@Jac-Rabbit-P

That means you are needing to clean up the Backup folder Microsoft uses for "Corrupted" applications/games. The steps to fix this requires Administrative access, and using the command prompt to erase each folder one by one.

• Start an administrative command prompt
• change the directory to "c:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MutableBackup"
• Run the takeown command to recursively take ownership of the complete folder and files for phantasy star online 2. Just as a heads up, The folders you are wanting to clear out start with "100B7A24.oxyna".
• Use the rmdir command to recursively delete the each folder containing "Corrupted" copies of Phantasy Star Online 2

NOTE: These Instructions do not include Instructions on what parameters to pass to the commands, but more information about the commands are gained by passing "/?" to the command.. So for example you can read the information on the commands using the following:

takeown /?
rmdir /?

There is two methods to try and delete all of the Phantasy Star Online 2 Installations.

Method 1: Built-in Windows Cleanup

This is the safest method, and the steps are as follows...

• Open up the Settings Application for Windows 10. This is the Gear Icon that appears in the Start menu.
• Navigate to System
• Navigate to Storage.
• Click on the "Temporary Files"
• Make sure that "Delivery Optimization Files" is checked.
• Click on "Remove Files", and wait. This can take a while since there may be more than 50gb of files involved.

Method 2: use command prompt

Warning: This method is intended for Advanced users only. Do not attempt this method unless you are familiar with working in command line environments.

• Open up an administrative command prompt.
• Navigate to the Windows Store Automated Backup folder ( The default location is c:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MutableBackups ).
• List the directories in the path. The old folders for Phantasy Star Online 2 should start with "100B7A24.oxyna".
• use the takeown command to recursively take ownership of each folder one by one.
• use the rmdir command to recursively erase each folder one by one.

I recommend trying the built-in Disk Clean up tool built into windows 10.

• Open up the Settings App for Windows 10.
• Click on "System".
• Click on "Storage"
• Click on "Temporary Files" for the C Drive.
• Make sure that "Delivery Optimization Files" is checked.
• Click "Remove Files".
• Wait for dialog to finish. This can take a long time depending on how many files are being removed.

I suggest updating your graphics card drivers. I personally have not seen any problems with the interaction between Phantasy Star Online 2 and my amd graphics cards.

@Mycow8me said in No matter how I try to launcher the pso2 launcher it will not launch or even give me a response?:

Had this same problem today. Whatever you do, DONT CLICK REPAIR in the windows apps settings. Any time you do this it will placehold another 50+GB folder in the mutable backup. The first time I clicked repair it seemed to neverend so I thought it wasn't working. I tried it a second time like an idiot and low and behold treesize found 150+GB of garbage sitting on my SD in the mutable backup.

I'm currently reinstalling for the 4th time. I really like this game but due to these reasons I have refused to spend any money on it till this issue is resolved incase I get tired of fixing it and quit.

I don't understand why you guys can't just move to steam sooner and accept that the microsoft store was a total mistake.

My only worry is that if the game moves to steam, this microsoft store account won't be loginable through steam for "reasons".

I will be brutally honest about this. All of the computers that have any of the following sympoms after Installing Phantasy Star Online 2...

System Signs or Symptoms

• Phantasy Star Online 2 Does not Launch after windows update.
• Phantasy Star Online 2 Requires Repeated Re-installs.
• Phantasy Star Online 2 Reinstalled and I lost 50+GB of storage
• Phantasy Star Online 2's Icon is darkened - This is the fatal sign a reinstall is happening in the background. You can confirm this by looking at Phantasy Star Online 2 using the windows 10 store page for the program.

Source of the Problem

The whole problem is caused by a Windows 10 App Store application ( Games Included) performing a "Write Inside the package". This action is clearly written as "Not Allowed, The package is read only.". You can read the exact documentation from microsoft on this... https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/desktop/desktop-to-uwp-behind-the-scenes

So in other words, the Phantasy Star Online 2 launcher is modify files, adding files and deleting files inside a Windows 10 App store package. The modified Windows 10 App store Package for Phantasy Star Online 2 is what causes the Windows 10 App store to require reinstallation because the package is corrupted according to Microsoft and the only solution Microsoft sees fit for the computer is to Reinstall the offending package by backing up the corrupted package, and download the base package from Microsoft again.

Possible Fixes

Avoid installing Phantasy Star ONline 2 until SEGA releases news that the launcher has been updated to address the faulty behavior.

I would recommend against installing Phantasy Star Online 2 on any build of windows due to the ignoring of Windows 10 App store guidelines. The whole issue is a two-step problem.

step 1: The Program Requests Administrative access using the "User Account Control" (aka UAC) dialogs. This works great, but the problem really gets hairy in the second step.

Step 2: The Elevated Launcher self-modifies the Application Package downloaded from the Windows 10 store. The Microsoft Documentation for Windows 10 Apps (see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/desktop/desktop-to-uwp-behind-the-scenes ) includes game. The Guideline ignored in particular is that the Launcher and anticheat perform the operation of a "Write inside the package" and Microsoft's official stance on this is that the operation is "Not allowed. The package is read-only.".

I normally would recommend using the windows 10 App store to install the game, but there is some major aspects of Phantasy Star Online 2 that need to be addressed before I can safely suggest any users install the game from the windows 10 app store.

Phantasy Star Online 2 Launcher is not Windows 10 App Store Compliant

The Phantasy Star Online 2 Launcher included on the windows 10 store is a Desktop Application masquerading as a Windows 10 App store application. This is a major problem because the launcher repeatedly ignores the Microsoft Documentation clearly stating that "Write inside the package" is "Not allowed. The package is read-only.". ( See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/desktop/desktop-to-uwp-behind-the-scenes ). This is the whole reason for more than 85% of the 1 Star review on the application store.

