Extremely long loading times for EU specifically

StrangeRain · April 3

So, after UPD 41 patch i got extremely long loading times on EU server. Including small loading screens while fight on specific arenas
Examples:
Dread Cellar last boss, loading in "portal" area and back on arena can reach 15+ seconds (before patch 1-3 seconds)
Cradle of Shadows last boss, loading in "maze" phase 10+ seconds (before patch 1-2 seconds). Also all 10 seconds my friend, who got in the same half of meze, saw me stuck in air in falling animation
Sanity Edge first and second bosses. My group started fight before i loaded on arena. In result my position on server was frozen. I could move on my screen, but for everyone else i was standing on doors. On second boss my group were closing teleport area faster, then i was loading, resulting in more desynchronization between my screen and real server events.
Besides these examples ALL loading times now very long. Sometimes i'm playing on NA server and no such problem occurred (i'm using same settings and same addons on both servers). Have much higher ping for NA btw

So what i did:
1. Full folder deletion Documents/Elder Scrolls Online (all addons and configs)
2. Full game deletion through steam (and after steam i deleted folder SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Zenimax Online)
3. Download and install game from steam.
After that i did not change any settings and did not install any addons. And all of that not helped at all.
I ran 2 tests after that, what results:
First test: EU Stormhaven -> Vivec City Wayshrine = 47 seconds. After that without restarting the game logged on NA - Grahtwood -> Vivec City Wayshrine 6 seconds
Second test: NA Vivec City Wayshrine -> Cipher's Midden Wayshrine 21 seconds. After that restarted game, logged on EU - Vivec City Wayshrine -> Cipher's Midden 58 seconds

So problem not on my side and i need help.
Also did anyone got same problem after patch?

ZOS_Bill · April 3

@StrangeRain

Thank you for listing the different troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. Since you've already went through the normal steps for loading issues, we recommend opening a ticket with customer support.

Plada · April 5

I absolutely agree with the post. Unbearably long loading times when my group is already in battle and I'm still in the loading screen.

On the second boss in Sanity Edge, during the portal stage. I miss all the mechanics due to long loading screen times!
Traveling through the wayshrines also takes a long time.

I wrote about this to customer support, but they cited the fact that my video card suddenly became weak for this. And this is absolutely ridiculous. Because exactly the same problems are observed on new video cards, including the 4060. I'm not the only one who encountered this problem. But technical support does not consider this a problem on their side.

Ardriel · April 8

Hi, I have the same problem: long loading screens, especially in dungeons or trials. While team mates are already fighting I'm still in loading screen. When I'm being ported into a dungeon or new zone the loading starts with a black screen which changes into the actual loading screen after 5-10 seconds. Weird. I never had this before.

erdbeerheld · April 8

Same here (and for at least one other friend). Porting to another zone/map is ok. But going through doors, portals, etc and even using wayshrines within the SAME area is getting painful. The problem is, it is not 100% reproducible. Sometimes the same door/portal works fine, whereas it takes 10-15 seconds on other occasions. I even "managed" to miss a dark anchor in Alikr, because the loading screen took too long when porting from one wayshrine to another (all within the same map). Granted, that was an outlier, but these loadtimes are definitely an issue for me.

Ardriel · April 9

I tried to play without addons and settings. I have updated my graphics driver. No effect. Still extreme long loading times in dungeons and when changing zones. When loading into the dungeon and changing zones, first the black screen that changes to the normal loading screen just before loading is finished.
THIS OCCURS ONLY ON PC EU! Loading times are normal on NA and no black screen. So it can't be due to my settings. Things like this are incredibly frustrating, especially when you seem to be the only affected player in the raid or group. What could it be? If this continues, I really won't be playing ESO anymore and I won't be buying any new content. It's just too frustrating.

Plada · April 9

Probably those who have the same problem after the update have something in common.
I continue to correspond with support.
It bothers me that this applies to a really small number of players. Moreover, the game does not crash at this moment. It eventually loads. But much longer than before. And black loading screens for 10 seconds before normal loading are also annoying.

Please pay attention to this problem. Help us decide
@ZOS_Kevin
@ZOS_Bill

Ardriel · April 10

Since my graphics card, internet, entire PC system has no problem with loading times on the NA server, there must be a certain difference to the EU server. And this difference is responsible for the configuration of some players causing problems. But what exactly is the difference and which part of our systems is causing the problems?
My system:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590 CPU @ 3.30GHz 3.30 GHz
16.0 GB
Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit
Nvidia GeForce 1060 6GB

I really need help with this problem because I am being excluded from most of the group content on the EU server due to extreme loading times.

Ardriel · April 10

Update: Now it's getting really crazy. I don't have these problems with my second account. PC EU Server. Same computer and all graphics settings are the same. I have played several hours with the 2nd account, especially the situations where there are long loading times with the 1st account. Not a single long loading time, not a single black screen. I have checked the graphics settings: It's all the same. In general, these settings are not account-bound but system-bound. Or are there other settings that are account-bound and relevant for loading times? I am at a complete loss. I would be very grateful for any help.

