Cant play with my friend

[dOLLi]

Hello guys, we`ve played with my friend and all was ok. But today we cant connect, i cant see server id, when my friend give me id i see id is incorrect. And we cant invite each other. What should we do?

[Ambreon]

If you have been able to connect in the past, this suggests that you (or your friends) internet connection, or network reliability may be unstable - else the connection may need kicking back into service, in this case please try the tip included below: - Start a new game and invite everyone, if that connects then all exit to the main menu and load up your save. Try to invite everyone again.

If you are still unable to connect to a session, please both try the following:
- Check that your antivirus software or Windows Defender isn't blocking the connection, try whitelisting Ranch Simulator.
To do this on Windows Defender:
> In the search bar, search for windows firewall (you want to find 'Allow apps to communicate through Windows Defender Firewall')
> Select 'change settings' (you may need to provide administrator details to access this)
> Scroll down to where you find Ranch Simulator / and tick the boxes for Private and Public
> Press OK at the bottom of the page

- Ensure that you are running Steam and Ranch Simulator in Admin mode. To do this:

- Right-click on the Steam icon on your desktop
or Navigate to your Steam folder and right-click Steam.exe
- Select Properties
- Click on the Compatibility tab
- Check Run This Program As An Administrator
- Click the Apply button
- Click the OK button

Then navigate to the installation area for the game.
The easiest way of doing this is to:

- Open steam and go to your library
- right click on Ranch Simulator and go to properties
- Click on the local files tab and then browse
- Once here you want to go Ranch_Simulator\Binaries\Win64
- Right click on the file Ranch_Simulator-Win64-Shipping.exe and also set this to run as administrator.

If that doesn't work:
- Check that you are both on the same version number, and your PC date and time is accurate for the time zone you have selected
- Start a new game and invite everyone, if that connects then all exit to the main menu and load up your save. Try to invite everyone again
- Swap who is hosting the session and see if you can connect that way
- Check that your PC and GPU is all up to date, and you have nothing else using your network bandwidth that could slow it down. If you have an unstable connection, unfortunately the only thing you can do is to keep trying to re-connect - there may be an underlying issue with your router/DNS or network provider/ just having a weak or unstable connection in general. You can run a ping test here: https://www.netmeter.co.uk/ping-test/ and send me a screenshot of your graph and results to analyse.

[dOLLi]

I`ve been do all of this and it is still not working

[Chairic]

Yeah me and my friend had the same issue. It worked fine on the first day we played together, and now it's broken no matter what we do. We're actually on a LAN connection too, as we live together. Even the Session ID at the top left wont actually show even when clicking on the eye icon.

[Ambreon]

Originally posted by Chairic:

Yeah me and my friend had the same issue. It worked fine on the first day we played together, and now it's broken no matter what we do. We're actually on a LAN connection too, as we live together. Even the Session ID at the top left wont actually show even when clicking on the eye icon.

If the ID at the top left doesn't appear, then that shows your PC isn't establishing a connection with the backend services, usually caused by the firewall blocking it or your router blocking it. Overwriting firewall settings, or running it in admin should fix this though.

Please email us and we'll go through all the steps with you and see what the issue might be:

Could you please email a dxdiag report to [e-mail]
To create a DxDiag report, do the following
- Press the windows key + R on your keyboard to open the run console
- Type dxdiag and click ok to open the direct x diagnostic tool
- Once this has opened, click on "save all information" to save a dxdiag report

[bookkeeperianmanley]

I have been playing Ranch Simulator with my daughter for over 40 hours and we played on multiplayer on steam. Since the last update we can no longer connect and play together. This makes me suspicious that the problem could be somewhere in the last update as the evidence seems to suggest this.

[Chairic]

Sorry I lost this thread, but we actually did get it to work finally. The only thing I can think of that fixed it for us would either be run it like admin like they suggest, (but make sure you BOTH do the admin fix), or even if you're playing on steam, make sure to link your epic account when it asks you. I have no idea why that would matter considering me and my girlfriend are both playing on steam, and on the same network at our apartment.

Then it got even more roundabout, she wasn't able to connect to me via an invite through steam, or by the invite code provided in the game. The invite system inside Ranch Sim just flat out doesn't work for either of us, it's always an empty friend list with nobody to invite. But when I tried to connect to her using the invite code it finally worked....And that was the ONLY way we could ever connect to one another.

[ICEWOLF]

Still not fixed. We have again the same problem. Please fix that issue ...

[Ambreon]

Originally posted by bookkeeperianmanley:

I have been playing Ranch Simulator with my daughter for over 40 hours and we played on multiplayer on steam. Since the last update we can no longer connect and play together. This makes me suspicious that the problem could be somewhere in the last update as the evidence seems to suggest this.

Originally posted by ICEWOLF:

Still not fixed. We have again the same problem. Please fix that issue ...

Unfortunately not something that can be fixed in the game - it works for all our other players. If the tips above don't work then email us and we may have to check some of your files: [e-mail]

[JJuster]

I have the true fix for this.

you need to run EpicOnlineServicesInstaller.exe in the game directory before launching the game
For some reason the game worked fine the first time without this installed and this was needed later

[A.K.A. Lazarus]

@Ambreon,
my friend and I played 8 hours yesterday with only 1 disconnect where we were able to join back up with no issues. Today, we are unable to join and have tried all the proposed fixes for joining each other's ranch and haven't been able to see a session ID nor friends to invite through the in-game "invite friend" option. We have both gone through our firewall options, we have tried other people's suggestions (@JJuster), and we even tried creating a new session hoping to see a session ID but nothing is working. Can you please get a hotfix out for this issue? There is no way this is a local problem when many people have this same issue.

[Zijay]

Originally posted by JJuster:

I have the true fix for this.

you need to run EpicOnlineServicesInstaller.exe in the game directory before launching the game
For some reason the game worked fine the first time without this installed and this was needed later

works

[Ambreon]

Originally posted by A.K.A. Lazarus:

@Ambreon,
my friend and I played 8 hours yesterday with only 1 disconnect where we were able to join back up with no issues. Today, we are unable to join and have tried all the proposed fixes for joining each other's ranch and haven't been able to see a session ID nor friends to invite through the in-game "invite friend" option. We have both gone through our firewall options, we have tried other people's suggestions (@JJuster), and we even tried creating a new session hoping to see a session ID but nothing is working. Can you please get a hotfix out for this issue? There is no way this is a local problem when many people have this same issue.

Hi! Drop us an email and we'll go through more tips with you: [e-mail]

Again, the % of players with this issue is really small, it's a local issue and not something we can actually fix in-game with a patch unfortunately. We're more than happy to help out via email and will run through a bunch of steps with you - send us as much detail as possible including what you've already tried

[UrNxT]

Originally posted by |ECS| JJuster:

I have the true fix for this.

you need to run EpicOnlineServicesInstaller.exe in the game directory before launching the game
For some reason the game worked fine the first time without this installed and this was needed later

this is not in my game dir, if it is what is the path

[RedPandaViking]

This was an old fix when there were SDK issues in the past. If you are having issues more recently they would be unrelated. PLease check the common fixes thread for more up to date MP fixes.

[GeneralLee01]

My game keeps giving me a black screen with the connecting sign in the bottom right of the screen then kicks me back to the main menu