File Doesn't Exist on the Client - But Worse

[Necromancer]

I've done a fresh install of my game. He did a fresh install of his game. No mods are even active anymore, nothing is subscribed to. No files are different at all.
Yet, somehow, no matter what I do, every single time I host it says that they are missing the files that I had before.

See, as many may know, when creating a server, every person has to copy their maps client-side into their media folder in order for them to be able to access a server.
But now, I'm hosting client-side and not through a third-party server, and despite these files technically not being in existence in the media folder nor in my workshop subscriptions and this being a completely fresh install, it is still a problem.
Also, unchecking the Lua Checksum does not solve the problem. Instead, it just doesn't tell us that it is a problem and makes us refer to a different file to say the same thing.
I must be missing something. Any pointers?

[Beard]

"See, as many may know, when creating a server, every person has to copy their maps client-side into their media folder in order for them to be able to access a server."

Whoa where did you get that idea, do not do that, reinstall everything again without touching any of the game or server files, especially the media folder.

[Necromancer]

Well, unfortunately, any time we ever get any map from Workshop, we get an error that tells us that a "file doesn't exist on the client" when I am joined as the host, or a third-party server is joined as another example beyond me. It always specifies some files from the map mods, and the only actual solution that I found was placing the mod's media files into the client-side media folder. Found it on YouTube. We tried a lot and that was the only thing that bypassed it. This was initially a problem only for third-party servers, but it was also affecting my friends on the local server once that was gone.

I did in fact do that, and it doesn't matter. Something is retaining the changes even when I have no workshop mods at all, and I do a fresh install. I even did new server settings, to no avail. It creates the same errors for the same mods. Honestly no idea what's going on anymore.

[Beard]

If you have the same error without any mods then the issue is with the server files, likely because as you said you messed with them to try and connect to a dedicated server.
I would recommend a clean reinstall of your game files, server files and your friends server files.
First, uninstall the game, then go to "Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid" and make sure there are no leftover files or folders there.
Then just install the game again and see if that helps.

[Necromancer]

Ah I see. That's what I didn't do, forgot to go back and make sure it was all uninstalled, as the media folder was left over in the steam folders. Just took care of that and reinstalled.
That fixed my issue, thanks.