Games App won't update on Windows 8

Question

On a newly installed Windows 8, the games app has a tile which says that there is an update for the app and it needs to be updated.

Clicking the tile does nothing.

Going into the app store and going to settings application updates, does not show an available update for the games app.

From Games, selecting settings, account, gives another message that an update is necessary and now a link appears for the update. Clicking the link takes me to the app store application updates page, but now 3 updates show as available, Games, the microsoft productivity stuff (mail, calendar, etc), and bing. If I click install all, the store just hangs there with the moving balls of infinite wait going across the top of the screen (I've waited up to a couple of hours).

If I exist the app store and go back into the appstore and go into updates from the appstore settings method, it goes back to showing no updates are available.

Has anyone encountered this and do you have any idea what might fix it so that either the store shows the updates and lets you install them or so that the games app doesn't say it needs an update and allows use of the account functionality?

Answer 1

I could never figure out what caused this to happen, but in case anyone else runs into this issue, the fix is relatively simple:

1. Go into the store

2. Right click (touch users drag down from top of screen)

3. Select "Your apps"

4. Select "All Apps" from the drop-down.

5. For each app that was not updating correctly, find the application on this screen and click once to select it. Then click "Install" at the bottom of the screen.

This will re-install the affected apps and clear up the problem of the discrepancy between what the app reports and what the store reports (at least it did for me).