Xbox Download Pauses or Freezes

I’m suddenly experiencing issues with game and app downloads on my RBR850, which I noticed after installing a recent firmware update. It is specific to downloading games and apps on Xbox devices, on both an Xbox One X and an Xbox Series X.  The downloads either don’t start at all, or pause after a few seconds, then restart after 30 seconds or so only to pause again.  The devices are usually wired, but I also tested them on WiFi connections and the problem is still there.

Firmware version is 7.2.6.31 and update check says this is current.

If I pause the download and restart it, I can trigger another burst of download for a few seconds, so as a (tedious) workaround, this is an option of last resort.  For larger game downloads though, the system just pauses on “Installing” and never really gets started.  For these larger files, it also takes a couple of minutes to pause or cancel the download, or I have to restart the Xbox to cancel the download.

If I switch to using my iPhone as a hotspot, I can download without pauses, but the cellular network signal in my house is really bad and download speeds are around 5-10 Mbps.  Also, my carrier imposes a 30 Gb/month limit on hotspot usage.  However, this did confirm that this is specific to the Orbi.  I can also just wait for the apps to download, but even a small, 1 Gb game takes 20-30 minutes and a large game would take literally hours to days to complete … assuming it didn’t freeze completely, which has happened.

No other device has any issues with any network speed or connectivity.  The Xbox itself reports its connection speed is 600+ Mbps to Microsoft’s servers, which is a bit slower than my iMac (also wired) that gets 930 Mbps on a Speedtest, but decent.

I spent over an hour on the phone with Xbox support ruling out every possibility on the Microsoft side and have checked all my Orbi settings.  part of the attempt with MS was to reset the Xbox, which involves downloading system updates from Microsoft’s servers as it sets up again.  That worked flawlessly, but didn’t fix the issue with pauses during game and app downloads.

I completely restarted my entire network, shutting down the Orbi, RBS850 satellite, cable modem (Arris Surfboard S33), switches and peripheral devices, then restarted the modem, followed by the switches, then the satellite, and finally the switches and connected devices.  No change in the problem.

Lastly, I had traffic monitoring enabled, but with no limits.  I didn’t think this was the issue, but turned it off anyway.  This didn’t make a difference.

Any suggestions?  I’m reluctant to reset the Orbi and set it up all over again, since this is isolated to one, very specific issue on a very specific platform.