How to fix the game not loading when starting up post-Patch 7

[savage.valentine]

I've seen a lot of people encounter this problem, where either the game won't move past the very first loading screen or freezes at the main menu. I think I found the fix and decided I would post it in case it helps someone. I use Windows 11, so I don't know which files to go to on other OSs, but it may get you pointed in the right direction. I'm not a programmer or anything, but I'll do my best to describe what to do.

I think the freezing is caused by having pre-Patch 7 mods in your mod folders. Yes, I said *folders*. Baldur's Gate 3 actually has two files containing mods, which is what I think is causing confusion when people delete the files from the mod folder under steamapps and still have their game freeze. So here is what I did after I finished crying after uninstalling and reinstalling the game:

First I uninstalled my mod manager. I don't know if this is necessary, but it feels more complete. Then I went to my drive through windows key + E, and went to: Program Files x86, Steam, steamapps, common, Baldurs Gate 3, and Data. The first mods folder in under Data. delete everything in it.

Now to get to the second mod folder. This one is a little trickier because the folder containing it is usually hidden. The easiest way to find this folder is to hit windows key + E to open up file explorer. At the top will be a bar with the options New, Sort, and View. Click View, the last item on the list is "Show", and select "Hidden Items" from that list. Now go to Users and select the user. You should now be able to see the AppData folder. Click it, go to Local, Larian Studios, and Baldur's Gate 3. Voila! There's that second Mods folder! Delete everything in it. Scrub it clean.

Now, I forget which of the two locations it's in, but keep an eye out for Script Extender and remove that, too. Close all your folders and open the game. It should launch normally now and load properly.

Some final notes: if you have a lot of mods and are hoping there will be a workaround soon, you don't need to delete-delete them. Create a new folder on your desktop and dump everything in there, making sure you organize it so you know which mods go where. Like I said, I'm not a computer person, but this worked for me. My guess is that when the game tries to load after installing Patch 7, it still tries to load the old mods but can't, which causes the game to freeze the way it does. Actually, while writing this I retraced my steps and discovered that the new official mods are all placed in the Larian Studios mod folder, so MAYBE you only need to remove the mods from that folder to prevent a conflict with the new official mod manager. If someone is willing to experiment, let me know how it turns out.

[NicoGonnaGetYa]

THANK. YOU. SO. F*****G. MUCH.

All i did was move the mods i had from the steam folder to the larian folder and delete the info in the script extender folder and it worked straight away!

[savage.valentine]

You're welcome. And thank you for elaborating one doesn't need to wipe all their mods to play. As for me, I'm going to relax and enjoy the game with only a few UI mods from the new mod manager. Go for that au naturale experience.

[Doriguetto]

Thank you very much! I was deleting the mods folder inside steamapps and doing the file integrity check and it kept crashing on the loading screen. After deleting the Mods folder in AppData my game started working again. <3

[phrantixx]

I wish I had seen this before I totally deleted BG3's existence from my PC, all of my save files and everything else is gone. Commenting to boost this threat. Ur a savior to lots of people for sure.
I've seen a lot of people just being like "just restart your PC, just uninstall the mods" never in-depth real solutions like this.
THANK YOU!!!!

[Blackcor]

lets try this, hope it works for me too

[Hero_Weasel]

I cant launch the toolkit... wish there was a fix for that.

[Boost mobile]

Thanks, my problem is, with the new update it says a mod is preventing the main menu from loading, but I never had any mods. Before the new update I could never get the game to load beyond 93% to get to the main menu

[Doc Holiday]

had the same problem, following this guide fixed it for me https://wiki.bg3.community/Tutorials/Mod-Use/How-to-remove-mods

[festyelephant]

I love you and Doc Holiday, these steps + the guide saved my game T~T

[Doc Holiday]

Your welcome, have fun playing

[Zachalanche]

What I find perplexing is I have only been playing BG3 vanilla this whole time. Never used a mod. I follow guides telling me to delete mod settings files to no avail. Hoping someone finds a fix for vanilla users.

[Igamer124]

Originally posted by Zachalanche:

What I find perplexing is I have only been playing BG3 vanilla this whole time. Never used a mod. I follow guides telling me to delete mod settings files to no avail. Hoping someone finds a fix for vanilla users.

Same here. You're probably the first person I've seen also say they have no mods and this is happening.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Zachalanche:

What I find perplexing is I have only been playing BG3 vanilla this whole time. Never used a mod. I follow guides telling me to delete mod settings files to no avail. Hoping someone finds a fix for vanilla users.

Originally posted by Igamer124:

Originally posted by Zachalanche:

What I find perplexing is I have only been playing BG3 vanilla this whole time. Never used a mod. I follow guides telling me to delete mod settings files to no avail. Hoping someone finds a fix for vanilla users.

Same here. You're probably the first person I've seen also say they have no mods and this is happening.

No one is having the issue who has never had mod installed and followed the game update routine. You did follow the game update routine, right?

[TheMammothKing]

you saint, i literally tried everything but this did it for me, I deleted the whole mods folder itself

[Biggums]

thanks a billion, I could not have figured this out on my own