Access Denied / Play Button not working / 1005 MEGA THREAD

Shimmer · October 2017

Jeremy · October 2017

Nope. It's definitely not just you. Add my name to that growing list as well.

It is so bad that I dread every time I see the launcher doing an update on this game. I was lucky and was spared the Clock Work City update - but looks like the update today got me. Error 105 - OSError_AccessDenied. Access denied. A file could not be updated due to either insufficient permissions, or the file is in use by another process.

The same old b.s. I think I've tried repairing like 12 times so far.

To say this is getting old is an understatement.

Hopeless16 · October 2017

I have exactly the same issue - I can't play AGAIN due to this error. Only happened since a few weeks ago - was fine before then, but now I also dread any time these incompetent morons release a patch. It's not my firewall/AV software that's suddenly causing an issue & am seriously considering unsubbing and finding another MMO. These people clearly have no idea how to fix this or they just don't care.

Shimmer · October 2017

Well their CS basically just told me its not them, its me, and they dont know how to fix it and wanted to refer me to McAfee support (it wont even work with mcafee off) since they cant fix.

Since they arent willing or interested in investigating this any further im seriously done. Would log in and give away all my stuff but its stuck on my toon. Too bad as well I was really into the community.

Ujax · October 2017

I have tried everything to bring ESO online to no avail. I am re-loading the game for the second time since the big patch last week. Every time there is a new update I am going through the same thing. After the first re-install it worked to last Friday. After Friday's patch the Launcher wouldn't work but I was able to manually start the ESO.exe to play through the weekend. Monday's patch knocked everything out and I am now down for good it seems.
I am ready to Cancel Membership because there is no since in paying for the down time.
The game worked fine until Clock Work City.

agrr70 · November 2017

Fast losing patience with this, bloody get it fixed.

AH93 · November 2017

It is not just you,

This very problem happens to me after every single update, I need to run repair, sometimes uninstall/reinstall the entire game again to have it working.

I either get messages of access denied, or I cannot be granted access to certain files, or just straight up errors preventing me from starting the game.
This has happened to me after every single update since Morrowind, getting very tiresome fixing this problem.

Astralweaver · November 2017

Me too after every patch the game stops working. I finally decided to uninstall the game after dozens of lock ups and reinstall. Will probably take hours and may go over internet time. This issue needs to be addressed. Play Button not working, repair button not working tired of it.

Jeremy · November 2017

Access denied error.

agrr70 wrote: »

Fast losing patience with this, bloody get it fixed.

Yep. Same here.

Another update another round of issues. Access denied errors, play button isn't working... and now it looks like it isn't even going to let me launch the game through the the application file.

I have tried running as administrator, turning off my firewalls, deleting the program data folder.... basically everything ZOS has recommended on this forum. I like this game - but sooner or later I'm going to have to move on and find a game that actually lets me play it.

Jeger · November 2017

I have tried running as administrator, turning off my firewalls, deleting the program data folder.... basically everything ZOS has recommended on this forum. I like this game - but sooner or later I'm going to have to move on and find a game that actually lets me play it.

Same here. This will be the third re-install for my wife after a patch. They take a lot of time and bandwidth. I love this game, but if we can't play it, why are we paying?

MercTheMage · November 2017

Same problem, had to repair my client

I would probably quit the game before having to reinstall, 60gigs is a 3 day download for me. No thanks.

Trinity_Is_My_Name · November 2017

Wish I could help you guys and gals but I have no idea why you all have this issue. The only thing I do differently than many others is I do not use Steam to install or run this game. No idea if that has anything to do with this but in three years I have never had this issue or any issue after an update or patch.

Running Windows 10 and all previous Windows that had ESO also worked fine. I am logged in as Administrator and I run ESO in Administrative mode.

Good luck everyone.

Jeremy · November 2017

Trinity_Is_My_Name wrote: »

Wish I could help you guys and gals but I have no idea why you all have this issue. The only thing I do differently than many others is I do not use Steam to install or run this game. No idea if that has anything to do with this but in three years I have never had this issue or any issue after an update or patch.

Running Windows 10 and all previous Windows that had ESO also worked fine. I am logged in as Administrator and I run ESO in Administrative mode.

Good luck everyone.

I don't play on Steam either so I don't think that's the problem.

Shimmer · November 2017

I dont play on steam either.

Jeremy · November 2017

Sylance9 wrote: »

I dont play on steam either.

Do you use McAfee as your virus protection?

TrustedDentist · November 2017

I'm sick of this. Every. damn. patch.
Hey! ESO! Fix your ***.

I am a user and want to walk to pc press button and play.

yes my stuff meets your min specs, run as admin, repair.

I now cannot get this crap off my machine and cannot repair it. *** off.

