Possible fix for "Unable to Submit Deck" bug

[QP]

For those people who are having problems with the “Unable to Submit Deck” bug, here’s a possible solution. The first post will cover just the solution. In the second post, I will attempt to explain what I think is going on, in hopes that other solutions can be devised.

In particular, this fix is for the bug when it is acting in the following manner: you and your friend can play one game perfectly fine, but when attempts are made at a second challenge, the bug happens. One friend will get the “Unable to Submit Deck” error, and following that, a Network Error that disconnects that player. The other player will have a wait screen, followed by an immediate match Draw.

A possible solution:

Set the application MTGA.exe to run as an administrator.

Keep in mind that this is a different app than what steam launches or what your shortcut on desktop most likely launches. So you can’t just right click and “Run as Administrator.” Those launch MTGALauncher.exe. MTGALauncher checks to see if your game needs updates, updates if needed, and then launches MTGA itself. It’s the MTGA game file that needs to run as administrator, and the only way you can do that is to check a little check box in options.

To do so, find the location of your game files. Those are most likely in something like:

E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Magic Arena\MTGA.exe

Right click on MTGA.exe, and then click on the Compatibility tab. In the settings box, there is a small check box for “Run this program as an administrator.” Check it, and then press OK. (Note: it’s really important that you press that OK button and not just close the window, as clicking the OK button is what saves the option.)

This will be a fix for you. For any friends you challenge, they probably have to do it as well. It is only if both players in a challenge game does this will the issue be resolved for those two players. If a challenge is made to another player, that other player must also do it as well. Moreover, it is likely the first game that causes the bug. Therefore, playing one game, and then either getting this bug or then performing the fix, will still cause the game to error out for a specified amount of time. It is highly suggested that both players perform this fix before the first challenge game occurs.

This fix might not work right away, especially if you have just encountered this bug. If this is the case, perform the fix, and then attempt to play roughly 24 hours later. If both players have performed this fix, then the issue might be resolved. (My testing took place in roughly 24 hour periods. I would cause the bug to happen, then work on a solution the next day. The actual period could be much less than 24 hours.)

If your internet disconnects mid-match and the game is not rejoined, the bug might still occur even with the fix implemented. If this happens, wait 24 hours (or maybe less), and it should resolve itself.

Eventually, an update might replace or modify the MTGA.exe file. If you encounter this bug again after an update, the fix might need to be performed again.

I’m still doing some testing, but after performing this fix, and ensuring that the friend I’m playing against also completed this fix, no errors have occurred.

Once again, this fix might not resolve the bug for everyone. Good luck and I hope this helps.

[QP]

Let me preface this explanation by saying that a great deal of it is theory. I do not know how the program works specifically, especially not server-side. I could be totally wrong.

Okay, so what’s going on?

I think that as part of the game’s programming, for challenge matches, and upon completion of the game, MTGA.exe attempts to create a temporary file in a cache (most likely in LocalLow) and then send this temporary file to the server to let it know the match is complete. The bug occurs when this file is not sent properly. There can be a great number of reasons this file isn’t sent properly (like a firewall), but I think the most common issue is that the game is installed on a drive other than C, and it is attempting to write this file into the cache without having administrator privileges. Because this file is never written to C, it is never sent to the server to let it know the match is complete, so the server thinks the challenge match is still going on. When a second game is attempted, the server checks the deck submissions, and says, “No, this player is already in a match,” and does not allow the deck submission, thus leading to a network error and a disconnect.

I think the program is written this way to conserve bandwidth. Since challenge matches are friendly, they do not have to be monitored constantly like an official or ranked match would be. Because there’s no timer, a person can just leave the game in a state of play and get up and go do something, and the game will continue, unlike other games where there is a timer that would (eventually) end the match. So to insure someone doesn’t have a 200 hour game of Magic that eats bandwidth and costs money, the program is likely a bit more laissez faire with its handling of challenge matches. It just needs to know when the match ends, and maybe the results of said match.

This would explain why the error occurs in challenge matches and not ranked matches.
I also know challenge matches were added in later. It could also just be a difference in the way the matches are programmed. Like I said, I’m only theorizing here.

I think that a great number of people who have this bug are running the program in a location other than on their C drive. That would explain why the bug is difficult to recreate. Depending on your computer’s settings, having all your friends just install the program onto their C drive might also resolve the issue, since in most cases, programs on the C drive already have write permission to the C drive itself. It’s when a different drive attempts to write something to the C drive that Windows starts thinking something is fishy, and depending on your settings, doesn’t allow it.

