As much as I love Windows 10 and its Windows Store over the past year or so I have found the Store can suffer the odd technical issue. Once issue I have come across that can be a real pain is when an app update fails, often with the cryptic error code 0x80073CF0. The error means that the Windows Store has failed to download the update and it has an invalid cache of the app. Normally this is caused by the internet dropping during the app update.

I hunted around for solution and found some contradictory solutions and some instruction that where plain wrong (the Microsoft Answers forum seems to the be worse place!).  In the end I worked out a solution so I thought I would document it in case anybody else has the problem.

The root cause of the problem is that Windows stores app downloads in the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DeliveryOptimization folder and in this case the app has only part downloaded and the file is invalid, re-trying download from the Store fails as it uses the cached file so you get the 0x80073CF0 error.

The solution is to delete the cached file. You can’t do that normally as the Windows Store locks the files so I found the best way is to reboot the PC and then after the reboot delete the DeliveryOptimization folder. Once you have done that you can reinstall the app in the Windows Store.

This worked for me and hopefully it will work for you.

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43 thoughts on “How to fix Windows Store app install error 0x80073CF0 in Windows 10”
    1. Actually is C:WindowsSoftwareDistributionDownload. In the “DeliveryOptimization” folder was no sub-folder so what I did (since deleting the whole folder didn’t work for me), was to go to “Download” folder, sorted the content by the date and deleted the folder that showed current date/time (that means it was the one with the broken download). After that tried updating/downloading the app again from Store and worked fine

      1. Thank you very much! Someone wrote to put windows back with a point of recovery .. absurd ..
        I’ve a notebook and a problem with crackling sound … very annoying traying to find solutions on internet but as today finding nothing … maybe you have encounter this kind of problem too? Have you maybe solved it?
        Thank you again and best regards.

  1. windows 10 store app doesnt open and blank white page with error The error code is 0x8000FFF is shown. m facing the issue and with news app and money control it shows error occured in this page refreshing. need a solution to it

    1. Good to know that is not only me. Since monday I have been experiencing this issue with the Mail and Calendar app update.

  2. same here. Deleted the DeliveryOptimization Folder but still unable to update Mail and Calendar app. Rest is working fine.

  3. You have to stop, disable, restart, and re-enable Delivery optimization in settings. Click start, and in search bar type services. Locate Delivery Optimization. Right click and stop process. Then disable process. Then Re-enable and restart the process and this should solve the problem. If the process is disabled when you access it all you need to do is re-enable and start the process.

  4. Neither the original solution, nor this latest one solved my issue. I am trying to install a game from XBox on my Win10 PC but it fails each time.
    Does anyone have any experience with this?

  5. Same here, thomas. Tried to install AOE after buying and now I cant use it and won’t get my money back, because of freaking microsoft whose support is the shittiest possible. PLEASE someone help!!! If I have to see this error code one more time, I will go nuts ^^

  6. Hey guys,

    Unfortunately, years went by, and this issue is still happening :)))

    None of the solutions posted above helped, but lots of thanks, anyway.

    Cheers!

  7. I have been researching this for hours and only now found a solution that worked. I had disabled Gaming Services because the constant connecting and disconnecting of the invisible xvd’s causes extreme stuttering in Fromsoft games, but I guess disabling it completely corrupted the software and everything having to do with it, so I couldn’t play any games related to Microsoft. Infuriating but resolved finally.

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