Fix: Windows 8.1 Store app gets stuck at loading circle

After the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, your Store app might stop working properly. When you launch it, it may hang or get stuck at the loading circle animation, from which it never proceeds to the actual Store. Also, the PC Settings app may be broken too. Fortunately, it is possible to fix the problem easily. Let's see how.

    1. Open PowerShell as Administrator: type powershell on the Start screen. The PowerShell icon will appear in the search results on the right. Right click it and choose "Run as Administrator".
    2. Type (or copy-paste) the following command into the PowerShell console: 
      Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.XML

      Press Enter and wait until the command is finished. It should take a few seconds.

    3. Reboot your PC

That's it. Now your Windows Store should work again.

For repairing the PC Settings app, the command is similar. Repeat the above steps but instead of the command in step 2, type this command:

Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\ImmersiveControlPanel\AppxManifest.XML

That's it. Now your PC Settings app should also be repaired.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

51 thoughts on “Fix: Windows 8.1 Store app gets stuck at loading circle”

          1. yes, I did. App store is still spinning and is not being launched. Now, my Skype is also not working and I can’t reinstall from the Store App as it wouldn’t launch….

          2. Press the Win+R keys together on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. Type WSRESET into it and press Enter. This will reset the Windows Store app cache.
            If this does not help, try something from these common recommendations.

  2. It didn’t work for me. It keeps giving me error 0x80072ee2. Followed yr steps. It didn’t make a difference.

    Reply

          2. BTW, the problem still persists. However, I noticed that if I open another user account and log in as a different user – the App Store is working. Any thoughts?

            Thank you.

  4. Here is a a solution that worked!!! and i mean it :) believe me i’ve tried all the command in cmd, the trouble shooter and cleaning cache and it didnt worked out. But this saved my life!

    Open the Task manager (right click the task bar).
    Kill the Store app and the Store Broker service. The last one might not be running.
    Open the File manager and navigate to:
    C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Packages\\WinStore_[garbage]\LocalState

    Replace [username] with your username. The [garbage] tag can be different sometimes, so navigate to it manually.
    Rename the Cache folder to CacheTemp

    Sometimes renaming isn’t possible because Windows complains the path is too long. To fix this, open a command prompt (WIN+R and cmd) and type: subst t: followed by the path at step 3. Then navigate to the new drive (t:) and type: rename Cache CacheTemp.

    Create a new folder named Cache.
    Start the Windows Store to see if it helped.

    Reply

      1. I had to follow these steps and clean the cache manually. Using wsreset.exe just wouldn’t work and kept loading as well. Glad that WinAero can help when the official Microsoft forums are pretty useless.

        Reply

    2. WOW – Finally

      Two months of looking and trying to fix my store and this worked.

      Only one thing to say, remember that appData is a hidden folder and you have to unhide it using View setting in Explorer.

      Thanks a million

      Reply

  7. Thanks MArc,
    The solution you provided did work on my Lenovo Miix.
    All other solutions, including the powershell command, did not!

    I just renamed the Cache folder to “CacheTemp” and created a new “Cache” folder.
    Afterwards my store started correctly. Thanks a million!!

    Reply

  8. To fix this, run the following in a Command Window (CMD) to re-register the Store App:
    powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.XML

    If you get error 0x8007064A after executing this, it means that the registry key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModel\Repository\Packages” does not have SYSTEM as the owner.
    Change the owner back to SYSTEM as explained here and try again.

    Reply

  9. Check your network connection, if you have google DNS server try remove it or put your gateway IP. I had this before problem but after I remove google DNS server (8.8.8.8) and I changed it to my router IP it fix the problem and windows store started.

    Reply

  16. Hello MArc and Sergey,

    I tried both methods, renaming of Cache to CacheTemp and creating a new folder by Cache and powershell method. Nothing worked for me. Please help.

    Reply

  17. Life saver!
    The reboot took incredibly long, and for a few minutes I considered installing Linux, but once it was done…. YOOHOO!!!

    Reply

  18. I have exactly this problem but not with the Windows Store app or PC settings app, but all the other metro apps.
    PC is a Lenovo E540 with Windows 8.1 pro.
    WinStore and PC settings app work fine, but nearly all other metro apps (Mail; People; Calendar; Alarm; Weather; Video; Music; and even third party apps like Facebook; Skype; Twitter; Evernote Touch; Adobe Reader Touch) just get stuck on the logo screen. When I launch them, it shows the logo screen for 1-2 seconds, and then the app just minimizes to the taskbar and nothing else happens. If I go back into it, it again stays on screen for a few seconds then minimizes again.
    I’ve tried everything, including reseting the windows store, reinstalling all the apps that don’t work, and numerous other solutions/fixes on the internet, but nothing seems to work.
    Help!

    Reply

  19. Thank you so much for this. The fix you recommended worked like a charm. I will be sure to share this post on my blog.

    Reply

  22. I have tried so many fixes for this and got nowhere.
    Was at the point of giving up and thinking maybe wait until Windows 10 comes out and all will be right in new OS.
    Then I saw this link in search engine and thought – oh well one more try.
    Guess what – it worked!! So pleased and so clear and easy to do.
    Thank you so much for sharing your expertise.
    Regards
    Jim

    Reply

    1. this trick is not related to any hardware issue you can face with. It does not affect drivers or hardware physically.

      Reply

  26. when i run the command in cmd then it says -‘ add-appxpackage ‘ is not recognised as an internal or external command operable program or batch file.

    Reply

  27. all these options no longer work. – most of the links either no longer work or direct you to a windows 11 advert.
    I’ve just spoken to a ex-Microsoft employee who assures me that the ‘New’ Microsoft store is incompatible with windows 8.1, the ‘old’ store has been wiped from the system and that Microsoft is doing it’s utmost to kill-off windows 8.1 as soon as it possibly can.
    couldn’t be about profit, could it ?
    I have no intention to ‘downgrade’ again to win 10. tried it, didn’t like it and went back to 8.1.

    Reply

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