Microsoft Flight Simulator FAQ

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How to improve slow download speed

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There are many reasons your download speed might appear slow. The troubleshooting steps below will help you improve your download speed. 

 

NOTE: If the download does not progress, see Basic troubleshooting: How to troubleshoot packages installation & decompressing issuesinstead.

 

TRY A VPN 

You may be in a remote location or your bandwidth may be throttled. Try using a VPN (you can find free trials online) to connect to another datacenter or prevent your ISP from seeing what kind of traffic is coming and going on your line. 

 

WIFI

Switch to an LTE or wired connection and try again. We do not recommend using wifi to play Microsoft Flight Simulator, even if your wifi is stable for everyday usage. A wired connection greatly reduces the risk of packet loss.

 

RESTART THE DOWNLOAD

If the download slowed down, close the app to restart the download—the download will resume from where it left off. 

 

DISABLE POWER SAVING MODE AND OTHER TUNE-UP UTILITIES

Battery-saving modes, traffic monitoring software, hard drive utilities as well as PC tune-up utilities can all have a negative impact on your download and writing speed. Disable unnecessary programs that run automatically on startup and try again.

 

REBOOT YOUR ROUTER OR MODEM

Power Cycle your router/modem to empty the DNS cache, reset tasks that may have stalled and re-select the least crowded channel for each frequency.

  • Unplug your router or modem from its power outlet.
  • Wait for 60 to 120 seconds.
  • Plug your router or modem into the power outlet.
  • Your router or modem will take a few minutes to reinitialize.

 

SET THE DATA BANDWIDTH USAGE LIMIT TO UNLIMITED

Have you set up a Data bandwidth usage limit in-game prior to the update? If so, your download speed will be limited to the value you select selected (i.e. 5Mbps, 20Mbps, or 40Mbps).

NOTE: To change your Data Bandwidth Usage Limit back to Unlimited, you will need to wait for the new update to install. 

Once the update is installed, please do the following:

  1. Launch Microsoft Flight Simulator
  2. Go to Options > General > Data
  3. Move the cursor to Unlimited
  4. Click on Apply and Save

 

DISABLE AUTOTUNING LEVEL

The Receive Window Auto-Tuning feature lets the operating system continually monitor routing conditions such as bandwidth, network delay, and application delay. Therefore, the operating system can configure connections by scaling the TCP receive window to maximize the network performance.

When the Receive Window Auto-Tuning feature is enabled, older routers, older firewalls, and older operating systems that are incompatible with the Receive Window Auto-Tuning feature may sometimes cause slow data transfer or a loss of connectivity. When this occurs, users may experience slow performance. Or, the applications may crash.

  • In the "type here to search" bar, next to the Windows Start menu icon, type Command and look for Command Prompt
  • In the menu select “Run as administrator”
  • Enter: netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable
  • Press enter
  • Reboot your computer

 

USE GOOGLE PUBLIC DNS

No one is immune to issues with their ISP’s DNS server. Change your DNS to Google Public DNS and try again.

DNS settings are specified in the TCP/IP Properties window for the selected network connection.

Example: Changing DNS server settings on Windows 10

  1. Go to the Control Panel.
  2. Click Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings.

  3. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:

    • To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, right-click the Ethernet interface and select Properties.
    • To change the settings for a wireless connection, right-click the Wi-Fi interface and select Properties.

    If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

  4. Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) or Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and then click Properties.

  5. Click Advanced and select the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server IP addresses listed there, write them down for future reference, and remove them from this window.

  6. Click OK.

  7. Select Use the following DNS server addresses. If there are any IP addresses listed in the Preferred DNS server or Alternate DNS server, write them down for future reference.

  8. Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers:

    • For IPv4: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4.
    • For IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and/or 2001:4860:4860::8844.
    • For IPv6-only: you can use Google Public DNS64 instead of the IPv6 addresses in the previous point.

  9. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Test your new settings.

  10. Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.

 

DELIVERY OPTIMIZATION

If you have limited connectivity or other network constraints, you can limit how much bandwidth Delivery Optimization uses for background downloads. Lower values use less bandwidth but cause updates to be delivered more slowly. 

  • In the "type here to search" bar, next to the Windows Start menu icon, type Delivery optimization
  • Select Open
  • Click on Advanced Options
  • Check the box "Limit how much bandwidth is used for downloading updates in the background" and move the slider to 100%.

 

DISABLE IPV6

Some users reported that disabling IPv6 improved their network speed.

  1. Right-click on the “Network  / Wi-Fi ” icon on the bottom right corner of your screen to open up the menu shown below.
  2. Click on Open Network and Sharing Center.
  3. In the Network and Sharing Center window, click on Change adapter options. 
  4. You will then see a list of network adapters available on your computer.
  5. Right-click on your active network adapter (Ethernet or Wi-Fi) and select Properties.
  6. In the Properties window, scroll down until you see Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6). 
    Note: If you’re connected to the internet wirelessly, the corresponding adapter should be “Wi-Fi“. However, if you’re connected to the internet via a LAN cable instead, the corresponding adapter should be “Ethernet“.
  7. Uncheck the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) checkbox and click on OK to save the changes.

Now that IPv6 has been disabled on your computer, reboot your computer for the setting to take effect.

NOTE: If you do not see a significant improvement, we recommend enabling IPv6.

 

ADDITIONAL TROUBLESHOOTING 

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