Apps stop working on Surface Pro-4

[Calvin Hooning]

Factory installed Apps that have gone dark on my Pro-4;
Calculator, Groove Music, Picture Viewer, The Microsoft Store App (!) There are others.
These aren't even available for access to repair or replace.
Six month old, and very nice tool for me overall.
I don't want to reinstall, because I'll lose my sound driver, anti-virus and other essential (to me) programs.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Factory installed Apps that have gone dark on my Pro-4;
Calculator, Groove Music, Picture Viewer, The Microsoft Store App (!) There are others.
These aren't even available for access to repair or replace.
Six month old, and very nice tool for me overall.
I don't want to reinstall, because I'll lose my sound driver, anti-virus and other essential (to me) programs.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

I think I answered your post a few minutes ago but you've created an account with WC forums so that's good

Kindly share with us what OS version you are on - you can check in settings > system > about > OS build. It should be 10586.420

Additionally, have you checked for updates recently? There have been a lot of firmware updates that have come out

And check for updates for the apps to in store

 

[Calvin Hooning]

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, it's running build 10586.420, and it was updated yesterday...
At MS Store, I've only found a list of installed apps, that don't respond to tapping on their icon.
And on my pad, (start > all apps) the apps that don't work are "dark" and have no response, either to repair, or even uninstall.
When I try to use them, I get a blank window that disappears after a few second, or in the case of photo viewer, when I open a photo I get a black window that also goes away.
At the moment, my Surface is no more than a very expensive Kindle, that I can also browse the internet and play chess...
(thank goodness Chrome is working!)

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, it's running build 10586.420, and it was updated yesterday...
At MS Store, I've only found a list of installed apps, that don't respond to tapping on their icon.
And on my pad, (start > all apps) the apps that don't work are "dark" and have no response, either to repair, or even uninstall.
When I try to use them, I get a blank window that disappears after a few second, or in the case of photo viewer, when I open a photo I get a black window that also goes away.
At the moment, my Surface is no more than a very expensive Kindle, that I can also browse the internet and play chess...
(thank goodness Chrome is working!)

force a restart and check again - usually that solves the issue
Also, if that doesn't work, try this: specifically step 4: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/apps-and-windows-store/troubleshoot-windows-store-apps-on-surface?os=windows-10#solution4

Windows Store apps do not launch on Windows 10

 

[Calvin Hooning]

OK, (none of that works!! I actually found the trouble shooter before.) Could this all be a problem because I am in the Philippines?
If so, I wonder how I can get around it...
Thanks again for your time & attention

 

[Chintan Gohel]

OK, (none of that works!! I actually found the trouble shooter before.) Could this all be a problem because I am in the Philippines?
If so, I wonder how I can get around it...
Thanks again for your time & attention

region doesn't affect this. I'm not sure what else can be tried

When you go to store, are you able to click the button for checking for app updates? Or are you able to download a new app?

 

[Calvin Hooning]

Now it's getting real weird. Store won't give me a log in page - says in red letters, "Something went wrong, and we can't sign you in right now. Try again later."
Listen, if you want to drop this, I won't mind. I'll be back in the States in a few months, and I can go to the actual MS Store, and see what they say when they look at it. Meantime, it's still a cool little machine, and not totally useless to me. Thanks, friend.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Now it's getting real weird. Store won't give me a log in page - says in red letters, "Something went wrong, and we can't sign you in right now. Try again later."
Listen, if you want to drop this, I won't mind. I'll be back in the States in a few months, and I can go to the actual MS Store, and see what they say when they look at it. Meantime, it's still a cool little machine, and not totally useless to me. Thanks, friend.

I'm not willing to drop this, it's actually a challenge.
So a review: the troubleshooter didn't work, restart didn't work, store does not open at all.

So three options that I see right now

1. You could consider using insider program to upgrade your sp4 to the redstone builds and hence since this is a big upgrade, it will reinstall most apps including store
2. You could also consider doing the reset which you were trying to avoid - remember that there are 3 types of resets in windows 10 with the first being resetting the pc but data remains
3. And the third would be the service centre/MS store which would probably also try the reset

 

[midnightfrolic]

Factory installed Apps that have gone dark on my Pro-4;
Calculator, Groove Music, Picture Viewer, The Microsoft Store App (!) There are others.
These aren't even available for access to repair or replace.
Six month old, and very nice tool for me overall.
I don't want to reinstall, because I'll lose my sound driver, anti-virus and other essential (to me) programs.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

You can try this


How to reinstall default apps in Windows 10 - CNET

1. Open PowerShell as an administrator. To do this, click the Start button to open the Start menu, go to All apps > Windows PowerShell and right-click on Windows PowerShell.

Click Run as administrator from the dropdown menu. You may see a pop-up window asking you if you want to allow this app to make changes to your computer -- click Yes to proceed.

2. Type or paste the following code into the PowerShell window:

Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"

3. Press the Enter key. At first, it might seem like nothing is happening - wait about a minute and then check your Start menu to see if the Windows 10 default apps have reappeared. If you see an error message, restart your computer and check your Start menu (if you don't see the default apps, check to make sure you've copied the code correctly).

 

[midnightfrolic]

Factory installed Apps that have gone dark on my Pro-4;
Calculator, Groove Music, Picture Viewer, The Microsoft Store App (!) There are others.
These aren't even available for access to repair or replace.
Six month old, and very nice tool for me overall.
I don't want to reinstall, because I'll lose my sound driver, anti-virus and other essential (to me) programs.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

You can also try running DISM repairs outlined here. The repairs also confirmed to work with Windows 10.


DISM - Fixing Component Store Corruption in Windows 8

 

[Calvin Hooning]

OK. How do I access the insider program?

 

[Chintan Gohel]

OK. How do I access the insider program?

You can check here for insider: https://insider.windows.com/

But midnightfrolic has posted a solution worth trying - the insider option can take a long time compared to what he/she has suggested

 

[Calvin Hooning]

Well friends, I copied the Get AppX command, hit enter and nothing happened. So I followed the instructions for DISM and got as far as trying to locate source files and got bogged down. "Ain't no Hacker, me!"
I have one more chance tonight, my daughter'd bf, will be here - he's an IT guy for a big company - and I'll show him how far I got. My work windows are still open - Power Shell, C drive files files, etc. Maybe he can finish this.
Thanks again for great advice.

 

[midnightfrolic]

Well friends, I copied the Get AppX command, hit enter and nothing happened. So I followed the instructions for DISM and got as far as trying to locate source files and got bogged down. "Ain't no Hacker, me!"
I have one more chance tonight, my daughter'd bf, will be here - he's an IT guy for a big company - and I'll show him how far I got. My work windows are still open - Power Shell, C drive files files, etc. Maybe he can finish this.
Thanks again for great advice.

Keep us posted about what happened.

 

[Calvin Hooning]

Went for the re-install, and everything came back to "normal" Good as new now. Didn't even have to replace the sound driver. Had all the codes for anti-virus and personal maintenance programs...
Thanks again for the good advice. Sorry I couldn't take it to a conclusion, but it got too technical for me...