Interesting reason for game not launching.

[Angie]

I managed to fix it but will post this in case anyone else had issues. My modded game wouldn't launch at all and as you suspect I suspected it was due to mods, I spent the past hour trying to find out which mod it was but plot twist!

It wasn't my mods but windows security blocking file access to my skyrim documents folder. No idea why it was blocking the folder but there you go, unblocked file access and now my game works.

[Synopse]

Thanks for sharing.
Did you double check, if none of your mods is reported to be suspicious due to potential malware?

[mikk011]

I haven't heard about this recently, but it has been reported as happening before (and additionally OneDrive has a bad reputation for fouling up games, especially modded games). Beware of your AV programs as well; my antivirus has mistakenly quarantined ListHeadParts.exe from Cathedral Assets Optimizer and all four of the USVFS files from Mod Organizer 2. Creating exceptions for all of the above solved the problem.

[Angie]

Originally posted by Synopse:

Thanks for sharing.
Did you double check, if none of your mods is reported to be suspicious due to potential malware?

Yeah. The mods are safe. I'm 100% sure!

[Angie]

Originally posted by mikk011:

I haven't heard about this recently, but it has been reported as happening before (and additionally OneDrive has a bad reputation for fouling up games, especially modded games). Beware of your AV programs as well; my antivirus has mistakenly quarantined ListHeadParts.exe from Cathedral Assets Optimizer and all four of the USVFS files from Mod Organizer 2. Creating exceptions for all of the above solved the problem.

Strangely the files blocked were nothing to do with mods. The files blocked where my documents. Also there was no notification telling me a file was being blocked..I on a whim just decided to check antivirus cause I had a problem with another game recently that was caused by my antivirus.

[SpeedFreak1972]

Out of interest which anti-virus do you use?

[silentstorm]

I'm sorry, could you explain me the solution? How to apply it?

[Death Approaches]

I mean it makes sense, if it can't write logs configs or saves to My Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\... the question is why in the @#^%! was that configured to deny writes?! That is not a default protected directory, you yourself might have messed up the permissions doing something else, maybe?

[cheshirm]

windows comes with security turned on. should check controlled folder access, antivirus, firewall. some pcs come with windows av and an 2nd party antivirus turned on.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Angie:

I managed to fix it but will post this in case anyone else had issues. My modded game wouldn't launch at all and as you suspect I suspected it was due to mods, I spent the past hour trying to find out which mod it was but plot twist!

It wasn't my mods but windows security blocking file access to my skyrim documents folder. No idea why it was blocking the folder but there you go, unblocked file access and now my game works.

Yes, antivirus programmes tend to see Skyrim as a Trojan, possibly because of data gathering by Bethesda.... it's a known issue, and is listed in troubleshooting guides.

Just DON'T DISABLE YOUR ANTIVIRUS, it doesn't matter who says it, it's a terrible idea to disable the one thing stopping viruses and trojans on to your computer.

[Death Approaches]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Yes, antivirus programmes tend to see Skyrim as a Trojan, possibly because of data gathering by Bethesda.... it's a known issue, and is listed in troubleshooting guides.

that's not what he said, he said changing his skyrim documents directory AV permissions fixed it, which shouldn't have blocked access in the first place, and doesn't contain executables to monitor anyway, just logs config files and saves... it sounds like a user-inflicted issue that 99.9% will not have, but until he elaborates, we're just guessing.

[Angie]

https://imgur.com/a/KZz6wCV

For the people that want to see the exact file blocked. I just went into protection history and it showed skyrim files in my documents being blocked. Unblocked the files and that fixed my game not launching.