error 303, what are next steps?

Zadok937

I have a buddy of mine dealing with this error after the latest patch, and the regular maintenance has not been effective. I have been researching some of the steps taken by myself and others including those suggested by tech support. I will list them below here.

I just want to know what are the next steps towards resolution here. It seems to me to be tied to the gamertag.

Clean booted system, no effect
cleared cache of system, no effect
uninstalled, reinstalled the game
other gamertags on the same system and network do not get the error
This error also occurs when trying to log into the EU servers as well, even though he normally logs into NA.
NAT is always open
He has tried logging into other xboxs with the gamertag, no effect

What are the next steps?

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx

Remove/recover gamertag from console, no effect

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx

I have been in contact with someone on the Tech Support Escalation team, and while we haven't gotten the situation resolved yet, we have been able to rule out quite a bit.

Possible Fix 1): Power down xbox console, unplug console from power brick, switch off your modem, wait approximately 4-5 minutes, re-plug your console to power brick, switch modem back on, wait till modem is fully powered and sending/receiving information, power back on console, load game, go through usual routine. Results: Ineffective.

Possible Fix 2): Uninstall/Reinstall game. Results: Ineffective ( I strongly urge others not to do this as it is both mind-numbing and highly aggravating!!!).

Possible Fix 3): Remove your live account from your xbox console then recover said xbox live account. Results: Ineffective.

I will do my very best to keep all of you updated with my progress and hope that this open correspondence with the Tech Support Escalation team pays off. I believe that through my cooperation with them that I have them convinced of the following: 1) This is not a connectivity issue. 2) This is not an xbox live issue. 3) This is not an xbox live account issue. 4) This is a ESO account issue

Zadok937

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx wrote: »

Remove/recover gamertag from console, no effect

Hmm...hadn't thought of that one. It definitely seems to be tied to the gamertag.

Have you been able to log in at all? He tells me sometimes that he is able to but npcs don't move and it crashes.

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx

I have not been able to log in at all, sometimes i am able to catch a brief glimpse of my character and where I last logged but then I am instantly booted back to the title screen.

It could simply be a gamertag issue, but I am thinking it is more a ESO account issue linked to the gamertag.

I have been in contact with someone on the Tech Support Escalation team, and while we haven't gotten the situation resolved yet, we have been able to rule out quite a bit.

Possible Fix 1): Power down xbox console, unplug console from power brick, switch off your modem, wait approximately 4-5 minutes, re-plug your console to power brick, switch modem back on, wait till modem is fully powered and sending/receiving information, power back on console, load game, go through usual routine. Results: Ineffective.

Possible Fix 2): Uninstall/Reinstall game. Results: Ineffective ( I strongly urge others not to do this as it is both mind-numbing and highly aggravating!!!).

Possible Fix 3): Remove your live account from your xbox console then recover said xbox live account. Results: Ineffective.

I will do my very best to keep all of you updated with my progress and hope that this open correspondence with the Tech Support Escalation team pays off. I believe that through my cooperation with them that I have them convinced of the following: 1) This is not a connectivity issue. 2) This is not an xbox live issue. 3) This is not an xbox live account issue. 4) This is a ESO account issue

MonsterPriest

bump

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx

Essentially I had to jump through some more hoops again since last night while communicating back and forth with the Tech Support Escalation team (Everyone affected with this issue may have to do this but you will need the aid of Tech Support in order to do so).

So, as many of you who have been following my posts know, I created a new xbox live profile and was able to successfully create and play a completely new character (Doing this you will need to create a new ESO account as well).

The Tech Support Escalation team had to disassociate my xbox live profiles from my ESO accounts. I then had to re-link those accounts but (for ease of explanation I will use "A" and "B" for the two xbox live profiles, "A" being the original xbox live profile and "B" being the new xbox live profile I created. I will use "X" and "Y" for the ESO accounts, "X" being the original and "Y" being the new one.) I had to link xbox live profile "B" with ESO account "X", and xbox live profile "A" with ESO account "Y".

