Troubleshooting and Tech Support

[SamBC]

This post will compile some common troubleshooting tips, both general ones and specific to this game. These are not official support information from 2K, though some points link to such.

UPDATE: Please note that updates, especially large ones, and new DLC, will tend to break some or all mods. If you have problems after an update, always try disabling mods. If you use a saved config when starting a new game, that will enable the mods that were enabled when it was saved. Always try starting a new game from scratch with mods disabled as a first step in troubleshooting.

2K have said the following about support:

JosephB2K původně napsal:

Hey all. As a heads up, if you're having any issues with Civilization VI or run into a bug, please contact 2K Support. Although we will be monitoring our Steam and 2K Forums, and our social media accounts, the best way to get an issue resolved is to let 2K Support know.

Please contact 2K Support at the link below.

http://2kgam.es/helpme2k

Thanks again, and enjoy playing Civilization VI!

If you're having trouble sorting things out for yourself, with the advice in this post or any other, don't hesitate to contact 2K Support at http://2kgam.es/helpme2k - and also you can check whatever official advice for the game 2K Support have posted, at http://support.2k.com/hc/en-us/sections/206390527-Civilization-VI

2K Support is also, as far as I understand, the official route to log problems and bugs with 2K.

Windows needs to be up-to-date for the game to work, especially KB2919355 and KB2919442 for Windows 8 - see http://support.2k.com/hc/en-us/articles/228886707-A-Note-For-Windows-8-Users and http://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/0/340412122406720383/

To reiterate, however, it's not just Windows 8 - please make absolutely sure that your Windows is up to date, fully up to date. If you get errors trying to update, there are helpful things about this in various places online. Your computer failing to update does not mean it is fully updated.

Alienware LightFX seems to be causing some problems, removing or renaming the DLLs from it seems to resolve problems - see user report at http://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/3/340412628172233878/

Save games don't load if the filename has had the case of the file extension changed. It must be exactly as the game saves it, and some tools (such as emailing) puts the extension in block caps. 2K Support has info on this at http://support.2k.com/hc/en-us/articles/230056647-Game-Fails-to-Load-Save-Files

If you are having problems with distorted or sped up audio, change the default quality of your output device to 48kHz.

Some nVidia users reporting problems find that they are resolved by disabling "share" in GeForce Experience (GFE). Update July 2017: problems have become more widespread in a recent update to GFE. If you experience crashing problems, and have GFE, try enabling "share" if it's disabled, and disable it if it's enabled. If the game then starts, you can try switching it back - many users report it continues to work. Some users report that doing this doesn't help, but completely removing GFE does. Update late July 2017: there are reports that updating to the latest GFE resolves this. Also that sharing is now "in-game overlay".

New video drivers from both AMD and NVidia came out for the game's first patch. Please make absolutely sure that your graphics drivers are fully up to date.

Some people report fewer problems in windowed or borderless windowed mode.

As always, it's worth trying verifying files and re-installing/repairing the redists the come with the game. To verify, right click on the game in your Steam library, select "properties", select the "local files" tab, and the bottom button should be "verify integrity of game cache". To do the redists, in the same tab, click "browse local files", and navigate to the _CommonRedist folder. Within that folder, you should find DirectX and vcredist folders. In the DirectX folder, run DXSETUP.exe; In the vcredist folder, you will find 2012 and 2015 folders. In each of those, run both the x86 and x64 installers; they may ask you to "repair or uninstall", if the redist did already install - select "repair". You may also get some meaningful error messages when trying to do this.

You may get an error message when running the game directly, rather than through the Steam client. That error should help you to find the underlying problem - try Googling. It's usually due to a failure of Windows to update properly.

There are some options set to off by default in AppOptions.txt that should help with getting data to the devs. One in particular should be helpful - "EnableBugCollection = 0"; change that to 1 and I understand it will be sending crash reports to the devs.

The Windows Defender problems seem to be resolved for most people now, but the original notes about them are below:

A lot of people seem to be having problems in the last day or so (23-24 October 2016), with failures to start or install, or long (possibly indefinite) load times. This appears to be related to Windows Defender or Microsoft Security Essentials in some way; possibly there has been an update. You can add an exclusion for Civ6 to the configuration of these tools. Instructions for doing this are at https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/instantanswers/64495205-6ddb-4da1-8534-1aeaf64c0af8/add-an-exclusion-to-windows-defender (and similar instructions should be available for different versions of Windows). You'll want to exclude the Civilization VI directory in your Steam library folder.

2016-10-26: It's been reported that Windows Defender has had updated definitions to resolve this issue, as noted below. If you can verify that your definitions are up to date, try removing any exclusion for the game and seeing if the game works fine now.

To verify which signatures are installed, open Windows Defender (or Microsoft Security Essentials) from the Start Menu, click the “Update” tab. If the “Virus definition version” is 1.231.410.0 or greater, then you already have the fix. If not, click the "Update definitions" button to grab the latest. Also note your machine will normally update 1x per day without any action, so it should be good tomorrow.

[Mewanna]

While playing Red Death Multiplayer one guy was eliminated, host has changes and all game was freezed - I was last player on this map. It's not interesting
Please fix it

[yuri_vrn]

After the upgrade, it’s almost impossible to get a Great Scientist. Civilizations even at the initial stage in Antiquity immediately have +25 +35 points of great people. How to fix this bug?