Plada · April 10

I reinstalled the game and the clean game had the same problem.
BUT! Having made a new profile in Windows, as they suggested to me in support, the game worked perfectly on this profile. With all the game and add-on settings that were in my main Windows profile.

this is weird

ZOS_Bill · April 10

@Ardriel

If you currently have a ticket open with support, you can post the ticket here and we can provide updates as needed.

erdbeerheld · April 10

Plada wrote: »

I reinstalled the game and the clean game had the same problem.
BUT! Having made a new profile in Windows, as they suggested to me in support, the game worked perfectly on this profile. With all the game and add-on settings that were in my main Windows profile.

this is weird

Interesting. I was running ESO on a different computer, that hasnt run ESO before, so no Addons, settings, etc. And, it was running fine, couldnt reproduce the issue there.

So back to my regular PC, renamed "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Elder Scrolls Online" directory in order to start fresh. But ... no success, issue returned.

With your above hint, I started to search in other folders for ESO remnants, and found "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Elder Scrolls Online". That folder also has a subfolder "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Elder Scrolls Online\live\CachedData\GuildHistory"
Renamed "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Elder Scrolls Online" so that ESO recreates it. And ... no issue.
So renamed that new folder again, then renamed the old folder back to its original name. And ... issue returned. Did this a few times back and forth, and the issue resurfaced on the 2nd or 3rd intra-zone teleport with the original folder and files. But not with the newly created ones.

Havent run any addons yet, but will start with that soon, and leave addons that use or rely on Guild History (TTC, ATT, LibHistoire, etc.) up for last. Perhaps someone who is having the same issue can verify this on their end as well.

Plada · April 10

@erdbeerheld
It makes sense. And thank you. I followed your advice, found it in "Users/AppData/Local/Elder Scrolls Online" and renamed the old folder. I launched the game, the game itself created this folder again.
And now no problems arise when teleporting to wayshrines.

I want to check this out in trials, especially Sanity Edge. I'll be back after researching this method in a trial.

Plada · April 10

Interesting point. I started downloading the sales history in the trade guild, downloaded 188 pages, and when teleporting to the wayshrine, I started seeing a black screen for 2-3 seconds. I believe that if we load even more pages in the trading history, it will again begin to cause long loading times.

I used TTC, MM, LibHistoire - Guild History.

After deleting the folder ("Users/AppData/Local/Elder Scrolls Online" ) again, the game downloaded it again. I go into the trial and all the loading times on doors/portals and wayshrines in the world were as fast as before. So, If you don’t load the guild’s sales history using the arrow and “show more,” the downloads are fast.

Ardriel · April 11

I have tried the above (rename folder) and so far it looks good. Normal loading times and no black screens.
But as I understand it, the price for playing normal group content is the loss of guild history. All my sales are gone. If I load this again, the problem will return.
I have disabled ATT and LibHistoire for now so no more sales are loaded and I have to manually note my sales. This is by no means a permanent solution, I hope ZOS will look at the problem again. Shouldn't the issues with the guild history be fixed with the last patch? And why does it only affect a few players? Many players use ATT, MM and LibHistoire. I don't understand it.
Thanks to @erdbeerheld for your clever solution. At least I can participate in the group content again.

erdbeerheld · April 11

Ardriel wrote: »

[...] Many players use ATT, MM and LibHistoire. I don't understand it. [...]

That is indeed odd. And I dont think I am outlier being in two large trading guilds, I assume that is common for a lot of players. I can only speculate, that this issue may exist due to a combination of addons and their subsequent updates (due to the changed guild history) and the subsequent patches in ESO. And the cache got somewhat corrupted along the way. I have not yet re-enabled ATT and LibHistoire, as I have a Raid scheduled this evening.

Todo for the weekend for me, fill guild history cache as much as possible WITHOUT any of the above addons active. After extended health check, enable ATT and LibHistoire again.

I also have a ticket open, and provided the findings so far in there. To be continued.

ZOS_Bill · April 11

@erdbeerheld

Could you provide us with your current ticket number?

erdbeerheld · April 11

@ZOS_Bill

Sure, ticket number is 240409-001016

erdbeerheld · April 12

Update from my side. Raid had no issue, as I wiped the directory beforehand.

I did some more testing (without any addons). What I observed so far is, that data to the guild history files is not appended/updated, but the files are wiped (size 0KB) and then all of the retrieved data is dumped to the files again. This happens when rezoning, relogging but also when using a wayshrine within the same zone, or portal/door. It only seems to happen, when additional data has been retrieved from the history. I downloaded a full month of guild trader history for my biggest trading guild (~1200 pages in the UI), so the corresponding file is currently at ~9,5MB.