Shimmer · November 2017

Jeremy wrote: »

Sylance9 wrote: »

I dont play on steam either.

Do you use McAfee as your virus protection?

Yup. And according to CS "everyone who has this problem does and unfortunately you cant run both at the same time" however even if its off, I have the issue. Ive had mcaffee since I beta played this game and played all this time with no issues, until morrowind. Instead of finding out the issue and fixing their launcher they want me to contact mcafee and find out why their patcher breaks for us.

Unfortunate really.

Jeremy · November 2017

Sylance9 wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

Sylance9 wrote: »

I dont play on steam either.

Do you use McAfee as your virus protection?

Yup. And according to CS "everyone who has this problem does and unfortunately you cant run both at the same time" however even if its off, I have the issue. Ive had mcaffee since I beta played this game and played all this time with no issues, until morrowind. Instead of finding out the issue and fixing their launcher they want me to contact mcafee and find out why their patcher breaks for us.

Unfortunate really.

It doesn't work for me either even after I turn the firewall on McAfee off. But if everyone who is having this problem uses McAfee that can't just be a coincidence. Maybe it's some kind of weird compatibility problem that comes and goes.

I'm curious - is there anyone out there who is having this problem who doesn't use McAfee? If so please speak up.

BenevolentBowd · November 2017

This is the 2nd time this has happened to me. I'm dreading to do another 45GB download to fix a 200MB patch...

Workaround: (thanks @Sigtric ) If your launcher does its thing and it says completed but the play button is missing, bypass the client and run the ESO.EXE directly. Game will run but will not fix the launcher issue.

Sample location of the EXE file
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online\The Elder Scrolls Online\game\client\eso64.exe

Notes:
- windows user for gaming doesn't have admin rights
- game and launcher set to run as administrator
- running EXE directly seems to trigger the Windows 10 Virus / Threat security dialog (EXE with a Publisher: <Unknown>)
- running mcafee
- ESO.exe is the 32-bit version and if run, has the same unverified publisher dialog and an additional warning that the 32-bit version is being discontinued
- Entering the admin password in the dialog, runs the game in the shell based on the administrator account and therefore, you will have to install any add-ons in the administer accounts addon folder located in the documents folder.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_RichLambert

I'm thinking it is an issue with how the EXE is being published or how Windows 10 Virus / Threat tool interprets the file.

BenevolentBowd · November 2017

Update: after doing all the stuff from the earlier post, the play button returned when I restarted PC.

Jeremy · November 2017

Before the last update running the application file directly used to work for me also. But now that's not even working. It says I no longer have permission to do that either. This work-around stopped being effective for the OP also. So unfortunately that solution seems like only a temporary one.

I also use windows 8.1 (not 10) so I don't think windows 10 is specifically the problem here either.

So far the common thread seems to be McAfee which it looks like you use also.

Shimmer · November 2017

BenevolentBowd wrote: »

This is the 2nd time this has happened to me. I'm dreading to do another 45GB download to fix a 200MB patch...

Workaround: (thanks @Sigtric ) If your launcher does its thing and it says completed but the play button is missing, bypass the client and run the ESO.EXE directly. Game will run but will not fix the launcher issue.

Sample location of the EXE file
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online\The Elder Scrolls Online\game\client\eso64.exe

Notes:
- windows user for gaming doesn't have admin rights
- game and launcher set to run as administrator
- running EXE directly seems to trigger the Windows 10 Virus / Threat security dialog (EXE with a Publisher: <Unknown>)
- running mcafee
- ESO.exe is the 32-bit version and if run, has the same unverified publisher dialog and an additional warning that the 32-bit version is being discontinued
- Entering the admin password in the dialog, runs the game in the shell based on the administrator account and therefore, you will have to install any add-ons in the administer accounts addon folder located in the documents folder.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_RichLambert

I'm thinking it is an issue with how the EXE is being published or how Windows 10 Virus / Threat tool interprets the file.

Workaround no longer works for me. I used to use this workaround but the exe file is broken now completely.

MercTheMage · November 2017

Problem returned with todays update

Shimmer · November 2017

MercTheMage wrote: »

Problem returned with todays update

And here I went from not being able to play at all for the last two weeks to suddenly being able to play with no problems, This is screwed up.

Jeremy · November 2017

MercTheMage wrote: »

Problem returned with todays update

Same here. I'm currently on repair no. 3.... strike that. Repair no. 4.

I'm hoping to keep repairing until the play button eventually grays out and be able to launch the application file. But who knows. That doesn't always work.

Do you use McAfee by any chance?

RaddlemanNumber7 · November 2017

After a few weeks of suffering this 1005 error with the update I think I have got past it. I patched the game without error today.

