Mod Missing Descriptor File

[bekirtufan]

Whenever I download a mod, from steam workshop or from Paradox website, the mods just work without a problem however, once I restart the game mods start not working and giving the ''Mod Descriptor File Missing'' error, I get this error on HOI4 and EU4, I also tried the clean reinstallation of the games at least 3 times now, I tried seperately deleting and reinstalling the launchers of the games, I have tried almost everything that can be found online but nothing has worked

PS: I played hoi4 for 800 hours and it functioned perfectly fine with a couple of mod errors here and there which could be solved by clean reinstallation of the mods, same goes for EU4, I have played it for 300 hours and this problem started occuring only lately, it was fine when i first bought it for 150 200 hours or so. I think this could be related to one of the latest launcher updates but I am not so sure.

If anyone has had this problem before and solved it I really appreciate it if you can share how you solved it.

 

[AndrewT]

What version of our launcher do you see? Current is 2021.6

 

[bekirtufan]

It says 2021.06 on the bottom left corner

 

[AndrewT]

That should be okay then. Please try the following:


- unsubscribe from all mods
- delete the folder Documents/Paradox Interactive/eu4/mod/
- delete the file Documents/Paradox Interactive/eu4/mods_registry.json (if present)
- delete the file Documents/Paradox Interactive/eu4/launcher-v2.sqlite

Add eu4.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list. You should add steam.exe and C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2.2021.6/paradox launcher.exe to that list.

- subscribe to a few mods
- run the game up and see if those mods are now available to you.

I hope that does it for you!

 

[bekirtufan]

I unsubscribed from all the mods and deleted the files/folders you asked me to delete, I have also added eu4, steam and the paradox launcher to the exception list for both windows defender and ransomware exception list. Still, when i downloaded a mod, it functioned fine however when i turned the game off and on the mod was ''Missing the descriptor file'' again.

 

[grotaclas]

Does the launcher create a ugc_XXXXXX.mod file in Documents/Paradox Interactive/eu4/mod/ when you start the launcher after subscribing to a new mod from the steam workshop? The XXXXXX is the steam id of the mod (e.g. 217416366 for the extended timeline mod). And if that file gets created, does it disappear at some point(please check after starting the game, after exiting the game, after starting the launcher again)?
Is your Documents folder maybe in non-default location or managed by a cloud syncing software like Microsoft OneDrive?

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

 

[bekirtufan]

I installed a mod, checked if there was a ugc file created in the Documents/ParadoxInteractive/eu4/mod and there was a ugc file, I closed the game turned the launcher back on and sure enough, the mod was ''Missing the descriptor file'' again, however, the file in the documents was still present, it was not deleted or anything, I am not really sure about the last thing you suggested though, I never changed my documents files location ever since i bought my laptop and I have never used Microsoft OneDrive or anything similar to that so I am sure the documents file are in their native location and I am not using any cloud syncing software. Thanks for your reply though I appreciate it

 

[grotaclas]

Does the ugc_XXXXXX.mod file have a line which starts with "path="? That should contain the folder in which steam downloaded the mod. Is the mod in that folder? And does that folder contain a file called descriptor.mod? If not, is that file there when you subscribe to a new mod and does it disappear at some point?

BTW: Did you try to unsubscribe from all mods and then only subscribe to one well known mod like Extended Timeline which works for everybody else(don't use the paradox mods website for this test, because many mods there are broken and unofficial). Maybe something is wrong with one of the mods to which you are subscribed. In old launcher versions one broken mod could prevent all other mods from working, but I have not seen that problem in a long time, so I think it was fixed.

 

[bekirtufan]

I checked the ugc file and with the notepad and it does contain a code line path="D:/Steam/steamapps/workshop/content/236850/253263609" like so, which is the correct location for my steam mod files and when i checked the actual folder, there was a descriptor file literally just named descriptor in the form of a ''MOD file'' the folder has the thumbnail picture file and everything that there should be, the mod im talking about right now is one of the most downloaded mods in steam workshop now, namely the ''Graphical Map Improvements'' mod, ever since I started trying to solve this problem I installed a lot of well known mods in the case that my particular mods were broken, I experienced the same problem with all of them, I think this problem will ultimately be solved by a full clean installation of windows which is something that I can't do right know, Its crazy how broken a game released in 2013 still can be, its almost unbelievable.

 

[grotaclas]

Did you try to unsubscribe from all mods and do the other things which AndrewT suggested and then only subscribe to Graphical Map improvements?

Some users on reddit had a similar problem and for them it helped to create a new local mod in the launcher and copy all files from the steam workshop folder into the folder of the local mod. You should unsubscribe from the steam version of the mod afterwards, because eu4 has problems if there are two versions of the same mod(then only one of them works).

