Storyline Disconnects - [Merged]

[Ironkrieg.2056]

Please, folks . . . if you are having these sorts of disconnects, delete the .dat and cache files as detailed in these instructions (Posted by Silent6173):

"What I would suggest is look at GW2's troubleshooting page. Also, search wiki for solutions such as this. Searching there is usually more productive."

After deleting those files, my own disconnect issues seem to have been resolved.  Just uninstalling/reinstalling will NOT do anything as uninstalling does NOT deleted these files!  If they are out-of-date and/or corrupted, they will STAY corrupted until they are MANUALLY deleted.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Innocente.4271

[Wiggely.7320]

On 4/17/2022 at 7:51 PM, Innocente.4271 said:

Please, folks . . . if you are having these sorts of disconnects, delete the .dat and cache files as detailed in these instructions (Posted by Silent6173):

"What I would suggest is look at GW2's troubleshooting page. Also, search wiki for solutions such as this. Searching there is usually more productive."

After deleting those files, my own disconnect issues seem to have been resolved.  Just uninstalling/reinstalling will NOT do anything as uninstalling does NOT deleted these files!  If they are out-of-date and/or corrupted, they will STAY corrupted until they are MANUALLY deleted.

Odd, since there has never been a previous copy of the game on this computer... ever.
It was a fresh install, on a fresh computer... and it still happened. A lot, and than I fixed it, and than it happened again.

This thread is filled with solutions that sometimes help, but not always.

The only consistant factor is where these disconnects happen: in the story, at cutscenes after major fights.

 

[Potm.8249]

I am about to lose my mind. I have tried everything to “workaround” the most annoying bug I have ever come across. 
 

6 times I have redone this LAST chapter. 6 kitten times. 
 

How can I progress? 
 

How can I finish this? 
 

Every time I get to the cutscene where I’m about to board the bigger ship, I disconnect. I can open map. I can open trading post. But my character has the little movie film(?) above her head and I can’t move. Couple seconds later I’m disconnected and have to do EVERYTHING again. 
 

I’ve had a YouTube video play in the background. 
 

I’ve turned all settings on low. 
 

I’ve “moved” my character during unskippable cutscenes. 
 

I’ve turned streaming to on-demand. 
 

This is such a long chapter I don’t want to have to keep starting over every time and hope and pray I finally get to move my character. 
 

I’ve had this happen in other story chapters. Luckily I get through eventually but this one I’m just constantly disconnecting in the same place, just watching my character stay frozen with the movie thing above her head. 

[Ironkrieg.2056]

1 hour ago, Wiggely.7320 said:

Odd, since there has never been a previous copy of the game on this computer... ever.
It was a fresh install, on a fresh computer... and it still happened. A lot, and than I fixed it, and than it happened again.

This thread is filled with solutions that sometimes help, but not always.

The only consistant factor is where these disconnects happen: in the story, at cutscenes after major fights.

 

 What can it hurt to delete the .dat and Cache files and see if the failures still happens?  Especially if you have a 100% fail point to test it out on, like I had. 

I have just completed the Lvl 50 and Lvl 60 story lines without a hitch.  I was having these end of cut scene 'disconnects' quite regularly until I deleted those files and forced the game to recreate them fresh.

It could be those files somehow just get corrupted.  Once corrupted, that would be it, since the game cannot fix them automatically and they are not deleted during the uninstall procedure.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Innocente.4271

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Tried a VPN?  On Demand would probably be the worst choice.  Tried continuously spamming a skill/moving your character?  Tried minimizing cut-scenes?

 

Good luck. 

[Potm.8249]

13 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Tried a VPN?  On Demand would probably be the worst choice.  Tried continuously spamming a skill/moving your character?  Tried minimizing cut-scenes?

 

Good luck. 

I kid you not, that’s what a GM told me when I sent in a ticket for a DIFFERENT story I was disconnecting on. To put streaming to On Demand. What would be best then? 
 

Don’t you have to pay for a VPN? I don’t see why I should pay for something extra the game should fix. 
 

I’ve been doing Living World Season 1. Very long instances. No disconnect. A bug, then, in Victory or Death? But can’t submit a bug report as I get frozen then kicked! 
 