The following is the steps I took, the results of those actions, and the response I sent back to them after learning the results:

1) I successfully linked the xbox live profile "B" to the ESO account "X"
2) Selected the first character in my character list and logged in successfully
3) Logged into everyone of my other characters and did so successfully

Note: Curious but not surprising was although I had the crowns that I accumulated prior to the IC DLC, it was not registering me as a ESO Plus member. I presume this is due to the fact I had purchased ESO Plus on the xbox live profile "A". Also all of the guilds that I was apart of showed in my social tab but did not check to see if my friends list was populated accordingly.

4) I successfully linked the xbox live profile "A" to the ESO account "Y"
5) Selected the character on that profile and got the "Error 303 Connection to the server has timed out." message.

This is the latest response that I have gotten from the Tech Escalation team

Hi There,

That is good(ish) news, it definitely shows that the problem has something to do with the way the Gamertag itself is interacting with our system. Definitely not a long term solution, and clearly there are problems with the fact that you are now linked to the secondary gamertag, not the least of which are that you have now lost ESO Plus benefits(as I would expect, those do stick to the Gamertag) and obviously chat, friends, achievements, etc are going to be associated with your secondary profile.

So, I am going to report all of this up the chain, and see if they can pinpoint the exact problem, but at least we know the general area to look now. For now, unless you think otherwise, I think its probably better to keep the account linked to your secondary account, which should allow you to continue to play while we work this out.

Inevitably, the question here will eventually arise, what to do about the fact that you are now out most of a month of paid ESO Plus. I'd like to help you where I can, but I do want to be upfront that my ability to compensate for that is fairly limited. The Subscription is directly tied to Xbox Billing, so I don't have a lot of control over that in the meantime. One thing you might want to try would be to see if you can get a refund for your current month, and you are free to use this ticket number as a reference if that helps xxxxxx-xxxxxx, and then pick it back up after everything is squared away, but I will leave that up to your judgement for the time being.

Thanks again, and I will follow up with you as soon as I know more.

I hope this will help you all in at least being able to play the characters you all have spent so much time in playing, hopefully the issue can be pinpointed quickly and the necessary actions need to correct it are figured out just as quickly. I will do my best to continue to post in an effort to keep all of you updated as I learn more.

Zadok937

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx wrote: »

4) I successfully linked the xbox live profile "A" to the ESO account "Y"
5) Selected the character on that profile and got the "Error 303 Connection to the server has timed out." message.

This is the latest response that I have gotten from the Tech Escalation team

Hi There,

That is good(ish) news, it definitely shows that the problem has something to do with the way the Gamertag itself is interacting with our system. Definitely not a long term solution, and clearly there are problems with the fact that you are now linked to the secondary gamertag, not the least of which are that you have now lost ESO Plus benefits(as I would expect, those do stick to the Gamertag) and obviously chat, friends, achievements, etc are going to be associated with your secondary profile.

So, I am going to report all of this up the chain, and see if they can pinpoint the exact problem, but at least we know the general area to look now. For now, unless you think otherwise, I think its probably better to keep the account linked to your secondary account, which should allow you to continue to play while we work this out.

Inevitably, the question here will eventually arise, what to do about the fact that you are now out most of a month of paid ESO Plus. I'd like to help you where I can, but I do want to be upfront that my ability to compensate for that is fairly limited. The Subscription is directly tied to Xbox Billing, so I don't have a lot of control over that in the meantime. One thing you might want to try would be to see if you can get a refund for your current month, and you are free to use this ticket number as a reference if that helps xxxxxx-xxxxxx, and then pick it back up after everything is squared away, but I will leave that up to your judgement for the time being.

Thanks again, and I will follow up with you as soon as I know more.

I hope this will help you all in at least being able to play the characters you all have spent so much time in playing, hopefully the issue can be pinpointed quickly and the necessary actions need to correct it are figured out just as quickly. I will do my best to continue to post in an effort to keep all of you updated as I learn more.