Windows Patches Lead to Reinstalls

All Windows 10 Patches ( on Windows 10 November 2019 Update ) will cause the Windows 10 App store to flag the application as corrupted once you fully update the game. In general this will be fixed by honoring the guidelines I mentioned before.

Drive Cleanup Issues

This is also caused by the launcher. The launcher creates files that are not in the windows 10 manifest, and this alone causes a nightmare cleaning up the program. In general the launcher adds files that are not meant to be in the app store package, and on top of this gives the files incorrect permissions.

System Reinstall Required

The repeated file trashing leads to the only fix to be reinstalling windows from scratch. I personally have had to do this because the windows 10 app store automatic cleanup simply renames the folder and leaves all the trash the Phantasy Star Online 2 Launcher created.

Also on a side note, I have been contacting the Support staff in regards to this issue and have multiple tickets. A general solution to all of the repeated reinstall problems is to have the launcher safely store the game data files in a folder outside of the actual application package path ( namely C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\AppPackageName ).

@Daigoji-Gai said in PSA: Remember to have Win10 fully updated:

Several critical crashes can be avoided by making sure Windows 10 is up to date. I was having BSOD critical errors and the update resolved the. Was finally able to play more than an hour without issues.

I agree with updating windows. However, I have had repeated reinstalls of "Phantasy Star Online 2" caused by installing any and all windows updates.

• Install Phantasy Star Online 2
• Update Phantasy Star Online 2
• Play Phantasy Star Online 2.
• BEGIN INFINITE LOOP
• Open Windows Update
• Install Windows updates
• restart computer
• Login to computer
• Open Windows 10 App store
• Navigate to "Phantasy Star Online 2"
• Click "Reinstall" because the game status is "This app has encountered a problem. Please reinstall to repair".
• end loop.

Also as a side Note, I have found that windows 10 feature updates can causes phantasy star online 2 to require a full reinstall as well.

I have noticed that every time I get a windows update that the Windows Store flags the game as Corrupted and forces the game to reinstall at the cost of more than 60 gigabytes of data each time. I have found that I can reproduce the problem reliably with every single update using two key feature updates...

Regular Windows 10 Updates on version 1909

• Open Windows 10 App Store
• • Navigate to "Phantasy Star Online 2".
• • Install "Phantasy Star Online 2" using Windows 10 Store.
• • wait for "Phantasy Star Online 2" to download ( about 11GB)
• • Launch "Phantasy Star Online 2"
• • Click "Yes" on "User Account Control" dialog. The Publisher Should be listed as "SEGA Games Co., Ltd.".
• • Let the Launcher restart.
• • Let the launcher download updates ( this will be 50+gb of data)
• • Wait for Phantasy Star Online 2 to finish updating
• • Start "Phantasy Star Online 2".
• • exit the game after getting to the main menu.
• • Open Windows Update
• • click "Check for Updates"
• • Install any updates available. In my case the last update I installed is KB4562900
• • Click "Restart" once update is finished
• • Wait for updates to finish
• • Login to windows 10
• • Open Windows 10 App Store
• • Navigate to Phantasy Star Online 2
• • The game will require a reinstall, and the exact error message the Windows App store will say is "This app encountered a problem. Please reinstall it to repair"

Windows 10 Feature Update to Version 2004 from version 1909

• Open Windows 10 App Store
• Navigate to, and Install Phantasy Star Online 2 from Windows 10 Store.
• Launch "Phantasy Star Online 2"
• Click "Yes" on "User Account Control" dialog. The Publisher Should be listed as "SEGA Games Co., Ltd.".
• Wait for Phantasy Star Online 2 to finish updating
• Start "Phantasy Star Online 2".
• exit the game after getting to the main menu.
• Open Windows Update
• Click "Check for updates"
• Install Updates the regular updates If any exist.
• Restart PC if there is any updates
• Check to make sure Phantasy Star Online 2 is able to be launched.
• Open windows update again
• click "Download and Install" to the "Windows 10, Version 2004" feature update to Windows 10.
• wait for the update to install
• Click "Restart" once update is finished
• Wait for updates to finish
• Login to windows 10
• Open Windows 10 App Store
• Navigate to Phantasy Star Online 2
• The game will require a reinstall, and the exact error message the Windows App store will say is "This app encountered a problem. Please reinstall it to repair"

Note: I have noticed that every single update Microsoft has released for Windows 10 has caused my Install for Phantasy Star Online 2 to require an Reinstall. Also, This bug report is common enough that more than half of the reviews on the windows 10 app store are probably related to this issue. I believe the core issue for this is that the Launcher for Phantasy Star Online 2 is modifying files sent to client computers from microsoft app store.

A small update. The game launcher is still corrupting itself. The game can also be flagged depending on whether or not windows store gets an update and goes in and re-validates the game files. The updated steps are below.

Warning: Do not do these steps unless you wish to reinstall Phantasy Star Online 2 because of windows store flagging the game as corrupted.

• Install "Phantasy Star Online 2" from windows store.
• Run "Phantasy Star Online 2" from the start menu after windows store says Installation is completed.
• Click "Yes" on the Administrative Prompt request.
• Let "Phantasy Star Online 2" update the launcher.
• click "Back" on the dialog since this will restart launcher.
• Close the launcher after about 2 to 5 minutes to give the launcher enough time to corrupt a few files.
• Close the launcher. (Note: There is no reason to let the game fully update at this point. )
• Start "Phantasy Star Online 2" from the start menu.
• Click "No" on the Administrative Prompt request.
• Windows store will now clearly mark the whole install as corrupted.