Yes. The scenes it allows me to skip, I skip. The ones where I can’t skip them, I continuously spam movement and skill buttons. Now, it’s disconnecting me EVERY TIME after the cutscene when I’m about to board the bigger ship. Without fail. I can’t skip that one, there’s no option. 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If a CS Team Member said 'On Demand' was best, that is what you should use, I guess.  I would suggest 'Max' as Devs (not CS Team Members) have suggested that option in the past.

There are free VPNs available. 

 

Again, good luck.

[Baddxian.3851]

I've also tried using the 32-bit GW2.exe rather than the 64-bit one.  I think it helped with at least one instance I had trouble with...

[steelsox.8645]

I've only been playing gw2 just over two months, noticed this multiple times during 1-80 story quests right at the end of the missions, i figured this could be my connection as was wifi at the time. although no disconnects any other time. I'm now wired with a solid 200+mb connection, have tried all of the troubleshooting fixes multiple times and still have these issues.

 

Have had it happen twice today already, one was absolutely baffling. Started HOT on my 3rd char, no issues with my previous 2 playthroughs, finished the 1st part of the 1st chapter. 2nd and 3rd quests (up to where you meet your first native allies in the tangled depths) and dc'd...was flung BACK TO SILVERWASTES! I actually lost 3 quests worth of progress, still had the rewards in my bag from the completions too. I've left that char sat in silverwastes.

 

Went back to my main after having dc issues in living world series 4 and levelling the above mentioned alt, finished lw4, (after clearing cache/troubleshooting cause of the above) do the first story mission for EOD, cutscene comes up...bam, disconnect.

 

This game is a marvel, I've enjoyed my time in it, shame I didn't get to finish the story but I really cant stomach anymore of this absolute b******t disconnects when I have limited playtime outside of my family and full time job. My times worth more than this.

Edited April 24, 2022 by steelsox.8645

[Xeraan.8519]

2 hours ago, steelsox.8645 said:

I've only been playing gw2 just over two months, noticed this multiple times during 1-80 story quests right at the end of the missions, i figured this could be my connection as was wifi at the time. although no disconnects any other time. I'm now wired with a solid 200+mb connection, have tried all of the troubleshooting fixes multiple times and still have these issues.

 

Have had it happen twice today already, one was absolutely baffling. Started HOT on my 3rd char, no issues with my previous 2 playthroughs, finished the 1st part of the 1st chapter. 2nd and 3rd quests (up to where you meet your first native allies in the tangled depths) and dc'd...was flung BACK TO SILVERWASTES! I actually lost 3 quests worth of progress, still had the rewards in my bag from the completions too. I've left that char sat in silverwastes.

 

Went back to my main after having dc issues in living world series 4 and levelling the above mentioned alt, finished lw4, (after clearing cache/troubleshooting cause of the above) do the first story mission for EOD, cutscene comes up...bam, disconnect.

 

This game is a marvel, I've enjoyed my time in it, shame I didn't get to finish the story but I really cant stomach anymore of this absolute b******t disconnects when I have limited playtime outside of my family and full time job. My times worth more than this.

I feel exactly the same way unfortunately.  I decided to waste my time with a support ticket.  They had me run a network test over about half an hour.  Results showed an average of 10-23ms latency along with 0-1% packet loss.  This is apparently really high latency according to their highly competent support team and automatically makes it my ISP's issue despite the fact that this only occurs during story instances right before a cutscene plays.  They have absolutely no interest in actually diagnosing or fixing the problem.

[Valdor.8142]

I really want to get my characters through the story but I just don't bother as I know I'll just dc at the end of the mission and I've lost all interest in the game because of it. Cant even focus on getting Elite Spec weapons because they are tied behind the story. 

 

Just to add my internet is perfect Computer set up is AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

I can run wvw in zerg fights play meta events for 12hrs straight and not one disconnect, lag or glitch, but try and do a story instance and lololololol nope. 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Valdor.8142

[Tanek.5983]

On 6/19/2018 at 2:34 PM, Jeffrey Vaughn.1793 said:

This is still under investigation, but so far we haven't found a consistent common element or any way to reproduce the problem in-house. I'm subscribed to this thread, so I'm continuing to follow it and read all the posts.