Any idea if you can switch back to your original profile after all this mess is sorted?

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx

You will be able to, but once again it will require the aid of a tech support rep to do so.

This is not a complete fix or their final solution, it was simply a means for them to isolate and correctly identify the source of the problem, however it does have the added benefits of allowing those players who are able to do this to once again play their characters until the issue is fully resolved.

Zadok937

bump.

i haven't heard of this issue being resolved yet....

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx

it hasn't that I know of, they shot me an email yesterday saying that they have nothing new to report except that they are still working on a fix.

Gamertaglemieux

Zadok937 wrote: »

What are the next steps?

@Zadok937

Sadly it seems there are no next steps.

Honestly believe at this point, since there has not been any word from Zeni, they are just happy enough to have our money. If they cared, there would've been at very least an announcement of recognition of this problem. Since there is no word, I take it as that not know and/or simply not care.

This is coming from a customer that preordered the physical Imperial Collector's Edition.

Looks like I should've spent my money elsewhere.

Zadok937

Saw this tweet this morning from eso online, hopefully this is the same thing that everyone is experiencing

https://twitter.com/TESOnline/status/650044827720118273

Gamertaglemieux

Zadok937 wrote: »

Saw this tweet this morning from eso online, hopefully this is the same thing that everyone is experiencing

https://twitter.com/TESOnline/status/650044827720118273

@Zadok937

Suspect it is just the usual log in issues.

Highly doubt they are speaking of the Error Code 303 that is stopping people from playing the game at all.

I have not been able to play the game for weeks now.

Kyoic

I saw that there was a solution for the Error 303 problem which was de-linking my account from my gamertag, and then re-linking to another gamertag. But when I asked the support about it they told me,
"My name is Z'en.

I heard you had some questions Vestige.
Unfortunately that is correct if you unlink your account, none of your progress will pass over.
All progress, entitlements and characters and purchases are linked to that console account.
Also we can not unlink accounts typically after 7 days.
If you have anymore questions or concerns please let me know.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Drink Skooma, Hail Sithis,
Z'en, the Lone Nightblade
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

So if I do de-link, I'm being told that I would lose everything I've done. But at the same time, I can't play most of the time.

Zadok937

anyone test yet after me maintenance to see if the latest maintenance did the trick?

Mike_IG

Zadok937 wrote: »

anyone test yet after me maintenance to see if the latest maintenance did the trick?

I try to sign in probably 3 times everyday since the IC DLC came out and have tried since the latest maintenance to see if by some miracle I could play the game again but nope no luck.

The customer service is by far the worst I have ever had, So far from the support side I've been told that I need to open my ports (which I said in the original message to which the replied that they were already open and my NAT was open) and to create a new gamertag, (yeah I should have to pay to get a gamertag so I can play the game again for something which they broke).
Other than that I've not been told anything about what's happening etc.

Balibe

Zadok937 wrote: »

to create a new gamertag, (yeah I should have to pay to get a gamertag so I can play the game again for something which they broke

You do not have to pay for another GamerTag. You can have multiple on the same XB1. It will need a separate live.com account for each GamerTag which is also free.

Zadok937

Mike_IG wrote: »

Zadok937 wrote: »

anyone test yet after me maintenance to see if the latest maintenance did the trick?

I try to sign in probably 3 times everyday since the IC DLC came out and have tried since the latest maintenance to see if by some miracle I could play the game again but nope no luck.

The customer service is by far the worst I have ever had, So far from the support side I've been told that I need to open my ports (which I said in the original message to which the replied that they were already open and my NAT was open) and to create a new gamertag, (yeah I should have to pay to get a gamertag so I can play the game again for something which they broke).
Other than that I've not been told anything about what's happening etc.

Yeah, if you get to the end of their script for troubleshooting they say that I believe. My friend went through the song and dance and told him they would not sync it to another gamertag for him...isn't really a resolution.

