[MCPE-38756] My Torchwall skins are missing from my newly-synced with Xbox account

After being asked to sync my Minecraft purchases with my Xbox account, something I've never had to do before (is this new?), I found that my Torchwall skins are completely blank. The slot for those skins is at the top of the skins list, where it should be, and it shows as unlocked, but the slot is completely blank and lacks any skins whatsoever. (see pic)

Attachments

Comments 19

David Frost 2018-11-22T04:50:26Z

Does anybody even look at these? It's been almost 19 days and my Torchwall skins are still blank.

David Frost 2018-11-29T10:09:21Z

Something very fishy is going on here and I would like an answer.

[media]

This screenshot shows I own Torchwall. This second shot shows something definitely not kosher:

[media]

The list at the top says "0 skins; 1 world" next to the icons. But the description below clearly says it "Includes 20 skins of Knights, the Princess and more". I use a couple of the skins regularly (a knight and the ranger).

Did you stop offering skins with this pack? Why? You can't just remove part of my purchase, the only part I use, because you changed the deal. I bought this pack with skins and I expect it to have skins.

George T Henne Jr 2018-11-29T11:11:44Z

You should contact Imagiverse to see if they know anything about the images being removed. It is possible that there was a request to remove the images. For example, they may be under someone else's copyright. Not saying they are, just using it as a possible example of why skins are occasionally removed.

This doesn't appear to be a bug in the code, so you probably won't get any results from a bug tracker. You should try asking their customer support this question.

David Frost 2018-11-29T12:54:41Z

Thank you for your suggestion, George. After chatting with Xbox Live support to no avail (because, let's face it, Mojang's "customer support" is like UFOs or Bigfoot; it's rumored to exist, but no one has found concrete proof of it anywhere), I managed to find what I hope is the support e-mail address for Imagiverse. (Mojang gives only a Twitter address for them, and I loathe all things Twitter and refuse to have anything to do with it.)

David Frost 2019-01-24T00:03:33Z

Still not fixed. I got an e-mail from someone at Imagiverse. They promised to get back to me and never did. Judging by the fact that it's been almost two months, they never will.

Who do I have to talk to in order to get a refund on this fraudulent bait-and-switch pack?

9 more comments

David Frost 2019-02-19T20:48:31Z

It's been almost another month and still no reply from anyone at Mojang at any level. I've sent an e-mail to "customer support" (and I use that term very loosely) requesting a refund. I've sent e-mails to Imagiverse.

And I've yet to receive anything remotely resembling a reply in the bug reports regarding whether or not this is a bug, or just a garden-variety ripoff.

Auldrick 2019-03-19T00:15:13Z

I apologize that this report has gone so long without getting attention. Apparently it just "slipped through the cracks". It's not something that happens often, I assure you.

Assuming you still have this problem, have you tried deleting and reinstalling the pack? You can delete the pack in the Storage settings. (Doing so will not invalidate your license.) Then you can access the pack in the Marketplace and the "Owned" link should say "Download". Click it to reinstall.

If that didn't work: If you have any other devices on which you play Minecraft, are you able to use the Torchwall skins on them?

Again, I'm sorry you've been frustrated up until now, but I have this ticket on my watch list now so you can be sure you'll not be ignored.

David Frost 2019-03-19T04:25:18Z

Thank you for your reply, Auldrick.. I appreciate it.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled the Torchwall a few times, most recently a couple of hours ago at your suggestion. It's made no difference. Unfortunately, I don't have devices other than my laptop to test this on.

One thing I did notice tonight: When I access the skins menu via the "coathanger" button and scroll down to the "The Kingdom of Torchwall" skins, the menu shows the unlocked padlock, but there are no skins available as the box where the skins should appear is completely blank. This also happens while the pack is uninstalled.

When I go into the store's Torchwall page, the section where the skins should be shown is also blank, but each of the five spots has the padlock icon locked.

[media]

I don't know if this makes any difference.

Auldrick 2019-03-19T05:32:48Z

I was able to reproduce a similar problem using 1.11.0.5 Beta on Windows 10. The first time I searched for this pack on the Marketplace, it showed that it had 20 skins in the top panel. The scrollable skin gallery had its right scroll button enabled, and when I pointed to a skin, its name was shown and a selection rectangle appeared around the skin image. This is how it should behave.

However, when I exited the Marketplace back to the main menu and repeated the process, the count of skins in the top panel was blank, even though the coat hanger icon was present indicating it had skins. The skin gallery showed 5 skin images, but the right scroll button was disabled, and when I pointed to a skin, its name and the selection rectangle did not appear.

As an experiment, I deleted the Marketplace cache from the game's working folders and repeated the steps above. Again, the first time I searched for it, it worked properly, but the second time the skins didn't work.

