Error 209 after patch?

justabignerd · April 2014

ROFL! I seem to have paid 115$ for a BETA game... And now I am paying 15$ a month to test the BETA. Broken quest after broken quest... Huge lag spikes in communications... Script & Code Errors daily... The game, what I can actually play of it, is awesome but how the game is being handled is very poor.

Strangefate · April 2014

...

Ysne58 · April 2014

On my install for the NA server -- I reinstalled and I still have the 209 error. The install for the European server was fine. I haven't been in game yet today.

AstroCat · April 2014

Are they really going to ignore this issue!? What the heck?

Ysne58 · April 2014

I just repaired again and now it says play. I have no idea what is going on with any of this.

Rhoric · April 2014

AstroCat wrote: »

Are they really going to ignore this issue!? What the heck?

They are not ignoring the issue. I have been in contact with support and they are aware of it and are working on it.

uraya1958 · April 2014

i did over 5 times and still didnt work,so uninstalled and slowly downloading

YstradClud · April 2014

Yea just uninstall it and download it again. I can get it to play but it's not consistent so I just uninstalled the client and starting fresh.

Gildren · April 2014

Well, what started working for unknown reasons last night after my post with pictures (which has since been edited above to show how to do what the 209 error window tells you to do - thanks) the problem is back with a vengeance this morning.
- ugh
(new report sent)

--- quick edit ---
There doesn't happen to be a "beat you over the head this is where you send your report file" spot on the primary support page (might I suggest such a stick for us old people?), so I cut & pasted the report in what looks like a ticket email form. Hope that was the place y'all wanted to receive the information

Darzil · April 2014

Try this : http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/80209/found-the-root-cause-of-many-login-issues-with-workaround/p1

Naturus · April 2014

Home from work and ready to play .... really hesitant about launching though, I have only got as far as creating my character so far and am dreading more problems when I try to launch the game... fingers crossed!

Adryssa_Joneley · April 2014

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

*Please note that if you do delete all .version files, the launcher may require you to re-download the game.

Edit: for clarification

Are you serious? You have any idea how long that would take me to download this on my connection?

Surely, there has to be some error on your end maybe? And not ours?

Harkrider · April 2014

Leia_Skywalker wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

*Please note that if you do delete all .version files, the launcher may require you to re-download the game.

Edit: for clarification

Are you serious? You have any idea how long that would take me to download this on my connection? Surely, there has to be some error on your end maybe? And not ours?

48-72 hours for me.

Currently at 7%, after roughly 8 hours.

Elsonso · April 2014

Darzil wrote: »

Try this :

@Darzil : You do realize that, for most people, if they just let the launcher retry, or open and close the launcher a couple times, that chances are excellent that a server that is not in the 54.217.220 pool will come up and they are good to go?

yenkin2001b14_ESO · April 2014

Just start and stop the launcher 2 - 3 times and the play comes up.

Darzil · April 2014

lordrichter wrote: »

Darzil wrote: »

Try this :

@Darzil : You do realize that, for most people, if they just let the launcher retry, or open and close the launcher a couple times, that chances are excellent that a server that is not in the 54.217.220 pool will come up and they are good to go?

Yes, I know there is a % chance it'll work. I did nslookup 30 times and every one was in that range, I presume because they have low load and therefore I'm getting directed to them. I prefer, personally, to have a fix that works 100% rather than to open and close the launcher til it works.

Fatty_Liver · April 2014

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

If you are getting error 209, please try the following:
First, please ensure you are accessing the game via the launcher, not the .exe file.

Try closing out of the launcher and re-open it, then run a repair.

If you try to repair and it does not work, please delete all .version files in the game's sub folders and try repair again.

*Please note that if you do delete all .version files, the launcher may require you to re-download the game.

Edit: for clarification

redownload the game.........

damn it. I am having to do a lot of crap to play this game, such as turning off my firewall after trying just to allow eso access, which works fine for other games. I had to specify some router ports. I have to play with minimum settings even though my pc can run it on high. I understand hiccups, but if this is not fixed before my first month, i'm not paying more for a game I can't play.

Adryssa_Joneley · April 2014

Harkrider wrote: »

Leia_Skywalker wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

*Please note that if you do delete all .version files, the launcher may require you to re-download the game.

Edit: for clarification

Are you serious? You have any idea how long that would take me to download this on my connection? Surely, there has to be some error on your end maybe? And not ours?

48-72 hours for me.

Currently at 7%, after roughly 8 hours.

Please let us know if after doing all of this (re-downloading the game), that it has fixed your issue and you no longer need to 'Repair' the launcher. Just curious. I rather leave this to the absolute last resort.

GeneralCornwallace · April 2014

deleting all the .version files (there was only one) worked for me, but it also was working to just restart the client constantly, I don't know.

