Stellaris won't launch!

[warlord1616]

My brother's Stellaris will not launch. Any time he tries to play it, Steam says "playing stellaris" then it stops saying that and that's it. He tried reinstalling it, didn't work. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Mister_Bruce]

Identical problem. Stellaris was working fine until 2 days ago when I bought some additional DLCs. Now it won't launch at all.

I have wiped out Stellaris folders, uninstalled, reinstalled. No change.

I am using a MAC.

When attempting to "Play" Stellaris, it briefing says it is "Running" and then nothing happens.

Any suggestions to resolve? This is quite frustrating given that I just spent additional money on buying DLCs. It was working just fine!

[Mister_Bruce]

Hi folks,

I think I've figured it out for MAC OS 10.14.6. The problem is with the Paradox Interactive Launcher.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Stellaris but this did not solve the problem.

What I ended up doing is going into ~/Library/Application Support/ and deleted the folder called Paradox Interactive.

Then I was able to launch Stellaris - the Paradox Interactive folder was recreated and I was able to complete my Paradox Account login and go from there.

PS: This thread gives the steps for Windows (which gave me the idea as to how to solve it): https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/cannot-locate-valid-installation-of-the-paradox-launcher.1259057/

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Bruce

[Anihilator]

Originally posted by Mister_Bruce:

Hi folks,

I think I've figured it out for MAC OS 10.14.6. The problem is with the Paradox Interactive Launcher.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Stellaris but this did not solve the problem.

What I ended up doing is going into ~/Library/Application Support/ and deleted the folder called Paradox Interactive.

Then I was able to launch Stellaris - the Paradox Interactive folder was recreated and I was able to complete my Paradox Account login and go from there.

PS: This thread gives the steps for Windows (which gave me the idea as to how to solve it): https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/cannot-locate-valid-installation-of-the-paradox-launcher.1259057/

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Bruce

Thanks for sharing but unfortunately it doesn't work on my windows :/

[warwolf_1]

Maybe I found a solution.

I changed the game from full screen to window mode. After that it starts normal

[warlord1616]

Originally posted by warwolf_1:

Maybe I found a solution.

I changed the game from full screen to window mode. After that it starts normal

I would be able to do that, but i can't even get into the launcher to do that...

[eliopez]

Originally posted by Mister_Bruce:

Hi folks,

I think I've figured it out for MAC OS 10.14.6. The problem is with the Paradox Interactive Launcher.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Stellaris but this did not solve the problem.

What I ended up doing is going into ~/Library/Application Support/ and deleted the folder called Paradox Interactive.

Then I was able to launch Stellaris - the Paradox Interactive folder was recreated and I was able to complete my Paradox Account login and go from there.

PS: This thread gives the steps for Windows (which gave me the idea as to how to solve it): https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/cannot-locate-valid-installation-of-the-paradox-launcher.1259057/

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Bruce

I was having the exact same problem on a mac with mojave 10.14.6 and this solution fixed it for me. I had to do it twice because the launcher crashed when I was typing my email on the login screen (so annoying). Anyway, the second time after I deleted the folder and the launcher could run again I first clicked on create new account, then click down on log in (i already had a user) and this time it didn't crash. THANK YOU SO MUCH BRUCE

[Anihilator]

Originally posted by warwolf_1:

Maybe I found a solution.

I changed the game from full screen to window mode. After that it starts normal

I've tryed but without succes :/

[Anihilator]

Originally posted by warlord1616:

Originally posted by warwolf_1:

Maybe I found a solution.

I changed the game from full screen to window mode. After that it starts normal

I would be able to do that, but i can't even get into the launcher to do that...

If you have the GeForce Experience program you can set how to run any game.

[Shepard]

Did any of you guys try to just "ignore" the launcher and start stellaris with the stellaris.exe file in the main game folder?
It doesn´t even start the launcher for me that way but goes straight into the game.

[warlord1616]

Good idea, i will try that when i can.

[Пичу]

Hi!

Paradox helped me to fix this problem

Share it for you

First, let's start with a clean install of the game. Even if you have already done this before now, make sure you do it now following these instructions:

   
• Go to your .../Documents/Paradox Interactive/{Game Name} Folder (The {Game Name} = the name of the paradox game, IE Hearts of Iron IV or Europa Universlis IV ETC.)
  
