Unable to launch game

[Lelouch vi Britannia]

My game won't launch. It's been sitting in my Steam library for years since I never played it on Steam, only on the 360 and PS4.

I keep getting this error message from the Rockstar Game Launcher- "Error. Unable to launch GTA5.exe. Contact support blah blah blah..." Doesn't even give me an error code.

What can I do to resolve this?

[psykoteky]

Is that all that it says?
(not additional 'unable to verify game data' - another problem that isn't always as it reads)

Check if gta5.exe is set to run as admin - undo it if it is. Then check the program files rockstar games / launcher - exe's - same thing. And then program files / rockstar games / social club .exe's - same thing Then test steam as admin only. If not - add launcher, if not add social club, if not add gta5 exe's. Some state they use none as admin, and some only gta5.exe - it could take some testing. That is one of the most common causes provided you aren't launching straight from a exe shortcut.

Past that - possibly leftover mods(delete anything not folder/.rpf file in game folder - verify cache), av/security/windows defender ('typically' resolved via whitelisting/exclusions for the mentioned exe location folders), and some other things to cause issues. While you may not have an error - my documents / rockstar games / launcher / launcher.log may also have useful info (it has much). Without going into much detail you may find something at the very end - or you can slap it on pastebin.com and drop a link here. I'd also rename my documents / rockstar games to rockstar games-old so you are sure to have a current/clean log.

If you still have issues, with more info - it may be easier to narrow it down. There are many things gtav can have problems with - hopefully you're dealing with 1, and not 5 (like additionally- problems with directx, vcredists, N/KN-media feature pack, drivers, background programs, malware/adware, onedrive, permissions, os file issues - to name some).

[DEAD MEAT]

This is what I'd try ...

use WINDOWS to uninstall the R* Launcher and Social Club. Then manually remove the Folders for both found here ...
Documents>Rock Star games>
Then through your STEAM library verify the local game files (almost as good as re-install)
Taking for granted you already have a Social Club account ...
Restart the game and it should download / update / prompt you through an up-to-date set up.

[Lelouch vi Britannia]

Originally posted by psykoteky:

Is that all that it says?
(not additional 'unable to verify game data' - another problem that isn't always as it reads)

Check if gta5.exe is set to run as admin - undo it if it is. Then check the program files rockstar games / launcher - exe's - same thing. And then program files / rockstar games / social club .exe's - same thing Then test steam as admin only. If not - add launcher, if not add social club, if not add gta5 exe's. Some state they use none as admin, and some only gta5.exe - it could take some testing. That is one of the most common causes provided you aren't launching straight from a exe shortcut.

Past that - possibly leftover mods(delete anything not folder/.rpf file in game folder - verify cache), av/security/windows defender ('typically' resolved via whitelisting/exclusions for the mentioned exe location folders), and some other things to cause issues. While you may not have an error - my documents / rockstar games / launcher / launcher.log may also have useful info (it has much). Without going into much detail you may find something at the very end - or you can slap it on pastebin.com and drop a link here. I'd also rename my documents / rockstar games to rockstar games-old so you are sure to have a current/clean log.

If you still have issues, with more info - it may be easier to narrow it down. There are many things gtav can have problems with - hopefully you're dealing with 1, and not 5 (like additionally- problems with directx, vcredists, N/KN-media feature pack, drivers, background programs, malware/adware, onedrive, permissions, os file issues - to name some).

Well, one of the errors I get in one log says, "[ ERROR ] [Workr] [svc_reg] Failed to send registry delete value message!"

In the other log, I get a bunch of errors saying the following:
[2022-04-27 19:48:48.039] [ ERROR ] [ 5080] [gamelaunch] Failed to Launch game: error 0x0 (0)
[2022-04-27 19:48:48.039] [ ERROR ] [ 5080] [error] ************************************************************************
[2022-04-27 19:48:48.039] [ ERROR ] [ 5080] [error] * Setting error condition
[2022-04-27 19:48:48.039] [ ERROR ] [ 5080] [error] * Category: 1 (ERROR_CATEGORY_LAUNCHER)
[2022-04-27 19:48:48.039] [ ERROR ] [ 5080] [error] * Code: 137 (0x89)
[2022-04-27 19:48:48.811] [ ERROR ] [Main ] [gla] Unable to publish - busy or nothing to write.

Let me try your troubleshoot methods before I get back to you, although I'm a bit confused how to clear your cache since your 2nd paragraph is a bit confusing. I have no mods, btw.

[Lelouch vi Britannia]

Originally posted by psykoteky:

Is that all that it says?
(not additional 'unable to verify game data' - another problem that isn't always as it reads)

Check if gta5.exe is set to run as admin - undo it if it is. Then check the program files rockstar games / launcher - exe's - same thing. And then program files / rockstar games / social club .exe's - same thing Then test steam as admin only. If not - add launcher, if not add social club, if not add gta5 exe's. Some state they use none as admin, and some only gta5.exe - it could take some testing. That is one of the most common causes provided you aren't launching straight from a exe shortcut.

Past that - possibly leftover mods(delete anything not folder/.rpf file in game folder - verify cache), av/security/windows defender ('typically' resolved via whitelisting/exclusions for the mentioned exe location folders), and some other things to cause issues. While you may not have an error - my documents / rockstar games / launcher / launcher.log may also have useful info (it has much). Without going into much detail you may find something at the very end - or you can slap it on pastebin.com and drop a link here. I'd also rename my documents / rockstar games to rockstar games-old so you are sure to have a current/clean log.

If you still have issues, with more info - it may be easier to narrow it down. There are many things gtav can have problems with - hopefully you're dealing with 1, and not 5 (like additionally- problems with directx, vcredists, N/KN-media feature pack, drivers, background programs, malware/adware, onedrive, permissions, os file issues - to name some).

I tried setting some of those exe's to run as admin, and it worked! Thanks for the help.