Stuck in launcher's autoupdate loop

corsair · May 17

Since Wednesday (it's Friday morning here right now), the STO launcher (started with Star Trek Online.exe, not the Arc launcher) has been stuck in its autoupdate phase (note, the small window that pops up BEFORE the launcher proper does).

The "remaining" count starts at about 116MB and slowly counts down to about 52MB, before popping up a "Tried connecting x times" (where x has been one of several different numbers). Then, it starts counting down again from the original ~116MB value.

I've done traceroutes and pings and can successfully connect my games machine to several Cryptic servers (including patchserver.crypticstudios.com).

What's really weird is that during the attempted downloads nothing (except localdata/_SWMWindowPosList.txt is recreated) is being written to disk; not in STO's install directory, nor in my AppData directories, nor even in Windows/Temp or my own personal Temp directory.

Having seen this problem reported in the past, I left it running all through the night last night hoping what's worked for some folks would work for me this time. Nope. Same problem ... woke this morning to find it in the same loop.

I tried downloading an old launcher (from Cryptic's site) and running that. It updated itself once (quite a small update) then started again; repeating the problem I have with the "original" launcher.

Seriously frustrating. Does anybody have any suggestions?

thashayer · May 17

This doesnt help your problem, but mine gets past that mini startup window but hangs up at the "cryptic" window as the game is starting. This is only happening since the update on Thursday.
Maybe somehow related? I tried starting frm the cryptic launcher and the .exe and it still hangs.

corsair · May 17

Soooo...I bit the bullet, uninstalled and started to reinstall. Guess what...

Yep, the launcher tries to update itself (about the same numbers as before - ~116MB down to about 52MB) and then it loops around again.

I wish Cryptic would simply provide a download link to the latest launcher so we can download it ourselves and copy it into place.

halfmoon10 · May 24

Same here after trying to reinstalling game again after the last patch which seems to have scewed up everything from my end.. Now stuck in Cryptic auotupdater launcher loop since 7:pm last night and now 2:15 am next day Saturday 25th still stuck. Tried Ark and tried Steam but same deal. Everything was working just fine up until last patch, so whats going on ??

halfmoon10 · May 24

Well finally at 2:25am the game is now patching through, but fingers crossed it works this time and can get from character selection to in-game without being timed out of server over and over in between?

halfmoon10 · May 24

Update:And now at 3am I got faliure to patch error 46 whatever that is?? No game no dice still !!!

halfmoon10 · May 24

Fianally at 3:50am got patched through on Steam platform and game seems fine again!

asches1 · August 26

Sorry for being rude, but: This is unbelievable: it's 2024 and I am trying to re-install STO because of rubber banding and constant timing out on server. This is not a problem on my end! I can't install it, because the Autolauncher is stuck in an update loop. As ALWAYS! FIX IT ALREADY!!! At 50% it reconnects and starts the update from scratch. This is ridiculous!!!

asches1 · August 29

asches1 wrote: »

Sorry for being rude, but: This is unbelievable: it's 2024 and I am trying to re-install STO because of rubber banding and constant timing out on server. This is not a problem on my end! I can't install it, because the Autolauncher is stuck in an update loop. As ALWAYS! FIX IT ALREADY!!! At 50% it reconnects and starts the update from scratch. This is ridiculous!!!

UPDATE: STO killed my windows 10. I had to reinstall my whole system because of STO. I did, now the download worked, but the game crashes after character select. It loads and then I get a black screen... No words, Cryptic. No words...

maddoglong999 · August 31

I need help from Arc or Cryptic. I have made a new account. But I cannot 2 Step authenticate because
I created a new gmail account 1 digit different from my last arc/gmail login account. And google thinks
my email I created with them is a bot.. I cannot get google to fix the email account so I can use it.

I would like to spend some REAL CASH on this newest account. Can Someone please help me move the account (maddoglong998@gmail) to a new email address login for Star Trek Online to say (maddoglong@hotmail.com).....?

Please, Sincerely,
Jim Long

xyquarze · November 8

I have the same problem as OP. The "Cryptic Launcher Autoupdate" is stuck in a loop since yesterday. It has probably nothing to do with the update, since I was able to play directly after relaunch, but then later that day it happened. Since this forum and reddit have offered quite an extensive list of things to try, I did all of the following:

- Loading through Steam, Arc, or direct game file
- Disabling any firewall/viruscheck
- Connection via mobile phone hotspot/USB-tethering
- uninstalling and reinstalling the game
- just waited a couple of hours whether the loop ended

However to no effect. Any other advice? My captains need me.

terrh666 · November 8

I am both elated and not, that I am not the only one with this problem. Started yesterday and I am stuck on the loop whole day. And it happens quite often too and coincides with the updates. The problem has been there since 2010, I would say someone could finally resolve it.
Or at least give us a possibility to manually downaload and apply the patch.

wylan · November 9

xyquarze wrote: »

I have the same problem as OP. The "Cryptic Launcher Autoupdate" is stuck in a loop since yesterday. It has probably nothing to do with the update, since I was able to play directly after relaunch, but then later that day it happened. Since this forum and reddit have offered quite an extensive list of things to try, I did all of the following:

- Loading through Steam, Arc, or direct game file
- Disabling any firewall/viruscheck
- Connection via mobile phone hotspot/USB-tethering
- uninstalling and reinstalling the game
- just waited a couple of hours whether the loop ended

However to no effect. Any other advice? My captains need me.