As far as I can see, this is the last dev post on the issue in this thread. Obviously the cause of the disconnects is very elusive, but does anyone know if there has been other communication on it in the 4 years since? It would be good to know for certain that someone currently working at ArenaNet knows this problem still exists in 2022.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Tanek.5983

[Witch of Steam.5138]

Normally I'm not too angry about this 

But after 5 DC's During an attempt at an Achievement Run For the Luminescent ARmor peices, And NO DC's anywhere else in the game Prior 

I'm starting to think That Instances need a massive overhaul 

Or at least the Bare Minimum Amount of stability to Make it functional. 

The real achievement is even GETTING to the part of the instance where the achievement is. A Herculean task More than any of the actual ' challenges'  


Sincerely, How hard can it POSSIBLY Be to look into connectivity? 

SAB , Story Instances, Home instances, Private instances, ETC.  

And Before I get the Regular slew of " It's not a problem for ME so it doesn't Exist " 

It is a problem, for many, many, many people.  Being one of the Lucky Ones doesn't mean this issue doesn't exist.  I've Done cache Clears, I've done settings tweaks , and all the like. My internet connection is Strong and very stable. 

It's an Issue With The Game and Servers , Short, sweet , and non-negotiable. 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Witch of Steam.5138

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

The problem may be that the QA Team/Devs can not reliably, or even at all, reproduce the issue in order to find a fix.  🤷‍♂️

 

From the Knowledge Base:

I reported a bug ages ago, but it’s still not fixed!

Bugs are rarely (if ever) a simple fix! While we investigate every issue, it takes some time to track down the cause, identify and test a fix, and then prepare it for the Live environment. Most bugs will take at least a few weeks for us to resolve, and sometimes longer if we're unable to reproduce the issue or find a solution.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Inculpatus cedo.9234

[undouble.1472]

I (routinely) have issues with disconnects from the GW servers (US EAST)--------which I suspect is due to over-saturation of these (this) server. I note it especially in the LATE afternoon/EARLY evening (weekdays) which I do believe is the most-used timeframe.

 

[Tanek.5983]

On 4/30/2022 at 3:02 AM, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

The problem may be that the QA Team/Devs can not reliably, or even at all, reproduce the issue in order to find a fix.  🤷‍♂️

This is very likely. I don't think anyone seriously believes the devs just haven't looked into the matter of disconnects during the story.

My question is more one of what options have been tried over the years. Can anyone on the dev team direct us on providing more detailed information to help? If someone who consistently disconnects is willing to try, is there a tool that could be run while playing that collects data on what is happening?

Maybe they have done these things and nothing has worked, but we have no way of knowing without more communication on the topic. If such a thing is possible, I'd love to see a collaboration between community and devs to get to the bottom of this.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Tanek.5983

[Wiggely.7320]

On 4/20/2022 at 4:40 PM, Innocente.4271 said:

 What can it hurt to delete the .dat and Cache files and see if the failures still happens?  Especially if you have a 100% fail point to test it out on, like I had. 

I have just completed the Lvl 50 and Lvl 60 story lines without a hitch.  I was having these end of cut scene 'disconnects' quite regularly until I deleted those files and forced the game to recreate them fresh.

It could be those files somehow just get corrupted.  Once corrupted, that would be it, since the game cannot fix them automatically and they are not deleted during the uninstall procedure.

I did, and guess what: I just got thrown out after the Ankha fight!

By now I have done all the suggestions here, only to see the problem return. Sometimes i get through, and sometimes I suddenly don't anymore.

How people like you can seriously maintain this isn't a game issue, is beyond me.

A fresh install, on a new computer, and even than, after your suggestion I deleted the cache and .dat again... only to get dc'ed again after the long Ankha fight!
Do you really think I feel like doing that one again right now? I still have to redo the Eye of Zaithan for the same reason. Another one I don't want to return to. And the one in the spirit zone where you need to return to the living, let's not forget that one.

This is game breaking, it really is.
We are talking about the longest, hardest parts of all storylines, across all expansions... all stuck because of bloody dc's.
And not a single solution seems to continue working for the whole time.
 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Wiggely.7320

[Tanek.5983]

9 hours ago, Wiggely.7320 said:

I did, and guess what: I just got thrown out after the Ankha fight!