This is very likely a flaw in the pack on the Windows Store, though there's a small chance it could be a bug in how the game stores or uses the cache data. I will confirm this report and escalate it to another moderator who has more experience with this kind of problem. I'll also keep watching this report in case you have questions.

In the mean time, if you'd like to be able to have single-use access to the pack and its skins, you can delete the folder named

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\premium_cache\skin_packs

This is a temporary folder where the game stores skin pack data it downloads from the Store, for both packs you own and those you've looked at. It does not contain any license data, so you will not lose ownership of packs you've purchased, though you may have to download them again. If you'd rather not have to do that, you could delete just the subfolder for the Kingdom of Torchwall pack. Unfortunately, the subfolder names are randomly generated and change every time they're recreated, but you could find the correct subfolder by searching in File Explorer for "IronFist", part of the first skin name.

Edit:
After writing the above, I realized I shouldn't have tested the problem using the Beta version, because Marketplace packs are only meant for use on the release version. I reinstalled 1.9.0 and the problem went away. This suggests that there is something wrong with the skin data in your cache folder, and deleting it might fix your problem permanently. Please try that and let me know.

David Frost 2019-03-19T06:29:12Z

I can't find the Torchwall subfolder. A search for IronFist says "No items match your search".

David Frost 2019-03-19T06:37:32Z

I'm nervous about deleting the entire folder. What happens if the same thing happens to the rest of my skins, like the ones in mashup packs which aren't separately downloaded?

Auldrick 2019-03-19T13:22:58Z

Sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner (I was sleeping).

I understand your nervousness, but there really shouldn't be any risk. However, the fact that your search for IronFist failed tells me that this method isn't likely to help.

Something else you might try is creating the Kingdom of Torchwall world. If I'm not mistaken, it should appear as a template when you click Create New. Enter the created world and see if you can use its skins while in-game. If that works, exit the world and see if the skins are now available. I'm not aware that any Marketplace packs limit use of skins to within the world, but I guess it could be possible, whether or not it's intentional.

David Frost 2019-03-19T22:21:58Z

No need to apologize. I appreciate all your efforts and advice.

I've tried creating a Torchwall world. The skins box is still blank, even in-game.

Auldrick 2019-03-20T01:30:09Z

Oh my, what was I thinking? Of course your search for IronFist would fail, since that's one of the missing skins!

I really do think there's a good chance that deleting the cached skin_packs folder would solve your problem. I deleted my entire premium_cache parent folder and had no problem re-downloading my packs, including the Norse Mythology mashup pack. (And just to be clear, I also have synced my packs with Xbox Live several times over the past month.)

If it would make you more comfortable, you could simply rename the skin_packs folder instead. Then, if you had any issues, you could delete the new skin_packs folder it creates and rename the old one back. Would you be willing to try that?

David Frost 2019-03-20T01:54:59Z

Okay, I'll give it a shot. Thanks for helping me. I'll try it later tonight and let you know by tomorrow. My friends and I are busy right now in one of our realms, but I'll have some free time later.

David Frost 2019-03-21T00:40:22Z

I wasn't able to get around to trying this until a short time ago, and judging by the results I've just seen, I just have to say …

YOU ARE ALL KINDS OF AWESOME!!!!

Thank you so much! The Torchwall skins are back, and I can now use them.

The old skins file was almost 50 mb. I don't know what all was in it, but the new one is less than 10 mb and the skins now load much faster. I didn't even have to redownload the packs. They all just reloaded when I pressed the coathanger icon on Minecraft's main menu page.

Auldrick 2019-03-21T01:11:35Z

Glad I could help, David. As information, the skin_packs folder holds copies of all the Marketplace skins the game has ever displayed in one of the Marketplace screens or the skin picker, even those for packs you don't own. (The files are encrypted so that they can't be stolen.) This saves it from having to retrieve those files from the servers each time you browse. The 50 mb was because you've viewed a lot of skins over time, and since you deleted those files and you've only viewed Torchwall and maybe a few other packs since then, it's much smaller now. As you browse additional skins in the future, the cache will grow again, so don't be concerned if you notice it.

David Frost 2019-03-21T01:33:09Z

It would be nice if the skins folder and content could be managed in the settings page like the Worlds, Resource Packs, World Templates, and Cached Content can be. Being able to delete skins and redownload them in the event that something goes wrong, and being able to do so easily without having to dig around in what are essentially deeply buried (and hidden) files, would be a great help.

Auldrick 2019-03-21T02:09:31Z

I think that in this case the long duration of your problem wasn't due to lack of a settings tool that could clear the cache, but the fact that we overlooked your report for so long. Again, I'm sorry for that.

There is in fact a standard procedure that would have solved this problem and many others as well: Back up your worlds, then uninstall and reinstall Minecraft. I didn't take you down that path because it was overkill. Clearing the cache was a lot less complicated, and was quicker.