What I also noticed, if you do a few/lots of manual guild history updates -> port to another wayshrine within the same zone -> long wait time. If you then just wayshrine immediately again -> no wait time. (thats what my speculation above is based on. the issue only happens, when the data is redumped.)

What is still puzzling, why is this not seen by more players. Even one of my friends is in the same big trading guild, uses ATT and LibHistoire, and has no issues (I have not yet compared file sizes). I havent found a pattern yet.

Morvan · April 13

I'm having the same problem on NA, even reinstalled my whole game and add-ons, I've only found one other person with the same problem, my latency is normal and all, I'm not lagging, it's just some specific loading screens that are taking waaaaay too long.

Morvan · April 13

erdbeerheld wrote: »

Ardriel wrote: »

[...] Many players use ATT, MM and LibHistoire. I don't understand it. [...]

That is indeed odd. And I dont think I am outlier being in two large trading guilds, I assume that is common for a lot of players. I can only speculate, that this issue may exist due to a combination of addons and their subsequent updates (due to the changed guild history) and the subsequent patches in ESO. And the cache got somewhat corrupted along the way. I have not yet re-enabled ATT and LibHistoire, as I have a Raid scheduled this evening.

Todo for the weekend for me, fill guild history cache as much as possible WITHOUT any of the above addons active. After extended health check, enable ATT and LibHistoire again.

I also have a ticket open, and provided the findings so far in there. To be continued.

Deleting that folder completely fixed my problem, I hope it doesn't happen again, I think it's related to the guild changes from last patch.

erdbeerheld · April 16

Morvan wrote: »

Deleting that folder completely fixed my problem, I hope it doesn't happen again, I think it's related to the guild changes from last patch.

Unfortunately, it is just a temporary workaround. Esp. if you are using ATT/MM, you want your sales statistics to be current, primarily to know whether you are above your guilds sales requirements. So even if you just pull the updates for the current day, the guild history cache files will grow with each day passing by, and the problem will eventually come back.

Based on the information in the LibHistoire forum on esoui.com, deleting the cache files is considered as a last resort only (if your sales/guild history isnt properly downloaded/merged).

My ticket was closed after some back and forth, basically by saying that it is a "known issue", and will be looked into further by the devs (not support). I was also redirected to this thread. I was also asked to submit a feedback/bug report, either ingame or via the website, which I am going to do. The feedback/bug reports go back to the devs, but you wont receive any updates to it. But I would still encourage others facing this issue to submit a corresponding report as well.

I guess it is wait and see now...

Kainarel · April 17

My friends and I had the same issue with long loading screens right after patching when we started playing through Steam.

Shutting down Steam and starting the game directly through the exe file solves that issue. Everything loads quickly. We're also EU server, btw.

Just putting it here in case it helps someone else solve this.

godoross · May 5

Same with 2 pc
and with 2 accounts!!!
In cyrodil 1min loading screens
I go out and I've been killed and the camp is burned down

erylle · May 5

exact same problem here!
and on 2 differents PC, with or without Add-on ans still with reinstall game etc

45 sec minimum loading sreens in cyrodill or in donjon or IN raid ( specially in vSE or vKyne,)
It's almost unplayable : i'm healer and all fight starts without me

ii'm on EU , in france )

erdbeerheld · May 6

(Copying from another thread.)

Trying to summarize the two options in a step-by-step description.

Option 1 (Temporary Workaround)

Close ESO
Open File Explorer and go to folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Elder Scrolls Online\live\CachedData\GuildHistory (you can copy and paste this path directly in File Explorer)
Either delete the *.dat files in that directory or delete/rename the GuildHistory folder (ESO will recreate the directory)
Restart ESO

The problem will eventually come back over time, as the game will pull history data from the server and store it in the cache files.

Option 2

Close ESO
Open UserSettings.txt (usually in Documents\Elder Scrolls Online\live)
Search for entry SET GuildHistoryCacheMaxNumberOfDays_trader "30" (this is the default value)
Change this to a lower value (e.g. 7), that you feel comfortable with and suits your situation, and relieves the loading screen pain.
Save UserSettings.txt
Note: You can retrieve history data beyond the configured timeframe, but it isnt stored in the cache files (1).
Restart ESO

Each category in the Guild history has its own config entry in UserSettings.txt, but the trader history is usually the biggest chunk, thus resulting in a significant file size increase causing these loading screen issues.

(1) looks like there is a bug, it actually IS stored in the files as long as you dont close ESO. As soon as you restart ESO, and the cache files are rewritten, it only stores the history for the configured timeframe.

ZOS_Bill · May 7

@godoross and @erylle

If you've not done so already, we recommend opening a ticket for further help with customer support.

Sylvalynn19 · May 9

Happening to me too here in NZ. LOOOONG loading screens (up to a minute or more) in dungeons and trials with the new update. Running a Macbook here in NZ and have never had sreen loading issues like this.