Halo Reach – How to Fix Achievements NOT Unlocking

Halo Reach How to Fix the Achievements Issue

Why they won’t unlock

Chances are your computer is blocking the “vortex.data.microsoft.com” domain. To unlock achievements again all you have to do is unblock this entry.

How to check if your affected

This issue can be caused by the domain being blocked on your hosts file, via a firewall, anti virus software, or DNS server. You can test if it’s blocked by going into command prompt (cmd) and trying the command “ping vortex.data.microsoft.com”.

• If you get a “Request timed out.” response than you should be good.
• If you get a “General failure.” response than something on your computer must be interfering with it and you should try one of the solutions below.

Solutions to try

• Delete vortex.data.microsoft.com from your hosts file if it present (Windows/System32/drivers/etc).
• Whitelist vortex.data.microsoft.com if you are using a Pi-hole device.
• Reset Windows Firewall to default settings.
• Revert any Windows privacy settings set in programs such as OOSU10 or WPD.
• Try change DNS server back to your ISP’s default or Google’s.

If you had been affected by the bug

It appears if you have attempted some achievements while having the issue, after fixing the issue some of those achievements will not be possible to get (possibly due to the game tracking it as already done?).

If after 72 hours it still won’t unlock try create a support ticket at Halo Support detailing your case and they may be able to sort it on their end.

Disclaimer

Microsoft says “The following endpoint is used by the Connected User Experiences and Telemetry component and connects to the Microsoft Data Management service. If you turn off traffic for this endpoint, diagnostic and usage information, which helps Microsoft find and fix problems and improve our products and services, will not be sent back to Microsoft”, meaning they use it to track data.

I’m all for giving the benefit of the doubt although with the junk telemetry and spying Windows 10 does I just want you to be aware of what you do to your PC when you unblock the vortex entry