Its really sad because my friend has pretty much given up. Even got in touch with microsoft to see about options for a refund of the game. And i know that if it was fixed right now he would be playing.

I get that some people are having guild banks and some of the animations are wonky. But there are people out there that have the inability to play the game that they bought, and the demarcation point of troubleshooting lies on Zenimax's end from any angle.

/rant

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx

This is my latest response from tech support:

"Hi There,

Thank you for following up with that information. So I got some feedback from yourself and a few other people experiencing the same issue, and based on the responses I have gotten, we are fairly convinced that the large blocked list is in some way related, that seems consistent with the other players experiencing the issue.

I don't personally know enough about the game's load process to say what specifically is going wrong, but it sounds like it is getting to the point where it tries to load the friend/block list, and is getting inundated with data, causing the disconnect. I'll let you know more when I can, but its at least looking like it is something along those lines."

Gamertaglemieux

Balibe wrote: »

You do not have to pay for another GamerTag. You can have multiple on the same XB1. It will need a separate live.com account for each GamerTag which is also free.

@Balibe

No offense since you are trying to be helpful and all of us so appreciate that.

But why should anyone have to do this? Zeni broke the game with the IC patch.

When I purchase a game I expect it to work. Not me having to work for it to work.

Mike_IG

Balibe wrote: »

Zadok937 wrote: »

to create a new gamertag, (yeah I should have to pay to get a gamertag so I can play the game again for something which they broke

You do not have to pay for another GamerTag. You can have multiple on the same XB1. It will need a separate live.com account for each GamerTag which is also free.

OK granted I forgot about the Xbox one gold account sharing on the console that's now available when it never was a few years ago BUT.......

I really don't want to have to start a new character as it took a fair while to get where I was and who's to say it wont happen again.

TBH the game not working is bad enough but it's the lack of info given out by them on the issue, If it wasn't for xX_BLUDWULF_Xx on here saying what they've told him and what he's past on I wouldn't have a clue what/if they were even bothering to fix this issue as I know myself and others have just been told it's port/nat issue at my end and then creating a new GT fixes the issue (without being able to link it to old characters)

Here is a novel idea maybe it would make sense to put somewhere on say this forum issues that are being worked on and say an update every few days instead of having someone like xX_BLUDWULF_Xx having to tell us . (thanks xX_BLUDWULF_Xx )

I mean I can understand not getting a response on say a visual issue that doesn't really break the game but when a number of people can't play it with their characters full stop then that's just shocking customer service.
I've had issues when my phone line or internet has gone down and required an engineer to go to a cabinet to fix etc, I get told when the engineer will look at it and if for whatever reason they've not been able to fix it they've contacted me on my mobile and said sorry it's going to take a little longer we need another part/change something over etc and let me know, They don't just leave me in the dark and leave me wondering if they are actually doing anything about it.

Zadok937

Wasn't sure if this may be related, but did anyone who had this issue have a character currently in rivenspire?

Balibe

Gamertaglemieux wrote: »

Balibe wrote: »

You do not have to pay for another GamerTag. You can have multiple on the same XB1. It will need a separate live.com account for each GamerTag which is also free.

@Balibe

No offense since you are trying to be helpful and all of us so appreciate that.

But why should anyone have to do this? Zeni broke the game with the IC patch.

When I purchase a game I expect it to work. Not me having to work for it to work.

@Gamertaglemieux

@Mike_IG

I never said you should create another gamertag. I never said anyone should create another gamertag regardless of who's fault you think the issues are. All I was stated is it does not cost money to create a gamertag, which is what Zadok937 thought. All I did was clear up an error is a statement, so the next person who reads this thread does not think it costs money.

I think they suggested to create a second gamertag to determine if the issue is with the current character. I don't think they expected anyone to abandon the first character for another. A friend of mine was having graphic issues where his character was at the left of the tv. By creating the second gamertag help determine the issue was with the character.

