The game is preventing me from being able to join group content

sh4d0wh4z3

Hello,

First off, I understand that things are rather hectic and responses will be slow what with the whole situation going on in the world, but I would like to get the chance to get back into the game's group content.

Anyways, the situation that I'm having is that the game has me placed in a group that doesn't exist. I'm unable to join groups, start groups by inviting people, or use any of the activity finders, such as battlegrounds or the dungeon finder. Every time somebody invites me to a group, it tells them that I'm already in a group. Every time I try to invite somebody to start a group, I get a message that says "Failed to join group" (This isn't a message somebody sending a group invite is supposed to see). Every time I click on the join queue button for the activity finder, nothing happens. It doesn't grey out, it doesn't give me the message that I failed to join the queue, nor does it tell me that I can't rejoin the queue because I left too quickly. It just acts like a button with no function when clicked. The game also does not show that I'm in a group either. Pressing P to bring up the group menu doesn't display me being in the group, and the main UI doesn't show me being in a group either, but I'm still placed in this invisible group. This issue is only occurring on one of my characters which happens to be my main character. My other character is able to join groups and do all that I've mentioned my main character can't do, but my issue here is that they're not even close to reaching level 50. I shouldn't need to bring another character all the way up to level 50 and gear them for their class in order to be able to play the game normally again. That isn't a solution.

I did open up a ticket about it here 200405-000892, but a few days has passed since the last response. It seems impatient, but it's hard not to be considering there's no manual solution the player can do and considering I bought plus just a couple of days before this happened. Please keep in mind, I have already tried every possible solution you could think of and none of them worked. I've tried logging out, porting to another zone, typing /reloadui, typing /stuck, disabling add ons, repairing the launcher, and any solution that was told to people with a similar issue, either here on this forum, in tickets, or in other online communities such as reddit. This is not something I can fix myself no matter what solution you ask me to try. It is something that must be fixed by a GM or somebody of the like. They will have to manually pull me out of this group since I'm unable to leave it myself.

As far as I know so far, the only real solution that I can do is wait until the server is taken down for maintenance, but there's no telling when that will be. I'm posting here in hopes somebody can actually pull me out of this invisible group so I can go back to playing the game again.

Oakthorn

Hi there, just to let you know, we are having the same issue as you, see here https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/520249/i-need-assistance-with-a-customer-service-ticket-stuck-in-invisible-group

Doesn't help either of us, but seems it's not a singular issue...

Greetings!

ZOS_Bill

For anyone running into an issue where they are stuck in a group, please open a ticket with customer support. Please be aware that we are currently experiencing high contact volumes, due to the impact of COVID-19, and you may experience increased waiting times when contacting Customer Support.

DahliaNightshade

@ZOS_BillE, high impact or not, we are all experiencing that, you're not special, I work in a Data Center, and I've been going to work each and every day since this started, and it started earlier here in Italy (unless you're in China), and every day I am doing all I have to do, so the virus is no excuse, not an acceptable one, especially for someone which works behind a computer; ticket management can be done at home as much as in an office.

You clearly didn't even read what we wrote, since you suggested to open a ticket to the Customer Support... we did that, it's written in all our posts, and we did it before even posting on the forums; we came to the forums in frustration because nobody ever answered our tickets.

This is ridiculous and outrageous, this is a paid service, it doesn't matter if it's a game or a TV channel or whatever, it's paid, and the level of service we are getting is not on par with what we pay.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am certain you're just the person in charge of replying to these post, I am not angry at you, but all of this is not a good way to deal with customers.

Have a nice day, see what you can do, and let's hope in a quick server reboot, which might finally solve our issue.

sh4d0wh4z3

ZOS_BillE wrote: »

For anyone running into an issue where they are stuck in a group, please open a ticket with customer support. Please be aware that we are currently experiencing high contact volumes, due to the impact of COVID-19, and you may experience increased waiting times when contacting Customer Support.

Hello,

I appreciate the response, and I don't wish to be rude, but unless the open up a ticket suggestions was for anybody who hasn't already done so, then I get the feeling you haven't read the issue going on within my post and didn't see that I already opened a ticket. If that's not the case and it was for newcomers coming into the forums with the same issue, then I apologize.

But as the other person stated, I only posted here on the forums because a few days went by after I replied to the rather generic response and didn't get a reply back. I know there's an issue out there and it's totally understandable that it will make things slower than usually, but it doesn't help that somebody who has encountered this same bug before C-19 became a large issue (and another years before) didn't receive much if any help from support regarding it. It also doesn't help the membership I bought is running out while I'm unable to participate in the group content that it advertises.

This thread would potentially become obsolete upon a entire server shutdown for maintenance if we go by two other scenarios where this bug occurred, but I guess what we could suggest here is for somebody to manually remove us from the invisible group so we don't need to wait for a random server restart. I also guess we could suggest for a new command to be built into the game so players can fix this issue manually because the generic suggestions obviously don't work. Something like /StuckGroup which would flush you out of any group that you cannot leave, including these invisible ones. If you ask me, this would be the best course of action after those who are affected are removed from their respective invisible groups. This bug appears to occur randomly and is not the case of an user error, and I would hate for myself and anybody else to have to sit through the ticket and forum process getting generic responses when this bug happens again.

BostonTroy

I had this same issue several years ago and it was never fixed until the next patch happened. They kept resetting my character to the home location in Davon's Watch when I put a ticket in, but it never reset the locked group problem. It finally fixed itself after the next patched happened -- I guess they had reset the servers at that time. You'll probably have to wait till the next patch to have the issue automatically resolved.

