game freezing on loading screen

[DetroitRex]

upon launching the game, it's freezing on a loading screen, prior to the main menu. It gets as far as the "loading databases" message across the top of the screen, but no further.

I hadn't booted up the game in a month or two, and now suddenly, this. uninstall/reinstall didn't help.

Any ideas?

 

[grotaclas]

Do you see a hint in the green box at the bottom? When it gets this far, the problem is usually a broken mod or a broken installation. Does the game start if you disable all mods?

Disclaimer: I'm not working for Paradox. I'm just trying to help people.

 

[DetroitRex]

Do you see a hint in the green box at the bottom? When it gets this far, the problem is usually a broken mod or a broken installation. Does the game start if you disable all mods?

Disclaimer: I'm not working for Paradox. I'm just trying to help people.

1. yes, there is a hint
2. all mods have been disabled/deleted/unsubbed. the launcher shows no mods. I went into documents/paradox/eu4 and cleared out the mod folder.

Still the same issue.

 

[grotaclas]

The easiest thing that you can do is to verify the integrity of game files.
If that does't help, you can do a clean reinstall:

1. find out where steam installed eu4 (go into the steam library, right click on eu4->manage->browse local files). Remember that folder for 5.
2. unsubscribe from all mods in steam
3. uninstall eu4 from steam
4. exit steam
5. make sure that the folder where eu4 was installed (the one you remembered from 1.) doesn't exist anymore. If it still exists, delete it with all its contents
6. delete the folder "steamapps\workshop\content\236850" with all its contents. Per default it is in "C:\Program Files\Steam" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam" under windows. Under Linux it is in ~/.steam/steam/ or ~/.local/share/Steam. In macOS it is in "~/Library/Application Support/Steam/"
7. move/rename the folder "Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV". This folder is in your Documents folder in Windows and macOS and in ~/.local/share/ in Linux. You can also delete that folder, but it contains your save games, screenshot and locally created mods, which you may want to keep.
8. start steam and download eu4 again
9. verify the integrity of game files
10. start eu4 from steam without subscribing to any mods

Does that help?

 

[DetroitRex]

OK, so problem solved!

If anyone else runs into a similar problem, here's what finally did the trick.

First off, thank you so much Grotaclas. I followed the reddit link in your sig and tried everything there and eventually something worked. Between the last unsuccessful boot and this latest, successful one, in addition to everything I had tried previously:

1. delete the folder Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\launcher-cache
2. delete the file Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\mods_registry.json
3. added an exception for the eu4 folder to bitdefender.

 

[FoivosPan]

OK, so problem solved!

If anyone else runs into a similar problem, here's what finally did the trick.

First off, thank you so much Grotaclas. I followed the reddit link in your sig and tried everything there and eventually something worked. Between the last unsuccessful boot and this latest, successful one, in addition to everything I had tried previously:

1. delete the folder Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\launcher-cache
2. delete the file Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\mods_registry.json
3. added an exception for the eu4 folder to bitdefender.

Got the same issue in 2022.
Your solution worked like a charm!
Thank you mate!