)
3. Clear your Scenery Indexes: This is your add-ons cache. It replaced the content.xml, which is no longer used (except by some 3rd party apps). However, like the content.xml of the past, these scenery indexes can store old or duplicate information which can eventually cause issues with your add-ons. It is good practice to clear these after removing or updating add-ons and even after a MSFS update! To do so, delete the following folder (It will rebuild on next sim launch):

Alternatively, you may also download and run our MSFS Cleanup Script above!

4. If you still have issues at this point: Uninstall or deactivate nearby airports or scenery one-by-one, restart and see if the issue is resolved.

If step 4 does not solve your issue, please post a Discord support thread or email us saying that you completed all the steps in this guide and detail what the exact issue is that you are still experiencing.

If step 4 does solve your issue, but the issue returns when reinstalling or reactivating the other 3rd party product, please let us know so we can investigate further!