Launcher does not load at all

[myrmidon_531]

Hi everyone,
When I try to load EU4, the launcher does not run. I had it installed on my external HDD, but then the game suddenly stopped working well. For example, the launcher would take FOREVER to load, and the game very rarely loaded. This was after it worked very well for a long time. Then the launcher completely refused to load, so I moved it from my external HDD to my C: drive. But now it still does not load. Steam says it's running, and I have the option to stop it. But when I click "Stop," it doesn't actually stop. What's wrong here?

Thanks a ton! Cheers!

[grotaclas]

First try to restart steam and your computer. That sometimes helps.
Launcher problems can often be fixed by reinstalling the launcher:
On Windows, first use the windows uninstall function to uninstall "Paradox Launcher v2"(if it is there). And then delete the launcher directories(if they exist):

• C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Programs/Paradox Interactive/
  
• C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/
  
• C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Roaming/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/
  
• Documents/paradox interactive/.cpatch/
  
• every directory in Documents/paradox interactive/ that starts with launcher-v2

In Linux delete the directories ~/.paradoxlauncher and "~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/" and the file "~/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/launcherpath"

In macOS delete the directory "~/Library/Application Support/Paradox Interactive"

Afterwards you can start the game from steam again to reinstall the launcher.

Does this help?

[myrmidon_531]

Hi, and thanks for the quick reply! I tried uninstalling the launcher before I read your suggestion, and it didn't work. Then I tried it again, deleting the directories I could see in your reply. I have just tried loading EU4, and the Launcher was installed. But still, all I see is Steam "Running" EU4, but there is no Launcher, and the game will not stop for a long time if I try to stop it.

[myrmidon_531]

Adding to this, I just tried loading Stellaris. The launcher also completely fails to launch as well. I have the exact same issue with Stellaris and EU4.

[grotaclas]

Can you have a look in the task manager to see what is still running when steam says that? It could be dowser.exe, a paradox launcher.exe (in that case it might be useful to know in which folder that is(if the task manager shows it), because each version has a different folder) or a part of the launcher installer.

The folder C:/users/<UserName>/AppData/Local/Paradox Interactive/launcher-v2/ should have some launcher log files. Can you post them somewhere so that I can have a look at it?

You could also try to contact the official tech support(e.g. in the eu4 tech support forum on the paradox website). They are better able to help with the more complicated launcher problems.

Originally posted by myrmidon_531:

Adding to this, I just tried loading Stellaris. The launcher also completely fails to launch as well. I have the exact same issue with Stellaris and EU4.

They use the same launcher installation, so it is normal that both have the same problems. But you could try to do the uninstall steps again and then start stellaris before you start eu4. The two games often ship with installers for different launcher versions, so maybe the stellaris version works for you. This is only relevant if the launcher doesn't even start once after the uninstall, because if it starts successfully it will update to the newest version automatically

[myrmidon_531]

Here is launcher-bootstarpper.log:

2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Bootstrapper version: 2022.3
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Environment: prod
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Reading launcher versions in C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found 4 directories/files, checking whether they're valid launcher installations
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking .cpatch
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] .cpatch has invalid dirname (false)
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: ThirdPartyLicenses.txt
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: bootstrapper-v2.exe
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking launcher-v2.2022.9
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] Extracted version name `2022.9` and branch `` from path: `C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9`
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking whether C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version exists
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found valid installation under C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Found 1 launcher version(s) in total
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [INFO] Branch file `C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\beta_branch` does not exist
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Found `` branch
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Starting bootstrapper again in telemetry mode in C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\bootstrapper-v2.exe, args: --pdxl-telemetry-only --pdxl-application-session-id=3e71d0c6-39d0-419a-a5ba-8bcf3db83185
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Latest version is `2022.9` from branch ``
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [INFO] Launching C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\Paradox Launcher.exe
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [launcher] [INFO] Executing command `C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\Paradox Launcher.exe --pdxlSessionId 3e71d0c6-39d0-419a-a5ba-8bcf3db83185 --pdxlGameDir C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Europa Universalis IV --gameDir C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Europa Universalis IV`
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Telemetry flag --pdxl-telemetry-only is set
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] ApplicationSessionId flag --pdxl-application-session-id is set
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Got application-session-id from args, using it
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Bootstrapper (telemetry only) version: 2022.3
2023-05-18 23:36:09 [main] [INFO] Environment (telemetry only): prod
2023-05-18 23:36:10 [main] [INFO] Telemetry done, quitting
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Bootstrapper version: 2022.3
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Environment: prod
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Reading launcher versions in C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found 4 directories/files, checking whether they're valid launcher installations
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking .cpatch
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] .cpatch has invalid dirname (false)
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: ThirdPartyLicenses.txt
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] Skipping file: bootstrapper-v2.exe
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking launcher-v2.2022.9
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] Extracted version name `2022.9` and branch `` from path: `C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9`
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] Checking whether C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version exists
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [DEBUG] Found valid installation under C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\.cpatch\launcher-v2_1\version
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Found 1 launcher version(s) in total
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [INFO] Branch file `C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\beta_branch` does not exist
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Found `` branch
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Starting bootstrapper again in telemetry mode in C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\bootstrapper-v2.exe, args: --pdxl-telemetry-only --pdxl-application-session-id=8b0d75a3-af28-49c5-849f-d5808905d656
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Latest version is `2022.9` from branch ``
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [INFO] Launching C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\Paradox Launcher.exe
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [launcher] [INFO] Executing command `C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\Paradox Launcher.exe --pdxlSessionId 8b0d75a3-af28-49c5-849f-d5808905d656 --pdxlGameDir F:\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris --gameDir F:\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris`
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Telemetry flag --pdxl-telemetry-only is set
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] ApplicationSessionId flag --pdxl-application-session-id is set
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Got application-session-id from args, using it
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Bootstrapper (telemetry only) version: 2022.3
2023-05-18 23:41:21 [main] [INFO] Environment (telemetry only): prod
2023-05-18 23:41:22 [main] [INFO] Telemetry done, quitting

[grotaclas]

This looks like the bootstrapper was successful and then tried to start "C:\Users\myrmi\AppData\Local\Programs\Paradox Interactive\launcher\launcher-v2.2022.9\Paradox Launcher.exe" (once for eu4 and then for stellaris). Are there any other files in that folder? The paradox launcher.exe should have written launcher-2023-05-18.log and cpatch.log. If not, what happens if you manually try to start the Paradox Launcher.exe from its folder? Does the launcher at least open or maybe give an error message? If started directly, it should show the standalone version of the launcher which either asks you to log in or shows that you own stellaris and gives you an install button(don't install it there, because that's an outdated version, because paradox stopped supporting the standalone version of stellaris).

[myrmidon_531]

Yes, it seems like the Launcher did not create those files ( launcher-2023-05-18.log and cpatch.log). I tried loading the Launcher directly in the folder you recommended, and again, nothing happened. It was just like when I tried to load EU4 and Stellaris via Steam.