This bug is also compounded by the fact that the launcher and the app itself are different. Many people probably already tried to run the shortcut as administrator as a solution, but since the launcher simply checks to make sure the game is updated and then launches the MTGA app, the app itself still doesn’t have administrator privilege.

Like I said, the reasons this temporary file does not reach the server are varied, and this might not be the only reason the bug is happening. A firewall that allows things on one drive while not allowing access to the C drive would be another reason. A third might be that the game is running on a virtual machine that has some conflicts with writing files. And there’s probably many other niche occurrences that will result in this bug.

Knowing all this, a more permanent solution might be able to be devised. The easiest might be an update to the app to write temporary files to a cache somewhere in the Arena folder itself, which would ensure that no write permissions are required regardless of what drive the game is installed into, although as previously stated, other instances might arise that would prevent that file from being shared. Another would be to change how the server handles challenge games upon completion, which is likely a much more expensive fix, but a more permanent one.

Again, all of this is just theorizing. I don’t know exactly how the program works, especially not server-side. But, hey, Wizards, if this is in the ballpark, or at least gets you barking up the right tree on a solution, how about hiring me? I’m willing to relocate if it means working for you. Love you guys.

[HighLanderPony]

Dw, "they're listening".

[Thorbalt]

You wasted a LOT of time on something the devs wont care to fix for 4 years. They have made it as clear as they possibly can that they dont give a single ♥♥♥♥ about player experience, just about getting you separated from your money. Thats why they made the alchemy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, which are LITERAL CHEAT CARDS, and keep making it even though the playerbase would kill the people who approved them with a smile on their face while doing so

[QP]

引用自 Thorbalt：

You wasted a LOT of time on something the devs wont care to fix for 4 years. They have made it as clear as they possibly can that they dont give a single ♥♥♥♥ about player experience, just about getting you separated from your money. Thats why they made the alchemy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, which are LITERAL CHEAT CARDS, and keep making it even though the playerbase would kill the people who approved them with a smile on their face while doing so

I don’t know. It wasn’t that much time. Certainly not a LOT of time. A few minutes each day, until I was sure I was able to recreate the bug, and then a couple days of testing different things until a solution was found. Then, after that, a couple days of testing, which was awesome, because I actually got to sit there and play a few games of Magic with friends. The solution itself was rather simple to devise using a “5 WHY” approach.

I don’t even know if it is a solution. Maybe things just started working as they should for some other reason. I would certainly like some feedback to see if it is working for other folks.

It’s easy to blame the idealistic “devs” for not being able to fix things, but programming on games like this are often outsourced or worked on in different studios. Language barriers might be present that prevent explanations of problems from gaining traction. Moreover, it is easy to fall into the trap of passing the responsibility of fixing something to a hypothetical “dev team” and immediately give up when the solution to a bug might be fixable by a multifaceted community itself.

As far as I know, this issue is not caused by alchemy cards, so why even bring them up? It’s just overwhelmingly negative and has nothing to do with the topic. If you don’t want to play with them, just play in a format where they are not legal. You’re just “YEAH BUT”ing.

My motivations for attempting a solution were not to improve reviews or make money. I just wanted to be able to introduce and play the game I love to friends, in hopes that we can all have fun together. Now that I have a solution that appears to work for us, I’d like to share that solution, in hopes that other people might do the same.

[Winter Wolf]

引用自 QP：

Snip for brevity

cool idea! I am glad you found something that worked for you. I am hopeful that others who run into this problem will find your solution useful.

As to the bitterness expressed above, eh it is a part of steam-culture to be as hyperbolic and enflamed as possible while skirting bans and other penalties and at the same time throw everything but the kitchen sink into the comments. I don't blame them but despite having a vocal presence on this forum they are not the majority of players who while satisfied are not bothering to comment at all.

To be fair, Alchemy was poorly handled (and is still being botched imho) despite being an innovation. I think forcing it into Historic and Brawl was a grievous error that gave WOTC a black eye that will never go away until they fix it. The people who object to digital only cards are often the same who enjoy these formats with older cards. In addition, forcing new players to start in Alchemy is just absurd.

However, as you said, it is a "yeah but" or "waddaboudism".

Anyway back to the topic at hand. I think you might be on to something with the permissions thing. It certainly sounds like something that could be causing a problem. Hopefully this will lead to something finally being done.

Thanks for posting!

[Billy]

If it's not the in game store, wotc does not care.
It's not even something they're planning on fixing. Their only official announcement was, "We're unable to replicate this."
The original official bug report is from 2017 and it still has not been marked as resolved.
:(
https://mtgarena-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000091646-Known-Issues-List