Literally unable to play the game (HELP)

[DIGB0ng]

Last week, I had a friend of a friend who wanted to play on the newest unstable build of the game. I opted into that beta and that has been the worst decision I have made in 2023. Ever since opting back into 21.1 stable I have not been able to load into any world full stop. I have over 1,000 hours of playtime on steam, and much more on console and have never encountered anything remotely like the issues I have now.

The game can launch, but every time I try to load an existing world, create a new one, or join another person's game, my client crashes and nothing has come close to resolving this.

Here is the series of events:
1- launch game.
2- click on "New Game," "Continue Game," or "Join Game"
3- click start/join
4- loading screen with the survival tips you can scroll through and whatnot on the bottom, center of the screen says, "loading game data"
5- Crash

I have Uninstalled and re-installed the game. Completely uninstalled and wiped all game files from my PC. Uninstalled and re-installed steam. Completely erased all of my GPU drivers and re-downloaded my drivers, disabled motion blur in game, ran the game as administrator, ran steam as administrator, and every single time verifying that the game files are intact and not corrupt. None of my PC specs have changed and all of my hardware components exceed the recommended specs for running this game. This is the literal only game on my PC across all gaming software I use that is not fully executable.

At this point I am at a loss and am hoping someone may know more troubleshooting options as I am at a point where I am bashing my face into a reinforced concrete wall and am very frustrated after multiple days with multiple hours of my free time taken up by this issue(s).

EDIT: I am on windows 10.

[Serious]

Already deleted this folder?
C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie

And also some general info:
When you uninstall and reinstall a game you should always restart the system between, at least on windows.

[Desert Rat]

Originally posted by Serious:

Already deleted this folder?
C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie

And also some general info:
When you uninstall and reinstall a game you should always restart the system between, at least on windows.

This.

[SiliconPenguin]

I'm having the exact same issue, but I didn't change anything, and I'm on linux. I was playing one day, and the next day when I tried to start the game... exact same problem you have. Can't load a saved world, can't create a new world, nothing... And I've checked the logs - no errors at all.

[SiliconPenguin]

I'm assuming you're still having the same problem. I figured out that I was somehow opted in to using the Steam Public Client Beta. When I opted out of that, after it installed the 'stable' client, everything seems to be working fine.

[DIGB0ng]

Originally posted by Desert Rat:

Originally posted by Serious:

Already deleted this folder?
C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie

And also some general info:
When you uninstall and reinstall a game you should always restart the system between, at least on windows.

This.

Originally posted by Serious:

Already deleted this folder?
C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie

And also some general info:
When you uninstall and reinstall a game you should always restart the system between, at least on windows.

Originally posted by Desert Rat:

Originally posted by Serious:

Already deleted this folder?
C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie

And also some general info:
When you uninstall and reinstall a game you should always restart the system between, at least on windows.

This.

So, I searched in my local disk for this file. Nothing came up.

If I look under my Users folder manually, there is no file anywhere matches or is even adjacent to the file instructions you mentioned. Any ideas?

[SuperMeatBag]

AppData is a hidden folder by default, so you'd need Windows to show hidden files and folders.

[MadFacerolla]

Originally posted by Serious:

Already deleted this folder?
C:\Users\YOURUSER\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie

And also some general info:
When you uninstall and reinstall a game you should always restart the system between, at least on windows.

After 21. 1 game become unplayable when 3 or more zombie start chase me in hight dence POI areas, worse when i was on roof or inside POI and roaming zombies start seek me, fps drops constantly to 1 -5, or even freeze. Then i follow this advice and uninstal game, restart PC, delete "\AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie" (backuped saves first), intal fresh 21.1 7day2day then copy world save in new \AppData\Roaming\7DaysToDie/
No fps freezes and lags!!!
Thank you!

[Mardoin69]

When they say 'clean' install... it means you've uninstalled the game and then went through your PC directories and manually deleted the folders+files that get left on the system. You need windows explorer view options set to 'show hidden folders' in order to do this. There are 3 places you need to go and delete these;
C:\users\your user name\Appdata\LocalLow\... The Fun Pimps folder
C:\users\your user name\Appdata\Roaming\... the 7d2d folder
C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\SteamApps\Common\... the 7d2d folder.
Restart system
Load steam
Right click 7d2d in library to open properties.
Go to 'Betas' tab and opt into the correct version... example A21.1 Stable or A21.2 experimental
Then do the install and verify files from that properties--Local Files tab.
Now Run the 7d2d launcher.exe and switch to 'tools' tab.
Click the 'Clean...' option and select all the checkboxes so everything is cleaned.
Note* If you had a game save going you wanted to keep, you should back it up along with the ...\7d2d\Generated Worlds\ county/territory named folder which is the map for that save... prior to using the launcher clean tool. You can copy those back later to re-use.
Once clean, switch back to main tab, disable EAC and Analytics, select 'Run and save settings...'
Optimize video settings for 7d2d, create a new map, go to start a new game, choose the map you made.
Alternatively, you could exit and copy your old game save and map folder back to users directory so you could continue playing. Note* this only works with A21 saves for any A21 version. Can't play an A20 save in A21 for example.