Elsonso · April 2014

Leia_Skywalker wrote: »

Please let us know if after doing all of this (re-downloading the game), that it has fixed your issue and you no longer need to 'Repair' the launcher. Just curious. I rather leave this to the absolute last resort.

At the moment, player research suggests that reinstalling the game to correct the INITIAL 209 errors is not helpful and just wastes time.

You can get yourself into the position where the Launcher says it needs to download the whole game again, and once you get to that point you may be stuck having to do just that. Most people will be reinstalling just to get back to the starting point, right where they were before they reinstalled.

I would definitely refrain from deleting or moving game files at this time. Repair will probably not hurt, but it also will not fix this.

Eventually, the ZOS staff will come in here and set things straight. You can follow the "retry until it works" or "edit the hosts file" workarounds and see if that works for you while we wait.

Harkrider · April 2014

Leia_Skywalker wrote: »

Harkrider wrote: »

Leia_Skywalker wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

*Please note that if you do delete all .version files, the launcher may require you to re-download the game.

Edit: for clarification

Are you serious? You have any idea how long that would take me to download this on my connection? Surely, there has to be some error on your end maybe? And not ours?

48-72 hours for me.

Currently at 7%, after roughly 8 hours.

Please let us know if after doing all of this (re-downloading the game), that it has fixed your issue and you no longer need to 'Repair' the launcher. Just curious. I rather leave this to the absolute last resort.

I'll try to remember to update you once my download is complete, although the earliest that will possibly be is tomorrow afternoon. $:\$

cookesj · April 2014

Editing host file worked for me. Google it.

pecheckler · April 2014

9 out of 10 times when I start the launcher it says repair, and clicking repair leads to another error. No repair or patching ever occurs. The other 1 out of 10 times I start the launcher I can click play.

Clearly not a client problem.

Rhoric · April 2014

I just did a reinstall myself cause of this error. It did not fix the error as it came back after opening and closing the launcher several times. The topic that was linked to about editing your host file works as I edited mine with a working IP from that topic which I had a hand in getting all the IPs for. Putting in a working IP got rid of the error 209 problem for me.

Goblynlord · April 2014

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

If you are getting error 209, please try the following:
First, please ensure you are accessing the game via the launcher, not the .exe file.

Try closing out of the launcher and re-open it, then run a repair.

If you try to repair and it does not work, please delete all .version files in the game's sub folders and try repair again.

*Please note that if you do delete all .version files, the launcher may require you to re-download the game.

Edit: for clarification

No offense but this seems to be working backwards for me. If I start the game from the launcher I tend to get the error.

Clicking repair worked the first time. It did its thing then let me in.

The next couple times after that (when I loaded the game), it popped up again. But the repair button was not working. Closing the launcher completely and restarting it eventually got me into the game. Apparently it doesn't always give me the error.

But here is the thing. Why I say its backwards. I can load the game directly from the exe just fine. Something about the launcher is messed up. The game itself loads fine if I skip it.

Darzil · April 2014

Yeah, this fixes it for most, not repairs and reinstalls : http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/80209/found-the-root-cause-of-many-login-issues-with-workaround/p1

brandon · April 2014

Zenimax you need to get your **** together I'm tired of waiting for you to help me get YOUR game to work you need to do some sort of emergency maintenance because I know I'm not the only one with these problems I understand that new games have issues but it is unacceptable to not bother helping the people who payed for YOUR game.

Aserak · April 2014

pecheckler wrote: »

9 out of 10 times when I start the launcher it says repair, and clicking repair leads to another error. No repair or patching ever occurs. The other 1 out of 10 times I start the launcher I can click play.

Clearly not a client problem.

Same. It is clearly an intermittent issue. Hopefully ZOS dev and SEs are reading these posts and can gain insight into the issue. Likely ACL or routing on their end if a certain set of IPs works and not the other set.
Running the repair does nothing but waste a few minutes of time.

Darzil · April 2014

Don't think it's routing or ACL, as you can telnet to all 10 on port 80 (which it appears to use for launcher comms).

My gut feeling is that they had 10 servers for launch, but now they are post launch only really need 5, told the hosting company for the patch servers (which probably aren't located with the servers for performance reasons), only patched 5, but the hosting company hasn't changed their load balancing yet.

BergisMacBride · April 2014

Darzil wrote: »

Try this : http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/80209/found-the-root-cause-of-many-login-issues-with-workaround/p1

^^THIS^^

Above is the best thread on this subject. It identifies the cause and suggests temporary workarounds. It is an IP address issue with the launcher. No need to mess with deleting and restoring version files, etc... Personally, I just reload the launcher until I hit a working IP address - usually takes about 30 seconds give or take. You can also just load the game directly from the executable file if you want, although when they patch you'll have to go back through the launcher to patch.