Frequent technical problems (with solutions!)

[DukeOfEarl]

Welcome to frequent technical problems FAQ. Most problems are easy to fix.

Last update: Mar 06 2017

Read This First

If your problem isn't fixed read this before making a new post: Reporting Technical Issues

Contents

• Client Issues - for issues with the official FAF Client
• Ingame Issues - for issues that occur in the Forged Alliance game (includes ingame lobby)
• Account Issues - for issues with your FAF account

[DukeOfEarl]

Client Issues


Cannot host / Client exception message

• Try deleting game data: Use Options - Clear - Game files.

Auto-Login doesn't work

• Make sure both Remember Me on Login screen and Options - Settings - Automatic Login are enabled.

Client update doesn't work

• The update progress dialog may not show up for some people. Just wait for it to finish and it will launch the installer.
• Download the update directly from the Github Releases

Installer fails to install / uninstall / reinstall Client

• Error message: "The older version of Forged Alliance Forever cannot be removed" or "The configuration data for this product is corrupt."
  
  • This means you corrupted your FAF Installation, e.g. manually deleted files.
  • Use Microsoft Installer Fix Tool.
• In general, issues with the installer are caused by corruption of the installation or the Windows installation database - please use Google to search for solutions.

Download of client or game update stops after partially downloading

• This is almost certainly antivirus. Disable your antivirus or make an exception for the FAF Client.

Various UID-related errors / "Failed to calculate UID" / "Cannot run program "lib/faf-uid.exe": CreateProcess error=2"

• The file involved in generating the UID has been deleted or damaged by your antivirus. This problem mostly happens with McAfee. Disable your antivirus or make an exception for the faf-uid.exe file. You can also install another antivirus instead of McAfee.

"Errno 13" / "Error 5" / "Permission Denied" error while downloading updates

• This usually means the user that is currently running FAF does not have access to files in the FAForever ProgramData folder, i.e. a file was created using while running FAF as a different user or as Administrator. There are several ways to fix this:
  
  • Reset folder and file permissions on C:\ProgramData\FAForever
  • If the previous doesn't work: Delete the folder C:\ProgramData\FAForever
• This can also be caused by antivirus software.
  
  • Disable antivirus software and/or whitelist FAForever.

[DukeOfEarl]

Ingame Issues

Errors when trying to launch FA

• With this error in FA Crash Report: "Unable to create Direct 3D"
  
  • Ensure you do not run FAF Client in Full-Screen mode.

Game crashes
There are many reasons for game crashes, and FAF cannot fix most of them. This is because the supreme commander engine is not under our control. But there are some common issues that have solutions.

• With this error in log: "warning: SND: XACT3DApply failed."
  
  • Disable surround sound in Windows sound options, use stereo instead.

• Caused by Hard Drive location of FA install
  
  • Sometimes FA doesn't like where it's installed. Try to install it to a different hard drive (partition). See more info here

Sound issues

• Most of the sounds get played only once OR you can hear all the sounds when zoomed out OR there are no sounds at all.
  
  • Restart your PC - sometimes this is all that's needed.
  • Disable surround sound in Windows sound options, use stereo instead.
  • Use this audio driver viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12230&hilit=sound+issues#p124924

Cannot host / Client exception message

• Try deleting game data: Use Options - Clear - Game files.

[DukeOfEarl]

Account Issues

Cannot receive e-mail from FAF

FAF sends all emails via the Mandrill service. Mandrill takes care of trying to optimise emails so they show up in your inbox, but this cannot always be guaranteed.

• FAF E-Mail may end up in your spam folder
  
  • Check your spam and trash email folders. If you find e-mail from FAF there, make sure to mark them as not spam.

• Whitelist E-Mail from FAF
  
  • Add the mail addresses [email protected] and [email protected] to your address book or use any other mechanism your email provider allows to whitelist sender addresses

Cannot validate FAF Account

• Validation link doesn't work and/or causes Error 500
  
  • Make sure you copy the whole link out of the e-mail
  • This error is now fixed, please make a forum post if you get this error after clicking a validation link

Cannot link FAF Account to Steam

• Error! You do not appear to own Supreme Commander Forged Alliance on Steam.
  
  • Set your Steam profile and games list to public to allow the API to check for the game. Log out and in on the FAF Website before trying to link again.

[PhilipJFry]

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