By now I have done all the suggestions here, only to see the problem return. Sometimes i get through, and sometimes I suddenly don't anymore.

How people like you can seriously maintain this isn't a game issue, is beyond me.

A fresh install, on a new computer, and even than, after your suggestion I deleted the cache and .dat again... only to get dc'ed again after the long Ankha fight!
Do you really think I feel like doing that one again right now? I still have to redo the Eye of Zaithan for the same reason. Another one I don't want to return to. And the one in the spirit zone where you need to return to the living, let's not forget that one.

This is game breaking, it really is.
We are talking about the longest, hardest parts of all storylines, across all expansions... all stuck because of bloody dc's.
And not a single solution seems to continue working for the whole time.
 

The suggestions in this years-long thread seem to be more superstition than science. If you disconnect in an instance 4 times, but get through on the 5th, someone somewhere will believe it was because you wore your lucky socks that 5th time. Plus, if any of the suggested methods actually fixed it with any degree of consistency, I'm guessing the issue would not be as tough to track down. So we are just left with correlation does not equal causation and deleting files or reinstalling might have just as much of an effect as the phase of the moon.

I admit, though, we have tried superstitions of our own. Dancing or jumping around when listening to lengthy dialogue, moving the mouse and clicking during cutscenes. Doesn't really work, but it is something to do.

[JustAArcheagePlayer.8643]

HEY GUYS I FOUND A SOLUTION: I QUIT MALWAREBYTES, LAUNCHED THE GAME, AND IT WORKED! I was having disconnect issues when it came to the cinematics while playing through the story mode. I was stuck for hours on Victory or Death. 

[Tanek.5983]

5 hours ago, JustAArcheagePlayer.8643 said:

HEY GUYS I FOUND A SOLUTION: I QUIT MALWAREBYTES, LAUNCHED THE GAME, AND IT WORKED! I was having disconnect issues when it came to the cinematics while playing through the story mode. I was stuck for hours on Victory or Death. 

I'll go out on a limb and say this was either a special case, or a coincidence.

I'm glad you got through the story part, but I (and probably many others) do not have Malwarebytes running and already tried just about every variation of turning off anything else that was running. So far, the only thing that had any consistent result was turning off the computer. 😏

[Ornie.1827]

Amazing how this is still not fixed.. I am trying to complete the meta achievement "Seasons of the Dragons", but I am stuck because the story step "Hidden Arcana" keeps disconnecting me after the LAST fight, on the cutscene.. So here I go again, half hour to get through these annoying fights, only to be disconnected again after everything is done. It's extremely annoying and at this point I feel like just rage quitting.

 

I am wondering how deep-rooted this issue is.. Seems like the DC's have something to do with cutscenes, so why not build some code where a player can (temporarily) disable cutscenes? That should maybe circumvent these disconnects, right?

[Mitsuha.3541]

I'm a new player who started playing a few months ago, and been having this issue occasionally with story missions. Just had it happen again in the PoF mission "The Departing", after the dialogue which followed the boss fight concluded. Extremely frustrating, as it is quite a long instance.

 

One would expect that such a long-standing issue would have at least a reliable workaround after so many years. If at least there were checkpoints saved during the instance, so that we don't have to restart from the very beginning, it would save so much time and make the whole experience less frustrating. I love this game, but with this issue it's not always making it easy to do so.

 

Would be nice to have an official update or an acknowledgement at least, as based on the previous comments it looks like the last update was 4 years ago...

[xFaTaLLiMiTx.1548]

So, Im at a bit of a loss. I have been getting disconnected during story instances (usually after a cutscene but since starting PoF it happened during the opening instance during combat). I stopped playing around a month or 2 ago because it was very frustrating restarting 30-40 minutes worth of content because of a disconnect at the very end of an instance. I have since tried a whole number of suggestions to try and fix the solution, some recommended by Anet themselves from the original ticket I submitted at the time, some by variouse different posts across the internet:

Reinstall
Repair
Turn off anti virus
Reset Router
Uncheck "remember email/password" on the login client
Check Dx11 rendering option in settings then restart game
Move around/click mouse/press ability buttons during cutscenes

I have heard reports that some people say it is due to cutscenes somehow putting your graphics card into low power mode and this makes the game think its DC'd but im not sure about this one.