I have eso64.exe, eso.exe and the patcher added to the exception list in McAffee real-time scanning
I have update set to "never" in the patcher options.
When the game went off-line for patch maintenance this morning I went into the \client folder and renamed eso64.exe.

When the maintenance was complete I opened the patcher. The big button in the bottom right hand corner said "Update". I clicked it. The game patched and then automatically did a verify/repair. When it had finished (about 15 mins for me) I closed the patcher.

Opened the patcher again, clicked "Play" and the game started OK. I've been playing for a couple of hours no problem.

I think my precautions were probably a bit more than is really necessary. Next patch I'm just going to leave eso64.exe were it is, let the patcher run on automatic, and see what happens.

Shimmer · November 2017

Jeremy wrote: »

MercTheMage wrote: »

Problem returned with todays update

Same here. I'm currently on repair no. 3.... strike that. Repair no. 4.

I'm hoping to keep repairing until the play button eventually grays out and be able to launch the application file. But who knows. That doesn't always work.

Do you use McAfee by any chance?

Yes. I use McAfee. However I am thinking its NOT a McAfee error as today's patch FIXED me. 0 problems at all. Which is completely bizarre as I've had one issue or another since morrowind came out.

(edit: I do have two desktop.ini files that mysteriously appeared on my desktop after patching. Not sure what thats about.)

Armenua · November 2017

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

I have eso64.exe, eso.exe and the patcher added to the exception list in McAffee real-time scanning
I have update set to "never" in the patcher options.

I've tried to add the eso64 app to my exceptions list, but it tells me I'm not an administrator. When I check to make myself an administrator, it says I am one... so why can't I add it to exceptions, I wonder.

RaddlemanNumber7 · November 2017

Armenua wrote: »

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

I have eso64.exe, eso.exe and the patcher added to the exception list in McAffee real-time scanning
I have update set to "never" in the patcher options.

I've tried to add the eso64 app to my exceptions list, but it tells me I'm not an administrator. When I check to make myself an administrator, it says I am one... so why can't I add it to exceptions, I wonder.

The update process and McAffee between them seemed to corrupt some of the file data on eso64.exe. Once that had happened, when I right clicked on eso64.exe and looked at the security tab, it said I didn't have sufficient rights to see the permissions on the file even tho I was admin. That file permissions problem also stopped me from adding eso64 to McAffee exceptions at that point. The only way around that would be to delete eso64.exe, but I couldn't do that myself either. Fortunately, something on my system did it for me. A few hours after I ran the patch I checked on eso64.exe again and it was just gone. Sorry, I can't say anything more helpful than that. I just don't know exactly what it was that deleted the corrupted eso64 file.

Once the corrupt eso64.exe file had gone I was able to run repair successfully. This put a fresh copy of eso64.exe on my PC, and I was then able to add that to McAffee exception list.

Armenua · November 2017

Well, i was doing another repair, and went to look in the root file, and those eso.exe and eso64.exe were gone, too. This time the repair fixed it and I was finally able to log in. Maybe that is the error? These exe's are supposed to be trashed and not being done? I dunno.

Jeremy · November 2017

Sylance9 wrote: »

Jeremy wrote: »

MercTheMage wrote: »

Problem returned with todays update

Same here. I'm currently on repair no. 3.... strike that. Repair no. 4.

I'm hoping to keep repairing until the play button eventually grays out and be able to launch the application file. But who knows. That doesn't always work.

Do you use McAfee by any chance?

Jeremy wrote: »

MercTheMage wrote: »

Problem returned with todays update

Same here. I'm currently on repair no. 3.... strike that. Repair no. 4.

I'm hoping to keep repairing until the play button eventually grays out and be able to launch the application file. But who knows. That doesn't always work.

Do you use McAfee by any chance?

Yes. I use McAfee. However I am thinking its NOT a McAfee error as today's patch FIXED me. 0 problems at all. Which is completely bizarre as I've had one issue or another since morrowind came out.

(edit: I do have two desktop.ini files that mysteriously appeared on my desktop after patching. Not sure what thats about.)

Well I wish I could say I had 0 problems.

I did finally get the update downloaded. But as usual the play button does not work. For now It's allowing me to launch the game through my program files. So at least I can play currently.

So far everyone I've seen who has had these issues uses McAfee. So I don't know. It might just be a coincidence. But until I meet someone else who has these weird access denied errors who doesn't use McAfee I'm going to suspect it's at least got something to do with it. But you're right, it's very bizarre how these problems seem to come and go. For example I was able to download and play right after the Morrowwind update with no problems. Yet that seems to be when your's in particular started.

It would be nice if ZoS were to contact McAfree and figure out what the issue is and make alterations to their launcher to accommodate McAfee users because it's is a popular anti virus. Judging from the amount of comments I see on the forum about this I imagine it aggravates a lot of users and has cost ZOS more than a few potential customers.