Add-ProvisionedAppxPackage Failed for Sparse Package / Packaing with External Location

A user is trying to install our app and is running into an error regarding Add-ProvisionedAppxPackage.

Some guidance would be much appreciated as AI can't seem to figure out how to reproduce this bug in a VM.

wix installer commands being run

Add-AppxPackage -Stage '[INSTALLFOLDER]Obscura.msix' -ExternalLocation '[INSTALLFOLDER]';
Add-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackagePath '[INSTALLFOLDER]Obscura.msix' -SkipLicense

msi.log

WixQuietExec64:  Add-AppxProvisionedPackage : Add-AppxProvisionedPackage failed. Error code = 0xc1570108

dism.log

2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixpackageadapter.cpp(773)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA3AC3F: (caller: 00007FFEFCA38A6A) ReturnHr(1) tid(4c78) C1570108     Msg:[Policy check failed] 
 - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixpackageadapter.cpp(398)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA38AAE: (caller: 00007FFEFCA25FCF) ReturnHr(2) tid(4c78) C1570108     Msg:[Pre-install policy check failed for package 'SovereignEngineering.ObscuraVPN_1.174.0.0_neutral__rxzjtnvhd6q16'.] 
 - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixpackageadapter.cpp(1820)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA3408F: (caller: 00007FFEFCA341F3) ReturnHr(3) tid(4c78) 80070002 The system cannot find the file specified.
    Msg:[Failed to get the list of packages to remove] 
 - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixpackageadapter.cpp(274)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA341BF: (caller: 00007FFEFCA39624) ReturnHr(4) tid(4c78) 80070002 The system cannot find the file specified.
    Msg:[Failed to deregister main package and get its dependent packages] 
 - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Warning               DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixpackageadapter.cpp (74) - (null) [Msg] - Failed to deregister packages. (hr:0x80070002) - CAppxManager::InformationLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixprovisioningrequest.cpp(671)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA26158: (caller: 00007FFEFCA2CF5A) ReturnHr(5) tid(4c78) C1570108     Msg:[Failed to provision package SovereignEngineering.ObscuraVPN_1.174.0.0_neutral__rxzjtnvhd6q16 while processing target type = 0] 
 - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixprovisioningrequest.cpp(869)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA26170: (caller: 00007FFEFCA2CF5A) ReturnHr(6) tid(4c78) C1570108  - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixprovisioningrequest.cpp(671)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA2CF79: (caller: 00007FFEFCA2CEDA) ReturnHr(7) tid(4c78) C1570108  - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixprovisioningrequest.cpp(694)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA2CE83: (caller: 00007FFEFCA2EFF7) ReturnHr(8) tid(4c78) C1570108     Msg:[Failed to register staged packages.] 
 - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 onecore\admin\appmodel\utilities\provisionhelper\msixprovisioningmanager.cpp(1314)\AppxProvider.dll!00007FFEFCA2F02A: (caller: 00007FFEFC9FA2C3) ReturnHr(9) tid(4c78) C1570108     Msg:[Failed to provision packages.] 
 - CAppxManager::ResultLoggingCallback
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=48008 TID=19576 Failed to initialize package set - CAppxManager::AddAllUserAppxPackageWithOptionalPackagesAndRegionAndStubPackageOptionAndFeatureID(hr:0xc1570108)
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   API: PID=3144 TID=46720 Call to AddAllUserAppxPackage failed with hr = 0xc1570108 - CAddAppxCommandObject::InternalExecute(hr:0xc1570108)
2026-09-03 14:08:42, Error                 DISM   API: PID=3144 TID=46720 InternalExecute failed - CBaseCommandObject::Execute(hr:0xc1570108)

Google yields the following results when narrowing the search to "AppxProvisionedPackage" "0xc1570108" "Policy check failed"

• https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/how-to-get-modern-calculator-and-snip-and-sketch-on-2019-ltsc.86457/

Our app is self-contained so not sure how it would need a dependency installed on the users' computer.

It's interesting to note that Add-AppxPackage succeeded but not Add-AppxProvisionedPackage. The direction I'm thinking of going with is to require Add-AppxPackage to always succeed but Add-AppxProvisionedPackage is optional. Then in the GUI code, I will add a button to prompt the user to fix the package identity if it's missing.

Start with windows/wix-msi/Package.wxs at line 109 and review the Add-AppxPackage and Add-AppxProvisionedPackage commands alongside msi.log and dism.log. Reproduce the sparse-package installation failure and determine the conditions behind error 0xc1570108. Done means documenting the cause and confirming whether provisioning can be optional without breaking installation.