The last time this happened to me and a lot of others, someone suggested to just wait several hours until it finally comes to its senses and finishes the update. It eventually worked then. Today, well, about 6 hours in now, it was going and going first and then threw a "connection lost" error, then started over the launcher autoupdate and still just looping and looping. This is why 35% ship bundle sales are worthless, you don't even get to log in while the sale is on.

captainjurgen83 · November 9

I've had this problem for two days. I could not eliminate the error.

michaelsdst · November 9

I have the same problem. Can not start the game, the autoupdater begins download and looses connection again and again. My problem also started 2 day ago.

Tried to reinstall Steam and Arc problem remains. Port is open to patch server.

corluna · November 9

Same problem here, since yesterday. Launcher loops downloading something from 113mb very very slowly and stopping at around 50, then starting again, never getting to the actual launcher window. Did try to start it directly (as i do usually), through Arc, Steam, reinstalled, nothing helps.

Your launcher is broken, please fix that.

araghast1989 · November 9

Same problem here, can't login. Launcher loops downloading and starts over and over again. Can't do the red alert nothing ... this sucks.

Unknown · November 9

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xyquarze · November 9

wylan#9758 wrote: »

The last time this happened to me and a lot of others, someone suggested to just wait several hours until it finally comes to its senses and finishes the update. It eventually worked then. Today, well, about 6 hours in now, it was going and going first and then threw a "connection lost" error, then started over the launcher autoupdate and still just looping and looping. This is why 35% ship bundle sales are worthless, you don't even get to log in while the sale is on.

Yeah, I am at roughly 36 hours of permanent "auto update" in the hope that it will go away. But apart from two connection time outs nothing has changed.

As for the MB values displayed, I get different ones, 118.8 at start and it goes (agonizingly slowly) down to around 40 before it loops.

wylan · November 9

Okay, SOLUTION HERE:

Use any VPN to get a random IP address temporarily for the time needed to do the launcher update. (Not going to recommend any software here because I guess that would be against the rules.) Once you're connected to any address, start the STO launcher from Arc, Steam or from GameClient.exe as you normally would. It will be a bit slower than usual, but it will at least do the update and the launcher will start. If it still doesn't work, make sure you didn't get connected to an IP address from Germany for example (since Telekom is one of the providers whose network has this issue connecting to Cryptic servers). So this might need a few tries but for me this worked on first try.

Now once the launcher is running, wait until it does the patch as well, and when it's done, you can disconnect from the VPN if you otherwise don't have connection issues. If you do, either keep the VPN on or use the US proxy setting in the Launcher's Options menu. That will stop the account server connection, SNR, rubberbanding issues ingame.

I should have thought about the VPN yesterday but I was too busy, so it took one day to come up with the solution. I hope this will help you too.

xyquarze · November 9

wylan#9758 wrote: »

Okay, SOLUTION HERE:

Use any VPN to get a random IP address temporarily for the time needed to do the launcher update. (Not going to recommend any software here because I guess that would be against the rules.) Once you're connected to any address, start the STO launcher from Arc, Steam or from GameClient.exe as you normally would. It will be a bit slower than usual, but it will at least do the update and the launcher will start. If it still doesn't work, make sure you didn't get connected to an IP address from Germany for example (since Telekom is one of the providers whose network has this issue connecting to Cryptic servers). So this might need a few tries but for me this worked on first try.

Now once the launcher is running, wait until it does the patch as well, and when it's done, you can disconnect from the VPN if you otherwise don't have connection issues. If you do, either keep the VPN on or use the US proxy setting in the Launcher's Options menu. That will stop the account server connection, SNR, rubberbanding issues ingame.

I should have thought about the VPN yesterday but I was too busy, so it took one day to come up with the solution. I hope this will help you too.

Goodness me, thanks man. It did work - even if still agonizingly slow. I should have had that idea myself, since I know about the Telekom problem connecting to this one node in Boston.

wylan · November 9

xyquarze wrote: »

Goodness me, thanks man. It did work - even if still agonizingly slow. I should have had that idea myself, since I know about the Telekom problem connecting to this one node in Boston.

You're welcome, glad it did the trick! At least we got a way around this thing, for now.

Unknown · November 9

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captainjurgen83 · November 10

it's really the VPN that's at fault, it's resolved. wylan Thanks for the idea. STO online!

tomlalo · November 13

I´m a Telekom-customer in germany and I have this problem. I updated via smartphone-hotspot, that worked, but on my normal LAN (powered by the telekom-connecton) the game is slow as hell. What problem do they have and how can we solve it? Most of the internet-connection in germany are powered by telekom.

Stuck in launcher's autoupdate loop

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