[CocoBongo]

So since Frontier Pass first part (I didn't buy it) my game keep loosing the UI around turn 50 to 70, I try uninstalling the game multiple times, I don't use any mod... I tried cleansing (with holly fire) any old files, but I'm not good with tech, I can only apply what I read about and can't find a solution by myself, anyone can help?

[RG]

Why are they destroying Yet (well), I'm waiting for Humankind. I'm disappointed.

[Iskbob]

The technical issue I seem to be having at the moment relates to the mouse losing focus and then game not responding at all. I'm running Windows 10 and easily meet all the tech requirements for the game. I'm playing Civ 6 - Gathering Storm. It works a charm for a while, but then if a pop up happens on screen while in full screen mode, the game will lock up, the cursor goes to the Windows mouse and there's no way to get back into the game, which just sucks. I haven't checked if there's an auto-save (i'm guessing there's probably for this), but this brings about two big headaches, the first is the only way to resume the game is to turn the computer completely off and reboot, the second is that it breaks the flow of the game entirely. The game is brilliant, apart from this do-your-hesd in bug. I couldn't anything directly related in the forums - any suggestions?

[DhEr20200]

^getting similar problem atm. Im assuming it has something to do with a recent DLC with the Hungarian Faction. I tried to play as hungary and can't get further than 34 or so turns.
I Did a test to see what the problem was playing with victoria on the same map options and settings etc.
Got to turn 63, met hungary, and the game crashed 34 turns after... Two things. Either hangs and i have to end the exe through tskmngr or window notices it crashed and it gives me the option to end the process with a 50/50 chance of it closing it (normal for any app)
Ive tried a lot of different settings (on my pc, as i thought it may have been a driver issue, display setting or a GPU bottleneck problem - all which i managed to which i managed to discount) discounted to get this crashing to stop but it always seems to happen when hungary is involved.
Im going to try another set up with hungary excluded from the game and see if i get any further.
Map used: Huge, Large islands with smaller island, default Everything - changes: Marathon, 20 states, secret societies, random tech, apocalypse.
The fact i got to turn 94 with victoria with the same set up as playing with hungary makes me believe there is a bug with the faction that causes the game to crash.
Version: Gathering Storm with final frontier sub. Game version: 1.0.7.9 Build:526591

I spent nearly 3 hours trying to get past 34 turns. It does, sometimes, however, crash even sooner.

One is not amused.

[TitanIX]

just installed the dec 2020 update, with nvidia driver update, game has become realllllllly slow. like i am using my 8 year old pc to run it. perhaps a video driver issue? seems to lag hard there and the game creation screens.

fyi i have had no problems with the game until now.

UPDATE: turns out windows needed an update, and some mods were interfering with core game.

[Paskamp]

After the new December update of CIv 6 my New Frontier edition is gone. If I start the game, I only have acces to Gathering Storm. How is this problem to solve?

[etishman]

I have uploaded the December update and the program now does not recognize my video card. Any ideas?

[jkpj]

I have just purchased and downloaded the New frontiers Pass. Steam says it is installed but when I run the game it remains at Gathering Storm and the New Frontiers DLC is not included. Is this a Steam problem? What to do now?

[RankMayor]

I've tried just about everything and I can't seem to fix this bug.

It'll play fine for sometimes an hour, or more and others it'll crash at 15 minutes. It crashes to a black screen and I can't do anything but hard reset my comp. I ran no mods, and my specs are good enough to play this game. Everything is up to date, uninstalled, reinstalled, deleted old folders, ran admin, changed boot cpu cores, ran in different resolutions, everything. I just don't get it. I don't ask for help because I'm usually capable in handling the problem, but not this time.

[footyethan]

I am having trouble reconnecting to my account. I have my steam account connected to both my laptop and my PC. Recently I downloaded Civilizations VI on my laptop. When I recently tried to play again on the PC it said my 2k account was offline and I was unable to log in or reconnect it. All of my saved games and DLCs were gone because it was no longer connected to my account. It still works on my laptop and I am connected there. ANy idea what the problem is or how to fix it?

[Grosilure]

i got problem since 17 december update; i cant load nex frontier dlc

i resintalled, contacted suppord followed their thing said they had transfered to devs, but still 2 months after i cannot play (every solutions found didnt work - mods)

on dlc tab in settings the new frontier pass is checked but when i launch game, the launcher show first with an ad for new frontier pass. when the games launches its under gathering storm skin and in dlc i cant find new frontier.

and this since 17 december update, while it worked perfectly fine before

makes me so mad especially since i could play the dlc normally before their stupid update (got achievements from that dlc) and i get not help from support. even dared to say problem solved when they did nothing but make me loose time.

i hoped that the 28th january update will bring things back to normal but, no.

so anyone had a similar problem and managed to get it to work?
since support is useless my hope lays here

[basti120982]

Hallo, ich habe das Problem, dass ich das Spiel nicht zum laufen bekomme.
Neustart war erfolglos, und alle Windows und Treiber Aktualisierungen haben nicht zum Erfolg geführt.
Vielleicht kann mir jemand von euch helfen.
Danke

[j0$e]

I have a problem

I was playing with Gathering Storm and Rise & Fall as Korea when suddenly the game crashed. When i tried to boot it up again, a white screen with a lower case e said it couldn't download updates, even though i didn't need an update. I think this is a hack on my laptop but i don't know. Do you know what happened?

Edit: The white screen isn't appearing anymore but now it refuses to start up