Game launcher "Updating", then "Shutting down", cannot start game

jle30303

PC player here.

This morning, when I try to start the game, I get the launcher "Updating..."

It does this for about 20 seconds, then goes to "Shutting down..."

Never does it give me a chance to properly start the game!

Cannot get in to play!

ZOS_Phoenix

@jle30303

You may want to try the steps in this article here.

jle30303

I already tried those. None of them achieved anything.

Here is a weird thing: When I tried step 4 (Delete ProgramData Folder), I went there and the folder was ALREADY EMPTY.

Following the next instruction: "In the folder where "ProgramData" was located, find the files "host.developer.Xlog" ("X" will be a number) and delete all of them except the one without a number (it should just be "host.developer.log")."...

but there WAS NO file simply called "host.developer.log" without a number.

I deleted all those files anyway, and also deleted the empty ProgramData folder, and started again. No result.

Why would that folder have been empty in the first place?

jle30303

Weirdly enough... After restarting my computer *twice*, then checking on Steam and finding out that I had a queued download for "Steam Common Redistributables"... It suddenly started working again. Still not sure what's going on.

There are now two things in the "Zenimax Online / Launcher / ProgramData" folder: there is "Library.jwt" which is about 16 kB in size, and a completely empty folder with an impossibly long name "Host.779078d89a05e79e569beea548c1a2a2ebc64f28". Are these the things that are supposed to be in ProgramData?

There is also still no "host.developer.log" file, although there is a "host.developer.03.17.2025.log"

ZOS_Icy

Greetings,

This thread has been moved to the PC Technical Support section, as it is better suited there.

The Elder Scrolls Online Team

s8nhimself

currently having the same issue and have done all 4 troubleshooting steps and did a computer restart but the launcher is still auto shut down. also dont have a file named host.developer.log without a number.

jle30303 wrote: »

and a completely empty folder with an impossibly long name "Host.779078d89a05e79e569beea548c1a2a2ebc64f28".

i only have this folder when i have the launcher active (before it self destructs lol)

i will be reinstalling the whole game as a last resort and come back -- in 6 hours according to steam
sigh

edit: PC EU server

aetherial_heavenn

I also did the steps: step 4 (Delete ProgramData Folder), The folder was ALREADY EMPTY. When it repopulated the folder it too was empty.

Also the next instruction: find the files "host.developer.Xlog" ("X" will be a number) and delete all of them except the one without a number (it should just be "host.developer.log")."...
I too had multiple logs with numbers corresponding up to todays date but not one without the number. Deleted them all except todays. Tried again. Then deleted that one. It repopulated 1 log todays date but still had no effect.

Tried running just the eso.exe file after the launcher did it's update and close down thing for the umpteenth time. Got the splash screens and all the way to the play button but I got an error saying the client was out of date when I hit play.

@jle30303 @s8nhimself
FIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally deleted launcher folder entirely, went to account page, logged in, went to 'play game', downloaded the installer to my downloads, and ran it. The splash screen with the blue bar showed 50 gig download but it seemed to simply update some files. (at 1.5 Mbps it took about 45 mins so it certainly didn't reinstall the whole game. That usually takes over 12 hours!)

It is now working. Good luck

@ZOS_Icy , @ZOS_Phoenix

Lan14

aetherial_heavenn wrote: »

@jle30303 @s8nhimself
FIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally deleted launcher folder entirely, went to account page, logged in, went to 'play game', downloaded the installer to my downloads, and ran it. The splash screen with the blue bar showed 50 gig download but it seemed to simply update some files. (at 1.5 Mbps it took about 45 mins so it certainly didn't reinstall the whole game. That usually takes over 12 hours!)

It is now working. Good luck

@ZOS_Icy , @ZOS_Phoenix

Thank you! I am a PC player, and I own both the Steam and non-Steam versions, although the Steam version is not currently installed. I logged on today with the exact same problem the others are describing. Yesterday, I logged onto the game just fine, so the problem was new today. Your solution worked perfectly! I was up in just a few minutes.

