microsoft games that require xbox sign in

[josef256]

System Information

GPU: Steam Deck Driver/LLVM version: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.0 Kernel version: 5.13.0-valve36-1-neptune Proton version: 7.0-5

Reproduction

the issue happens with microsoft games (aoe 2 DE, aoe 4, sea of thieves...) those games require xbox sign to access some features, normally you would have a window that pop-up where you would login using your account but with the steam deck you get a white window instead.

for aoe 2 it's kinda strange because i get the first screen working normally

but when i click on SIGN IN

also tried with proton-GE same issues.

[kisak-valve]

Hello @josef256, please add PROTON_LOG=1 %command% to the game's launch options, reproduce the issue, and attach the generated $HOME/steam-$APPID.log to this issue report as a file. (Proton logs compress well if needed.)

Also, can you check how these games behave with Proton 7.0-6 (Currently available as Proton Next) and Proton Experimental?

[josef256]

still dont work with 7.0-6 here is the log for 7.0-5 steam-813780.log and this is for 7.0-6 steam-813780_7.06.log

[romulasry]

Have you tried proton experimental?

[josef256]

Have you tried proton experimental?

same issue with experimental as of 27/01/2023: steam-813780.log

[tommipontinen76]

Same issue was also with As Dusk Falls, though the xbox sign in is not required (at least if you play alone) Sign in window was only a white window

[romulasry]

Could be a mesa or a wine bug. Not sure.

[UberDog55]

I'm having the same issue with Forza 4 on Arch. From what I've read elsewhere, this is a common issue with Microsoft games running via Proton. Would be ideal if this would be fixed across the board of all their games.

[ArchivistKitsune]

Having the same issue with Grounded, on a Linux desktop - nVidia GPU.

[GrabbenD]

Halo Infinite has Xbox Sign-In and it works perfectly fine with Arch Linux + Steam/Proton 8 + Sway/Wayland!

Perhaps this info could be helpful for debugging this 🙂

---

Update 2025/03/10: any time I encounter this problem, it's usually enough to:

1. Synchronize system's time with NTP and then update the hardware clock.

2. After major updates, I end up deleting Game Data which resolves the problem as well.

3. I've added detailed steps below.

[Bomberdile]

I also have the issue on a fresh install of nobara 39 (KDE) with Forza 4. I tried proton, proton experimental and GE_Proton9-10. It doesnt open the game / the microsoft login page. I just refunded the game because of that.

[Hmax3mk]

Got it working by going back to proton 6.3-8 and logged in then changed it to GE

[bonkmaykrQ]

Logging into Halo and Forza works for me, but not Age of Empires. Proton 9 but all recent versions are affected. Arch w/ sched-ext kernel on NVIDIA & Windowmaker X11

Got it working by going back to proton 6.3-8 and logged in then changed it to GE

This just broke it for me even more, now I can't get past the first page.

[GrabbenD]

Workaround

Most of the time Xbox Sign-in ceases to work due to time drift.

You need to make sure your system's time is synced with NTP and persisted by the hardware clock:

1. Set the correct timezone:

   First step is to make sure you've set your timezone, e.g:

   $ timedatectl list-timezones
   $ timedatectl set-timezone Etc/UTC
   

   Alternatively: use $ ln --symbolic --force /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/UTC /etc/localtime for non-systemd setup.

2. Prepare hardware clock:

   With a D.I.Y distro you might need to grant $USER read access to: /dev/rtc0.

   $ ls -l /dev/rtc0
   crw-rw-rw- 1 root audio 250, 0 Mar 10 11:19 /dev/rtc0
   

   More often than not this file is owned by the audio group, meaning:

   $ sudo usermod --append --groups audio ${USER}
   

   You can verify this works with:

   $ hwclock --verbose
   

3. Sync your hardware clock (most of the time this is enough):

   Synchronize with NTP:

   $ timedatectl set-ntp 1
   

   Alternatively: use either: $ ntpd -q -g /or preferably/ $ chronyd -q for a non-systemd setup.

   Lastly after synchronizing with NTP, update you hardware clock (this step isn't required with timedatectl approach):

   $ hwclock --systohc
   

4. Reboot

---

Here's other troubleshooting tips if the above wasn't sufficient.

Almost always it's just enough to reset Game's Data directory which contains (somewhere) the Xbox Account token:

• Delete Game Data

  Note: make sure to create a backup before deleting anything to avoid data loss.