How you attempt to resolve your issues is your decision. I don't have these issues and can play the game all day across multiple characters on two different gamertags.

Balibe

Zadok937 wrote: »

Wasn't sure if this may be related, but did anyone who had this issue have a character currently in rivenspire?

Rivenspire has issues, the lag is bad and takes forever to load. I been there and left, but stay away until they fix it.

A guildie logged out there last weekend. The next day he was getting the same 303 error at login. He stated it took him an hour of hitting play before the character finally loaded. He left Rivenspire and has not gone back. He has not gotten the 303 error since.

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx

none of my characters were in Rivenspire and I am still experiencing the problem with a newly created character on a different account. Zos seems to think it's due to a huge blocked player list on xbox live and are still working to resolve the issue. Another player has suggested that you should unblock those players and see if the problem persists, and I have considered doing so, however I chose to block those players for a reason and don't wish to be bothered by them on this or any other game that I play. This also happens to be the only game that I play that having a large block list is an issue in loading. What to do? Do I unblock and see if it works, or do I wait for Zos to come up with a fix?

Balibe

Since they mentioned it happens at login with a large list, I was wondering if the issue was with names that do not play ESO. IE: you blocked someone when you were playing CoD, so the ESO server is looking for the name at login but they don't play ESO.

You could write the names down, clear the block list to see if it fixes the issue. Then let ESO know the results, may help them narrow the issue down. Then re-add everyone once they fix it, your call.

Mike_IG

xX_BLUDWULF_Xx wrote: »

none of my characters were in Rivenspire and I am still experiencing the problem with a newly created character on a different account. Zos seems to think it's due to a huge blocked player list on xbox live and are still working to resolve the issue. Another player has suggested that you should unblock those players and see if the problem persists, and I have considered doing so, however I chose to block those players for a reason and don't wish to be bothered by them on this or any other game that I play. This also happens to be the only game that I play that having a large block list is an issue in loading. What to do? Do I unblock and see if it works, or do I wait for Zos to come up with a fix?

Surely your new GT won't have that many GT's blocked at the moment???, Or wasn't it a new GT?. If you've not blocked many on that account then surely that can't be the issue.
I will say I've blocked a lot of people on other games after owning people on COD etc and then accusing me of cheating and then just spamming me with messages (not blocked anyone on ESO although I know the blocked list applies to all games).

Mike_IG

Balibe wrote: »

I think they suggested to create a second gamertag to determine if the issue is with the current character. I don't think they expected anyone to abandon the first character for another..

Well that's just it in the message I sent to them before their reply that said to use a new GT I told them that using a friends GT on the same console/network worked fine so clearly the issue was GT/ESO account issue, So to me the message they sent afterwards was saying I needed to start again with new GT etc if I wanted to play it.

Zadok937

Balibe wrote: »

Zadok937 wrote: »

Wasn't sure if this may be related, but did anyone who had this issue have a character currently in rivenspire?

Rivenspire has issues, the lag is bad and takes forever to load. I been there and left, but stay away until they fix it.

A guildie logged out there last weekend. The next day he was getting the same 303 error at login. He stated it took him an hour of hitting play before the character finally loaded. He left Rivenspire and has not gone back. He has not gotten the 303 error since.

Alright. My friend happened to have a character in rivenspire that he tried to load first after the patch. Thought maybe it could be part of the problem. He's tried others of course.

Mike_IG

Hi all,

Just to let you know I cleared my long blocked list today and for the first time in a few weeks I was able to sign in, Tried it again a few hours later and managed to sign in again and just tried it now and again I've been able to sign in, Annoying that I've had to spend a few hours (yes mine took that long deleting people from blocked list) so I can actually play it when other games are fine with it but being able to sign in I guess it was worth it if it keeps letting me actually play the game I paid for. (was funny listening to everyone complain about the guilds at the bank)
So if you have the E303 then it may well be worth removing people and see if it works for you.