 

[bekirtufan]

Yes, whenever I try a new fix about this problem, I always cleanly delete all the mod files after unsubscribing from them, I delete the mod files in the documents and in the steam workshop folder, then I resubscribe to the mods and like I've said before, whenever I do this, all the mods work perfectly fine for 1 time and when I close the game and turn it back on, I get the error, I am trying to understand what may be causing the launcher to start not seeing the descriptor file after a single reboot, maybe the launcher somehow expects the descriptor file to be moved to somewhere else after the first reboot after the installation of the mod? I really can't get my head around this


I actually never tried creating a local mod because I never understood how exactly to do it, another thing is that, if I create a new file for the mods i want to use, would I have to do the same thing every single time I download a new mod? If you can explain how exactly I can create a local mod file I will try it even if I have to do it for every single mod I subscribe to, at least then I can use mods.

 

[grotaclas]

I always cleanly delete all the mod files after unsubscribing from them, I delete the mod files in the documents and in the steam workshop folder,

Did you also delete "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/launcher-v2.sqlite", and "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/mods_registry.json" (that one probably doesn't exist, because it is from old launcher versions)? Maybe deleting "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/dlc_load.json" also helps(this file tells the game which mods and DLCs are activate)

While writing the rest of this comment, I noticed the "RELOAD ALL INSTALLED MODS" button in the "All installed mods" section of the launcher. I don't know what exactly it does, but you could try if it helps.

if I create a new file for the mods i want to use, would I have to do the same thing every single time I download a new mod?

You would need one new local mod for each workshop mod which you want to use.

If you can explain how exactly I can create a local mod file I will try it even if I have to do it for every single mod I subscribe to, at least then I can use mods.

One way would be to use the download versions of the mods which some mod authors provide(especially in the user mods forum).

Or you can create your own local mod by going to "All installed mods" in the launcher, clicking on "MOD TOOLS"->"CREATE A MOD"->fill out the information->"CREATE MOD". The launcher creates the folder which you specified in "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/mod". Then you can exit the launcher and copy the files from the steam workshop folder of the mod to the folder which the launcher created (overwrite the generated descriptor.mod). When you open the launcher again, it should pick up the information from the changed descriptor.mod

 

[bekirtufan]

Firstly, I deleted "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/launcher-v2.sqlite" and "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/mods_registry.json" didn't exist I tried deleting the dlc json file and it unfortunately made no difference, I tried creating a local mod folder however the launcher never really detected them, first I tried downloading the files of graphical map mod and I loaded the files directly into "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/mod". by unzipping the zip file inside the folder, than I tried to create a local mod folder for the mod I downloaded from the Internet and it never recognized the newly created local mod file, than I thought i needed a workshop mod so I downloaded the Steallaris UI mod, I decided to give it a go the normal way and sure enough it broke as I expected after the first reboot, anyway, I took the files from the steam workshop folder "D:/Steam/steamapps/workshop/content/236850/" and pasted them into the new local mod folder which I created in "Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/mod". yet the launcher never recognised the newly created mod folders even though I restarted the game severeal times in the case that It wasnt loading the newly added files yet nothing worked, It unfortunately never recognised the newly created local mod files.

 

[grotaclas]

Do I understand you correctly that the local mod which you created in the launcher doesn't even show up in the "All installed mods" list in the launcher? That's really weird.
Do you use any antivirus or ransomware protection software? Then you might have to add the launcher to the exception list of the ransomware protection component.

• If you have Windows Defender(also called Microsoft Defender), add the launcher and eu4 to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list(here are instructions for that).
• If you have bitdefender, add the launcher and eu4 to the list of ransomware exceptions and "give it access" to "protected files".
• If you have avast, you have to add the launcher and eu4 to the allowed list in the ransomware shield

You can also try a clean reinstall as described in my guide on reddit about common startup problems with version 1.29, but do the following additional steps at the beginning:

1. unsubscribe from all paradox mods in the launcher
2. go to https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/subscriptions, log in with the paradox account which you use for the game and make sure that you are not subscribed to any eu4 mod there. If there are any mods or playsets left there, remove them
3. go to the eu4 workshop in steam and click on "Browse"->"Subscribed Items" and unsubscribe from all there. Then reload that page and make sure the list is empty
4. go to "D:/Steam/steamapps/workshop/content/236850" and make sure that it is completely empty. If it is not empty, check in steam again if the mods are somehow listed there

 

[bekirtufan]

Yes, you understood correctly, when I go to the Mods tab on the Eu4 launcher click on Mod Tools and click on Create a Mod and fill the information out, it does create a mod file in the respective mod folder with the name I gave to it however it does not show up on the mods list on the launcher even when I restart the computer/launcher in case it did not load the new created mod file.