  • For Native games: You can easily find the location in: www.pcgamingwiki.com

  • For Proton games in Steam: It's usually stored under ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/ While the App ID (folder name) can be easily found using: steamdb.info

• Reset Steam's Web Browser Cache

  Steam > Settings > In Game > Delete Web Browser Data

  This appears to delete: ~/.steam/steam/appcache/httpcache/* & ~/.steam/steam/config/htmlcache/* (if not more).

• Remove ~/.cache

  Note: this might cause KeePassXC to forget the keyring database location.

• Delete caches in Steam's installation directory

  As a last resort, you might try to delete userdata files. Although this might reset your Quick Saves and Game Preferences.

  ~/.steam/steam/userdata/*/*

[ecameracci]

Experiencing the same issue with Psychonauts 2 on SteamDeck, except only the white screen is shown, I don't see any window controls on the sign-in window (probably because of gamescope), and need to force quit the game.

Sign in for this game is optional, but would be nice to have it working. Will attach log later.

[origintopleft]

Something changed with Age of Mythology's Xbox sign in today as part of the big DLC update. Previous behavior (Proton 9.0) was that clicking "Sign in with Xbox" didn't do anything, now it crashes at the main menu, with logs pointing to "Attempting sign in" as the last thing before it falls over, without me initiating a sign in first. Switching to Hotfix yielded no change.

I think AOM requires an XBL account now, but that's out of scope for Proton.

[lucastucious]

Same issue on Grounded 2 with latest experimental

[lbgracioso]

Issue still exists with Grounded 1.

[renzepost]

In Sea of Thieves when trying to sign in to Xbox I get stuck at the screen "Face, fingerprint, PIN or security key". I'm assuming here that a browser window is supposed to open to authenticate, but nothing happens. I tried various Proton versions without any success to get past this screen. I'm on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (KDE).

[ignapk]

In Sea of Thieves when trying to sign in to Xbox I get stuck at the screen "Face, fingerprint, PIN or security key". I'm assuming here that a browser window is supposed to open to authenticate, but nothing happens. I tried various Proton versions without any success to get past this screen. I'm on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (KDE).

You can work around it by temporarily disabling passkey verification in your microsoft account security settings, logging in with your password and then re-enabling if you need it.

[Chapien]

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/6481#issuecomment-2533399294

I do not think this is the current issue. The issue is that Wine's browser does not have all the functionality of Edge (which is what the games expect). Here is an example from AOE4:

Clicking "sign in" simply does nothing. If this were a clock issue, I doubt the issue would present as a UI problem, surely.

[Patolord]

same issue of OP

[fishscene]

Same issue as OP.

OS: CachyOS Platform: Steam Game: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Compatibility (Forced):

• proton-cachyos (steam linux runtime package)
• Proton Experimental
• proton-cachyos (native package) Note that the behavior is exactly the same for all 3

This appears to be browser related based on: https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/cant-sign-in-to-xbox-live-on-age-of-empires-ii-de/129031/3

Possible workaround (not working):

1. in a blank area in the rendered webpage within the window, right-click
2. Select "Properties"
3. Copy the address/URL into your browser
4. It may not progress logging into an account. Just go back to the game and try to initiate a login again.

Where this process breaks down (at least on my CachyOS using Steam with Proton, Only 1 option in the step 2 right-click menu does anything at all. Printing. The other options do absolutely nothing.

My suspicion is because these are making system calls that aren't implemented. Even if we get the Properties window to work, and we can get the URL, we might not be able to do anything still without a browser running in the same bottle/wine/proton instance as the game due to cookies and such.

############## Went to create a log. Saw a numbered Proton version earlier in thread for log generating and wanted to lock this in to a number for you wonderful dev's.

Compatibility (Forced): Proton 9.0-4

Behavior: Clicking the Green "Log In" button now refreshes the window to a blank white page. Progress! Here's the log. I think I attempted to log in twice.

steam-813780.log

[lucastucious]

Has anyone tried to use Winboat for this ?

[Chapien]

Has anyone tried to use Winboat for this ?

How would one even go about using Winboat for a steam game?

[zumoshi]

Also have problem with Passkey on Sea of Thieves. Disabling passkey works as workaround, but I don't feel secure disabling a login method/2FA just to play a game.

[Chapien]

Also have problem with Passkey on Sea of Thieves. Disabling passkey works as workaround, but I don't feel secure disabling a login method/2FA just to play a game.

With Age of Empires 2 and Age of Mythology, we can't even get to a place where the loginscreen appears, so disabling passkey doesn't even work there.

[bertsons]

getting similar problem on ubutu 24.04 with all versions of proton that I try, with Halo Master Chief Collection.