 

I made a new ticket because I had hoped the issue was fixed by now, and for awhile, it was, as I managed to play through chapters 3-6 of living world content before PoF until it once again, disconnected me at the very end of an instance. I went back on the following day and managed to finish it, and just chalked it up to bad luck, however, today it happened again, when starting PoF's first instance. I contacted support with the error code and DxDiag hoping to find some answers, but all I got was what sounded like an automated response stating the following:

 

Mili

Today at 11:25

Hello,

Upon checking your DxDiag, we see that your current operating system is Windows 11. Unfortunately, even though Windows 11 has been released, as such is an unsupported operating system.

If you have any other questions or issues, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Regards,

Mili
Guild Wars 2 Support Team
http://help.guildwars2.com/
 

 

Maybe it is just me, but this seems like a poor response. I have since followed up with a reply to this and hope to hear back, however I did check system requirments and it states windows 7 or better, which further adds confusion.

 

I was hoping to create this thread to gather together any other ideas for potentially fixes for the issue. Even though I own End of Dragons for several months now, i have not played it at all due to these issues stopping me from progressing through the story to reach it, and I am running out of options/ideas on how to fix it.

[xFaTaLLiMiTx.1548]

Ok, an update from myself, to myself, and any others still with this issue. The disconnects seemed to have finally stopped. I was in contact with the support team, and after supplying them with various information and files (hijackthis log file, ISP details, connection method etc). They recommended the following to me:

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

Let's start by preventing programs from automatically starting with Windows, then repairing some Winsock entries. To do this:

1. Press and hold the Windows key and then hit the R key. This should bring up the Run dialog box.
2. Type ""MSCONFIG"" without the quotes, and click ""OK."" This should open the System Configuration Utility.
3. Click on the ""Services"" tab and check the ""Hide All Microsoft Services"" check box near the bottom, then click the ""Disable All"" button. (You MUST click ""Hide all Microsoft Services"")\
4. Click the ""Startup"" tab. Click ""Open Task Manager.""

A list will be generated of all the applications you have set to start when Windows first boots up. Right-click on these applications one by one and select ""Disable."" Once completed, click ""Ok"" to save your changes. You will then be prompted to reboot your PC. Once you return to Windows, try connecting again.
 
Once you return to Windows, use the following instructions to clean up Winsock entries:

1. Click the ""Start"" button to bring up the Start Menu.
2. Type in CMD into the ""Search programs and files"" field but do not hit enter. Doing this will change your start menu to show the program ""cmd.exe.""
3. Right-click on ""cmd.exe"" and select ""Run as Administrator.""
4. Type ""netsh winsock show catalog >C:\LSP.txt"" without the quotes. This will save a file to the root of your C drive called LSP.txt. Please attach that file to this ticket. (We would like this report even if the issue is resolved)
5. Once complete, type ""netsh winsock reset"" without the quotes. When the command is completed successfully, a confirmation appears, followed by a new command prompt line.

Once completed, please try running again by ""right-clicking"" on "".exe"" and selecting ""Run as Administrator.""

 

 

Obviously, this was specific to my problem after I supplied them with the requested information, so there is no guarantee it will work for others, however, I have since managed to play for around 5-6 hours, from the opening of PoF to the introduction of the 3rd map for that expansion, without any disconnects during story or regular gameplay. I hope this info will help others enjoy the game 🙂

Final note, obviously leave out the LSP.txt step as you wont need to do that, since it was a request from the support team for me.

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by xFaTaLLiMiTx.1548

[Stormcrow.7513]

This issue has been around for years....years.

I am done troubleshooting for Anet. 

GW1 had a rejoin instance when clients disconnected...this isn't any new technology. 

 

I can't progress characters through the story. I have tried countless fixes and it seems to be pretty random. I am at my wits end. 

A sad sad shame that I wanted to take a legacy character from GW1 through to Cantha and yet can't. 

 

An anticlimactic end to almost  twenty years of supporting this franchise...off to things that function.