I do not use any anti-virus software, I have been using computers ever since I was a kid and have never used a single anti-virus program, even the Windows Defender is practically shut off, when I checked the Ransomware protection tab of the Windows Defender even that was turned off (by default I guess?) even then, I tried turning it on and adding Eu4 and Steam on the list of trusted apps, that did not solve the issue as well.

Like I have said at the beginning, I cleanly reinstalled the game at least 5 times now, every single time i unsubscribed from all the mods on steam workshop exactly the way you described in your latest answer, I manually deleted all the mod and eu4 related files everywhere on my computer namely; the files in steam/steamapps/common/Eu4, steam/steamapps/workshop/236850, Documents,ParadoxInteractive,Eu4, even the launcher files in UserName/AppData/Roaming/ParadoxInteractive and UserName/AppData/Roaming/paradox-launcher-v2.

I never used the Paradox website to subscribe to a mod before until I started this thread so unsubscribing from the mods there(which is none) would not change anything since there was never any mods subscribed from Paradox website.

I do not know if there could be more eu4 related files in a computer so, this one time I even try downloading the game in my other disc, I usually keep my games in my HDD D// disc but when I was constantly clean reinstalling the game, this one time I even tried downloading the game to my SSD :C// disc by creating a steam file in the disc in case that would help me, unfortunately, it did not.

I almost literally tried everything that can be found online with a google search of ''Eu4 missing mod descriptor file'' or ''Eu4 mods start missing descriptor file after restart'', I mean there are not that many things to be found with a search like this because I am pretty sure I am the only person experiencing this but I tried every solution people have used to having their mods missing descriptor files in different situations.

Funnily enough when I was trying to fix my problem, I even found the reddit post you made about clean reinstallations, and whenever I cleanly reinstalled the game I followed the steps you wrote there.

I also should add, I bought Hoi4 way before I bought Eu4 and when I first bought Hoi4 it had a similar problem, it would say ''Missing Descriptor File'' to some mods when I first installed them but in time I fixed the problems with most mods by clean reinstalling them by unsubscribing and deleting the mod files in both steam folder and the documents folder then resubscribing to them which also fixes the problem I have with Eu4 right now, like I said the mods start giving the error after I reboot the game for 1 time so if I clean reinstall the mod like i described before they work again, as long as I do not restart the game. Unlike Eu4 though, when I used this fix for Hoi4 it worked after 1 clean reinstallation of the mod and never created a problem ever again, I used mods for hundreds of hours, when I bought Eu4, Hoi4 started doing the exact same thing Eu4 is doing right now which is understandable because they share the same launcher(?) I have not tried this with Steallaris yet but I can bet that I will experience the same exact thing with any Paradox game since they all share the same launcher(?) I do not think this is a problem with Eu4 I think this is a problem with the launcher.

 

[Dextr1ex]

Yes, you understood correctly, when I go to the Mods tab on the Eu4 launcher click on Mod Tools and click on Create a Mod and fill the information out, it does create a mod file in the respective mod folder with the name I gave to it however it does not show up on the mods list on the launcher even when I restart the computer/launcher in case it did not load the new created mod file.

I do not use any anti-virus software, I have been using computers ever since I was a kid and have never used a single anti-virus program, even the Windows Defender is practically shut off, when I checked the Ransomware protection tab of the Windows Defender even that was turned off (by default I guess?) even then, I tried turning it on and adding Eu4 and Steam on the list of trusted apps, that did not solve the issue as well.

Like I have said at the beginning, I cleanly reinstalled the game at least 5 times now, every single time i unsubscribed from all the mods on steam workshop exactly the way you described in your latest answer, I manually deleted all the mod and eu4 related files everywhere on my computer namely; the files in steam/steamapps/common/Eu4, steam/steamapps/workshop/236850, Documents,ParadoxInteractive,Eu4, even the launcher files in UserName/AppData/Roaming/ParadoxInteractive and UserName/AppData/Roaming/paradox-launcher-v2.

I never used the Paradox website to subscribe to a mod before until I started this thread so unsubscribing from the mods there(which is none) would not change anything since there was never any mods subscribed from Paradox website.

I do not know if there could be more eu4 related files in a computer so, this one time I even try downloading the game in my other disc, I usually keep my games in my HDD D// disc but when I was constantly clean reinstalling the game, this one time I even tried downloading the game to my SSD :C// disc by creating a steam file in the disc in case that would help me, unfortunately, it did not.