DahliaNightshade

Hello, after patch maintenance today my issue has magically solved by itself, I got no intervention from the Support, no nothing, the issue was solved by the server reboot, just like other people in much older posts (since 2016) were saying.

This is not the way to deal with these problems, hoping that a reboot can solve them; I have been unable to group my character for 11 days, and this is too long a period.

sh4d0wh4z3

Hello,

I'd also like to mention that after today's maintenance, my problem has been solved, at least to the extent that I can now use the activity finder which is all that I did for a quick test. But if I'm able to use the group finder, then I should also be able to be added to a group and also send out group invites again.

But while my problem may be solved, the underlying issue is still there as far as I know (Nothing is mentioned in patch notes about this issue). As I've mentioned before, there needs to be a way for users to fix this in game, such as my proposal for a /stuckgroup command that would flush you out these invisible groups. It is clear that support does not help with this. C-19 causing delays cannot be used as an excuse here since there's evidence of support not bothering to help people who have this issue when there was no global pandemic. I don't want to fear joining a group and having to come back here to the forums or open up a ticket getting generic responses when I clearly state I've already attempted them in my message on the off chance that this bug happens again. I cannot stress this enough. There needs to be a way for players to fix this because having to wait an indefinite amount of time for a server maintenance (8 days for me, 11 for the other guy, perhaps 14+ days for others) is not the way this issue should be handled.

Please stop ignoring this issue and work with us on coming up with a solution so players can manually fix this issue so we don't have to have this same conversation some weeks, months, years down the line when it inevitably happens to somebody else.

For future readers of this issue, as it stands currently, support will not bother to help you with this issue and you're SOL until server maintenance happens if this happens to you. Hopefully the many months that went by after this post, support will have listened to its players in need and pushed this suggestion to development so a real manual solution is created, but seeing how this issue has existed for 4 years now, perhaps even longer, this may just be wishful thinking. If there's nothing, then all I can suggest is find a different game to play, perhaps permanently.

sh4d0wh4z3

Hello again,

I am back here again to give more reasons why my suggestion should be implemented.

After a long time waiting, my ticket was finally updated with a response, but as you could probably assume, it was not a good one. Basically the agent didn't read anything of what I wrote, nor read the previous response by the other agent or auto response if that's who it was. All they did was copy and paste the same exact generic tip. You know, the whole generic spiel about trying to reforming the same group and disbanding it to reset the ui. All of it was word for word. They didn't even bother trying to help. They then proceeded to mark the ticket as solved and went on with their day. How disrespectful to your players.

Yes, my issue has been solved, but it was not thanks to the help of customer support. It was only because of the planned maintenance for the upcoming update. The problem still exists, and we're going to come back to square one when this happens again if nothing is done to solve this. Please, for all that is good for the game, implement this manual fix for players to do. We shouldn't have to sit around wasting membership that we paid for in hopes that a server maintenance happens in the near future to fix the problem for us. We shouldn't have to deal with clueless agents who don't bother to read the issue a player is having and then being ignored when we tell them that their generic tips don't work only for them to come back and paste the same thing again and saying it has been solved. This is not how things should be done.

Khuul99

I and a friend is stuck with this as well.

It would be nice to see any response at all from anyone.

Since the server reset seems to work, maybe you guys should develop some script that clears the database or whatever so that you can fix people with this problem instead of "waiting" the issue into silence.

igniz93

Me and my friend as well...

celner4_ESO

I’m having this issue and it’s been 4 days now can’t play the character it happened on in any grouped content, cannot be invited, cannot que, cannot invite players, have tried reloading ui, everything in between other then uninstalling the game. Sent in a ticket and follow up email to the automated response I was givin with no actual assistance yet with no fix known online or from the ZOS people for that matter as far as I could tell. Just came back to the game a week ago as well and subscribed and bought psplus SO I COULD do grouped content and all of it including DLC, which now I can’t and have wasted almost a week of my subscription Now. Extremely frustrating would love just any response that it’s being given attention or some kind of assistance/reassurance I’ll be able to play my character again and if not a reimbursement. Like when a restaurant (a good one) fcks up an order and does right by the customer

igniz93

celner4_ESO wrote: »

I’m having this issue and it’s been 4 days now can’t play the character it happened on in any grouped content, cannot be invited, cannot que, cannot invite players, have tried reloading ui, everything in between other then uninstalling the game. Sent in a ticket and follow up email to the automated response I was givin with no actual assistance yet with no fix known online or from the ZOS people for that matter as far as I could tell. Just came back to the game a week ago as well and subscribed and bought psplus SO I COULD do grouped content and all of it including DLC, which now I can’t and have wasted almost a week of my subscription Now. Extremely frustrating would love just any response that it’s being given attention or some kind of assistance/reassurance I’ll be able to play my character again and if not a reimbursement. Like when a restaurant (a good one) fcks up an order and does right by the customer

Unfortunately, we'll have to wait till next maintenance, which is the Greymoor patch on the 26th. ZOS won't be able to help because they don't know how to fix this problem that has been going on since 2015 (a quick forum search will yield multiple threads regarding this issue). The ONLY solution to this bug right now, is to wait for the next maintenance. However, this issue could come back, as many players experienced...

Indigogo

This has just happened to me. Stuck in an invisible group that I cannot leave and it prevents me from using the activity finder.
Tried it all, nothing is fixing it. When I load into cyro it says 2 group members in the campaign, cementing the issue being an invisible group.

I've sent in a ticket but judging by these posts, my weekend trials will have to be cancelled and I'm crushed.

igniz93

I'm sorry buddy but ZOS doesn't care about this bug that is here since 2015. The only thing you can do is wait till next maintenance, play other characters and whatnot.

I know it's frustrating, it's even more frustrating when the devs don't even bother.