KageofRLyis

Also getting the updating/shutting down launcher issue (On both laptop and computer but only attempt to see if I can get it to work on my computer).

Restarted computer, didn't work, downloaded the Steam Common Redistributables and restarted the computer again. Issue still there.

ESO is already an exception, LAN settings already disabled, more than once deleted the ProgramData folder, deleted the numbered host.developer.logs, tried deleting the Launcher folder. No fix.

Uninstalled and reinstalled the game. No luck for me tonight as that also did not fix anything.

DrOuttaSight

What has someone done?

It was fine 24hrs ago, I could log in without jumping through hoops to get the launcher started

dog_1

Problem must be globally then. I can;t run client, because update. Folders locales and ProgramData are empty. After downloading laucher, opened start download new laucher this same version 6.2.32

s8nhimself

so update

s8nhimself wrote: »

i will be reinstalling the whole game as a last resort and come back -- in 6 hours according to steam

so update: it didnt work lol. i ran out of options. and it seems that only few people experiencing this bug

ZOS_Phoenix

@s8nhimself
@KageofRLyis
@DrOuttaSight
@dog_1

If the steps provided above did not help, you can open a ticket with our support team here for further assistance.

s8nhimself

@ZOS_Phoenix just did earlier with reference number 250318-001195. i hope it'll be fixed for everyone very soon

dog_1

I just download new install_eso . Install in this same folder where last time i install the game. Now its work without needed download full game. New launcher version is 6.2.44.0. Folder locales is still empty.
I don't understand why, the previous launcher didn't update to a higher version, but downloaded a parallel one. I looked in the temp folder, where the launcher downloaded before the replacement.

illutian

Sigh....it appears the issue is the Launcher updated and they bungled the 'copy from temp (folder) to Launcher (folder)'.

Because this is the log that gets created; last few lines of it:

03/18/2025 17:42:26 INFO - Restart as invoker
03/18/2025 17:42:26 DEBUG - Restart executable - C:\Users\{myuseraccount}\AppData\Local\Temp\76809b23244d57663434ac40622941948553a566\78143f0c42f9cc478101123231339f01.exe
03/18/2025 17:42:26 DEBUG - Restart arguments - --debug --debugdir={ModuleDirectory} --perday --append --debugfileid=selfupdate --wfselfupdate

In that folder path, there's an ESO exe. But it won't run if you click on it; even 'as Admin' it does the UAC prompt but then nothing.

Edit:

Even copying the EXE to the Launcher, while it does launch the launcher, it still does the Update into Shutting Down loop.

Edit2:

Might be something wrong with the PAK files that are in the Launcher folder...the temp exe and original exe won't launch without those 3 (chrome_100_percent.pak, chrome_200_percent.pak, resource.pak). Once those are present the launcher will launch but still does the Update/Shutdown loop.

KageofRLyis

Launcher was still shutting down on my computer yesterday but the good news is that the launcher worked on my laptop yesterday without me doing anything. So I was able to play instead of missing two days, just miss one.

Today, first attempt on the computer had the updating/shutting down. I retried someone's suggestion of turning off the internet before trying to play the game and turning it back on when the launcher is in loading mode and this time it looks like it might work. Right now, launcher is updating but not shutting down.

Edit: ESO successfully running for me on my computer now.

JyremanLFC

I've been unable to play for almost 3 days now, still no fix for this?

illutian

KageofRLyis wrote: »

Launcher was still shutting down on my computer yesterday but the good news is that the launcher worked on my laptop yesterday without me doing anything. So I was able to play instead of missing two days, just miss one.

Today, first attempt on the computer had the updating/shutting down. I retried someone's suggestion of turning off the internet before trying to play the game and turning it back on when the launcher is in loading mode and this time it looks like it might work. Right now, launcher is updating but not shutting down.

