Ah, Windows Phone. Still not quite totally dead, but it's not looking good – especially for those looking to get achievements in their Windows Phone games. Last year we reported on the Windows Phone 8.1 app store closing down – that shutdown went ahead in December. We speculated that this might not end well for getting your remaining 8.1 backlog of achievements to sync with Xbox servers. As of February, our suspicions have proven true.
Image credit: Windows Central
Several members of the community have been unable to sync Windows Phone 8.1 achievements since mid-February. Attempts to raise the issue on Reddit and other platforms have unfortunately proven to be dead ends – it seems that along with discontinued storefronts, the internal customer service routes for Windows Phone issues are also being eroded. Our ever-reliable Windows Phone reporter Shadow Kisuragi – who maintains a list of available Windows Phone games and known issues – contacted Xbox Support directly and found that the customer service agent was simply unable to find a route to escalate the problem.
Syncing issues with Windows Phone 7, 8 and 8.1 achievements seem to be pretty universal since mid-February, but that's not the only issue. We've also seen players on Windows 10 phones reporting laggy or missing sync on achievements too.
Unfortunately, that leaves us with few options, though we will reach out to Microsoft for further comments. One thing is for sure – it's not a great time to be considering picking up an old Windows Phone just to chase down some achievements. We'll share whatever Windows Phone news remains as and when we hear more.
Thanks to
Spirochaete for this news suggestion, and to our Windows Phone community for keeping us updated!