"an error occurred while updating (app running)"

[_dpmoon_]

It says this every time I try to open steamVR and I have tried all the thing steam has told me to do.

[sddesigns7]

same is happening to me

[tedyjr08]

ok

[GERARD LE GERANT 'Maël']

same thing for me ....

[SILLY CLAY MAN]

Same

[yeehaanow]

Same. Is the headset dead? I tried everything. Uninstalled USB drivers manually, then it asked to reinstall. Still not working. POS

[Farhanito]

same here..

i have to Exit Steam from Notification tray, only then i can start SteamVR.

when i close SteamVR, it isn't really closed.. if you check SteamVR from Steam Library page, you'll see that SteamVR is still running but the "STOP" button is unclickable.
hence the "(app running)" error.

[Tapio Hellman]

Steam - Error: An error occurred while updating SteamVR (app running). See the Steam support site for more information. I get this message all the time and haven't yet found any resolution to the problem. I have Varjo VR-1 glasses installed and previously SteamVR has been working fine. Now the problems with the glasses may be related to a dated version of StemaVR - which is 1.15.9. Any help from Valve available?

[RC-1290]

When SteamVR shuts down because of the "shut down SteamVR after 30 minutes", vrserver.exe keeps running, preventing SteamVR from starting. Closing it with taskmanager (details tab), then allows SteamVR to be started again.

I think in my case Unreal Editor seems to be preventing it from closing or something like that. There's some issues that Epic should address in general when it comes to SteamVR, but at the same time, I think SteamVR should be able to start, even if vrserver.exe is still running.

[skift]

close anything to do with steam, including steamvr apps in taskmgr. then relaunch steamvr via the exe (probably kept in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win64)

this will launch steamvr but not steam, allowing it to be used without updating, but it should also then update if you run through steam.

[RC-1290]

I think the "update" part is partially irrelevant. SteamVR won't launch if it still has parts running. If it's not a message about updating, it'll be "can't launch because it's already running" when it's not running in a usable way. That's the problem.

[Demon23]

same here any resolve yet

[BROSEIDON]

I just had the same issue where SteamVR wasn't starting again after an initial play session. I couldn't stop it through the library, like others have said, and there weren't any vrserver, vrmonitor, etc. tasks that I could kill from task manager.

What ended up working for me was closing the Viveport software. Once I did, SteamVR in my library showed the play button again instead of the stop button, and I could start program normally again. Restarting Steam completely also worked, but that's more of a pain than just closing Viveport.