Edit: ESO successfully running for me on my computer now.

This also worked...hopefully I don't have to do this every single time I want to play...

EDIT:

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH.

Yep. From now on, if you want to play ESO, and have this issue, you need to disconnect the computer from the Internet (ie ipconfig /release), launch the ESO Launcher, wait until it says "Loading . . .", and then reconnect to the Internet (ie ipconfig /renew); DON'T CLOSE OUT OF THE LAUNCHER! Once it finally "phones home" it'll bring up the rest of the UI elements (including the PLAY button).

EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.

Fix your stuff. Unless you're going to pay me to play "IT Troubleshooter". I expect YOU to fix the problems with YOUR product.

illutian

So...uninstalled the game and reinstalled.

Guess what happens.

If you thought, "you don't get stuck in the Update/Shutdown loop", you lost.

So, it's official. ESO Devs have bungled the Launcher in a way that prevents players from playing the game.

s8nhimself

KageofRLyis wrote: »

Today, first attempt on the computer had the updating/shutting down. I retried someone's suggestion of turning off the internet before trying to play the game and turning it back on when the launcher is in loading mode and this time it looks like it might work. Right now, launcher is updating but not shutting down.

Edit: ESO successfully running for me on my computer now.

oh my god bless you! they said theyre escalating my ticket the other day to further investigating the issue. but for now, hopefully this works, even just momentarily.

JyremanLFC

KageofRLyis wrote: »

Launcher was still shutting down on my computer yesterday but the good news is that the launcher worked on my laptop yesterday without me doing anything. So I was able to play instead of missing two days, just miss one.

Today, first attempt on the computer had the updating/shutting down. I retried someone's suggestion of turning off the internet before trying to play the game and turning it back on when the launcher is in loading mode and this time it looks like it might work. Right now, launcher is updating but not shutting down.

Edit: ESO successfully running for me on my computer now.

This also works for me as a temporary fix. Thank you.

erjifo

Hi guys,
After going through all this misery for the last several days I finally found a solution on Reddit that worked for me. I hope this works for some (hopefully all) of you.

Toggle off Windows Defender "Real-time Protection." Start the game and the launcher will update for real this time.

That's it! Good luck!

DigiAngel

@JyremanLFC You can still play the game without the launcher (for now at least) by going to the game\client directory and running eso64.exe.

illutian

erjifo wrote: »

Hi guys,
After going through all this misery for the last several days I finally found a solution on Reddit that worked for me. I hope this works for some (hopefully all) of you.

Toggle off Windows Defender "Real-time Protection." Start the game and the launcher will update for real this time.

That's it! Good luck!

Seems to have worked, the Launcher did the 'updating/shutting down' bit and actually restarted itself.

Tandor

Same problem on one of my desktops, not the other, and not using Steam or Epic.

Running the game from the direct exe in the game directory launched the game ok, but turning off Windows Defender Realtime Protection and then running the launcher to complete the updating (and then reactivating Realtime Protection) seems to have resolved the issue.

NaRcOmAgE

Finally resolved:

Same updating / shutting issues everyone is describing. Tried everything mentioned, including a full uninstall and reinstall (that's 2 days of my life I'm never getting back...). Finally worked it out:

For any Windows 11 users still having problems:

Search for 'Virus & threat protection'.
Under 'Virus & threat protection settings', click 'Manage settings'
Toggle 'Real-time protection' to OFF
Launch ESO from your usual shortcut.
Launcher runs and updates without issue, full game then loads.
TURN REAL-TIME PROTECTION back ON

Wish I'd worked that out earlier as I've now wasted days re-installing and also lost all add-ons and settings in ESO.

Stefirex

DigiAngel wrote: »

@JyremanLFC You can still play the game without the launcher (for now at least) by going to the game\client directory and running eso64.exe.

This doesn't work if your client is out of date. IE: It really needs updating!