Microsoft breaks the Windows Phone 8.1 Store a year early

Three months ago Microsoft announced the formal date when the Windows Phone 8.1 store will finally stop functioning.

At the time Microsoft said:

July 1st, 2019 – Microsoft will stop distributing app updates to Windows Phone 8.x or earlier devices.
You’ll still be able to publish updates to all apps (including those with Windows Phone 8.x or earlier packages). However, these updates will only be made available to Windows 10 devices.

Unfortunately, it seems that date may have come early, as a developer is reporting that they are unable to push out an app update to their users on Windows Phone 8.1. Poppyto, the developer of the popular Tubecast application, reports that his users on WP8.1 have not been able to download his app for the last 3 weeks now.

It seems WP8.1 Store is dead, you can't download new app versions since 3 weeks and @MicrosoftStore don't want to or can't fix. I thought it was July 2019, Good Bye WP8.1 users ? #DreamTeam

— poppyto (@poppyto) October 1, 2018

He also reports that Microsoft appears uninterested in fixing the issue, despite submitting a number of support tickets. W10M users have been able to download the update without any problems.

Have any of our readers been affected by this issue? Let us know below.