I almost literally tried everything that can be found online with a google search of ''Eu4 missing mod descriptor file'' or ''Eu4 mods start missing descriptor file after restart'', I mean there are not that many things to be found with a search like this because I am pretty sure I am the only person experiencing this but I tried every solution people have used to having their mods missing descriptor files in different situations.

Funnily enough when I was trying to fix my problem, I even found the reddit post you made about clean reinstallations, and whenever I cleanly reinstalled the game I followed the steps you wrote there.

I also should add, I bought Hoi4 way before I bought Eu4 and when I first bought Hoi4 it had a similar problem, it would say ''Missing Descriptor File'' to some mods when I first installed them but in time I fixed the problems with most mods by clean reinstalling them by unsubscribing and deleting the mod files in both steam folder and the documents folder then resubscribing to them which also fixes the problem I have with Eu4 right now, like I said the mods start giving the error after I reboot the game for 1 time so if I clean reinstall the mod like i described before they work again, as long as I do not restart the game. Unlike Eu4 though, when I used this fix for Hoi4 it worked after 1 clean reinstallation of the mod and never created a problem ever again, I used mods for hundreds of hours, when I bought Eu4, Hoi4 started doing the exact same thing Eu4 is doing right now which is understandable because they share the same launcher(?) I have not tried this with Steallaris yet but I can bet that I will experience the same exact thing with any Paradox game since they all share the same launcher(?) I do not think this is a problem with Eu4 I think this is a problem with the launcher.

Dİd you find a solution? I have THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM.

 

[bekirtufan]

Dİd you find a solution? I have THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM.

Unfortunately not, I came to the forums after trying literally everything I could think of and find on the internet except for completely deleting windows and reinstalling it, which I think is at this point the only thing that can solve this issue and I have not and probably will not try that just for HOI4 and EU4 mods.

 

[Dextr1ex]

Unfortunately not, I came to the forums after trying literally everything I could think of and find on the internet except for completely deleting windows and reinstalling it, which I think is at this point the only thing that can solve this issue and I have not and probably will not try that just for HOI4 and EU4 mods.

First are you Turkish? Because I am too and maybe there is something wrong in Turkic localization.

Second does your computer has 1 or more hard drives? My D: drive got corrupted so right now I only have C: drive and maybe it's because game is trying to do something with the D drive which doesn't exist.

The bad thing is I am alright with re-downloading mods but I am trying to make small mods for me and my friends to play(I usually edit save files and use console to spice up the map but you can't edit in things like new formable nations or focus trees).

 

[bekirtufan]

First are you Turkish? Because I am too and maybe there is something wrong in Turkic localization.

Second does your computer has 1 or more hard drives? My D: drive got corrupted so right now I only have C: drive and maybe it's because game is trying to do something with the D drive which doesn't exist.

The bad thing is I am alright with re-downloading mods but I am trying to make small mods for me and my friends to play(I usually edit save files and use console to spice up the map but you can't edit in things like new formable nations or focus trees).

I am Turkish however the localization files should not be the problem with every single mod that people make on the steam workshop because there are Turkish mod developers whose mods I have used and experienced the exact same problems. I think problem may also be caused by having the game downloaded into a secondary drive, in my case I have C and D drives C is a low capacity SSD where windows is loaded and D is an HDD where I keep my games for the obvious reason. If I had this problem when the game was loaded on the D drive I would think that the game can not access the mod files in the Documents which is in the drive where the Windows files are so the SSD for me. However before I started having these problems the game was already moved to the C drive because I thought it would make it load faster, at first I thought it was caused because I had moved the game to the C drive from D drive where my actual steam files are located(I installed steam in the D drive so that I could load games there) so when I first bought it it was in D with no problems then I moved HOI4 and EU4 over to C to make them load faster, there was no problems for quite some time, then this problem started happening out of nowhere so I moved the games back to D drive after deleting everything related to steam from C but the problem kept happening, my guess is that Paradox Launcher was programmed so bad to the point where it gets broken beyond repair whenever you move the game files around in your computer because I have also read that moving the game where the windows files and therefore the documents are located fixes this issue although it has not fixed my game when I moved the files back to C. I am guessing that something broke when I moved the game files around earlier that is why the only thing that can solve my problem is to do a clean windows reinstallation.

 

[Dextr1ex]

my guess is that Paradox Launcher was programmed so bad to the point where it gets broken beyond repair whenever you move the game files around in your computer because I have also read that moving the game where the windows files and therefore the documents are located fixes this issue although it has not fixed my game when I moved the files back to C. I am guessing that something broke when I moved the game files around earlier that is why the only thing that can solve my problem is to do a clean windows reinstallation.

Yep, my thoughts exactly :/