• Move your save game folder outside of this directory, such as to the desktop, to temporary save it
  
• Unsubscribe from all mods
  
• Right click the game in the Steam Library
  
• Go to properties
  
• Go to the BETAs tab
  
• Ensure opt out is selected from the dropdown
  
• Select close
  
• Right click game in the Steam Library
  
• Select Uninstall
  
• Go to your game's previous install location folder (normally ...\steam\steamapps\common\)
  
• Delete the folder with the game's name as the folder's name if a folder exists there
  
• Go to C:\Users\NAME\Documents\Paradox Interactive
  
• Delete the folder with the game's name as the folder's name if a folder exists there
  
• Restart Computer
  
• Install the game (If possible, make sure you install the game outside the 'C:\Program Files\' or 'C:\Program Files (x86)\' folders, as it can cause issues with permissions)
  
• Add the game's .exe, the steam.exe, and the dowser.exe (if it exists in the games's install folder) to the exceptions list/white list of your antivirus app
  
• Go into Windows Defender Security Center -> Virus & Threat Protection -> Virus & Threat Protection settings and allow the steam.exe, the game's .exe, and the dowser.exe (if it exists in the games's install folder) files through via Allow an app through controlled folder access
  
• Set both steam.exe, the game's .exe, and dowser.exe (if it exists in the games's install folder) to run as the Windows Administrator user in the .exe properties (Windows 10 only)
  
• Shut down computer completely and Start Computer back up (It is important that you do not just do another computer restart and you do a shut down and then manually start the computer back up)
  
• Start the game with no mods active and test
  
• If there are no issues you can now move the save game folder back into place
  
• Test game

       
           Part 2
Try this:

• Download and install an update to your Nvidia card driver from here: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
  
• In the search box on the taskbar, enter Command Prompt (CMD). Press and hold (or right-click) Command Prompt (Desktop app) from the search results and select Run as administrator.
  
• Enter DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (note the space before each "/"). (Note: This step may take a few minutes to start and up to 30 minutes to run and complete.)
  
• Enter sfc /scannow (note the space between "sfc" and "/").
  
• Wait for the scan to complete (may take a while)
  
• After it finishes, restart computer
  
• Check for any more updates for your windows 10: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027667/windows-10-update
  
• If there are any more updates, make sure it updates and restart computer after completetion
  
• Contiue to check for updates until it says you are up to date

May the Force be with you

[theo.griffin]

On mac the following worked for me, (after restarting, reinstalling stellaris and revoking and reinstating disk access privileges didn't work):
delete all paradox launcher folders and files I could find with the regular finder search, and then starting stellaris from steam. (this then reinstalled the launcher)

[warlord1616]

Thank you, but i figured it out weeks ago.

[Anihilator]

I've bought win10 (previous one was 8.1) and now everything is okey... :P

[Draeconis]

Hi all, been wrestling with this too across both macOS and Windows 10.

The below is for Windows only (only tested on Windows 10 v1903)

Just discovered a method to get my 2.5.1 launcher loading every time, please give it a go;

Right-click Stellaris in Steam, and click Properties
Click the 'Local Files' tab, and click the first button, 'Browse Local Files'
Find the following file and run it;
'launcher-installer-windows.msi'
This should give you only the option to uninstall the Paradox Launcher v2 from your comptuer, click Remove.

When you come to re-launch Stellaris, Steam will reinstall a working launcher, and hopefully it appears.

---

I'm still trying to work out a consistent way to get the macOS launcher working properly, no luck currently.

I did get the game to load basically in Mojave (by running the .app manually) but unlike the .exe under Windows, this runs the game without and DLC, and also refuses to allow you to host or connect to a multiplayer game, citing firewall isues

After deleting all traces of anything Paradox from my Mojave client, I can get the launcher and the game to run.. only for them to crash 2-5 minutes after joining the game. Client is a powerful 2019 MacBook Pro, so it's not the hardware being unable to play properly.

I don't even get this far in High Sierra, the client never launches no matter what I do.

I'll continue to work on it, but the silence from Paradox is baffling.