Battle.net Update Agent fell asleep - can't fix or uninstall

Desktop App Tech Support
1

“Agent is sleeping” / “Having trouble launching the Battle.Net update agent”

I had Battle.net install in 2023. I only used it briefly to play Overwatch 2, then didn’t touch it again until 2 days ago when I bought WoW for the first time (6 month subscription & basic War Within). Up until I bought WoW, the Battle.net app seemed to be working fine. When I tried to install WoW, I began having this issue where it would say the agent “fell asleep” and it was trying to wake it up. Waiting for 30 minutes changed nothing. I could no longer access anything on the app besides the settings.

What I’ve tried:

  • Closing all instances of the app via task manager and restarting the app
  • Restarting my PC
  • Delete the cache - couldn’t find it (even with hidden files turned on in windows explorer, I don’t seem to have a cache folder anywhere)
  • Uninstall Battle.net - I can’t uninstall because it can’t contact the update agent
  • Updated drivers
  • Turned off any anti-malware programs that may be blocking Battle.net
  • Run Battle.net launcher as administrator
  • Check ownership of the Battle.net folders (the owner is set correctly to my windows account)
  • Made a ticket for Blizzard (they said I’ve already tried all the stuff they’d normally recommend and to make a post on the forums)

I think I am missing some files. Since 2023 when I first installed Battle.net I have swapped out hard drives. It’s possible I didn’t bring over all the Battle.net files. All I have is 4 files in the %appdata% folder (C Drive), and two Battle.net exe’s along with a handful of files on my F Drive. I don’t see a games folder or Overwatch 2 anywhere so I must’ve not brought that over when I swapped hard drives. I assume some of these missing files are what’s needed, as the issue only happened after I tried installing WoW. I think it might be looking for a games folder that no longer exists, but I’m really not sure.

I cannot uninstall to reinstall the app. Every time I try, it tries to boot up the update agent which is not working. I am stuck with this broken version of the app. Is there a way to manually delete everything? When I delete the files the app still shows up as installed in the windows “Add or remove programs” menu and it fails to install, so I don’t know what else to do.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

2 Likes
2

Try restarting your PC then run Battle.net as administrator If that fails use Blizzard’s Battle.net Repair Tool or reinstall via Control Panel.

3

You can manually delete battle net by going to ProgramData:
windows key + R and type C:\ProgramData and hit enter
Delete anything blizzard related.

Youll also need to remove your registry keys - I would honestly use C cleaner if you haven’t done it before, tis vaguely scary.

HOWEVER: I have been facing this same issue for over a week, see my comment here: https:// us .forums.blizzard.com/en/blizzard/t/update-broke-my-update-agent/55205/2 with no luck even doing a full manual uninstall - it won’t reinstall either because of the agent exception. A WMI flush has been helping alot of people on the forum! but did not resolve it for me. It is worth trying all the troubleshooting advice to see if you have any luck.

Hopefully blizzard patches the bad gateway and gets this resolved for people soon!

4

I’m having this same exact problem. I currently can’t access any of my games on Battlenet because of this crap. The fact that I had to resort to manually deleting the folder Battlenet was in because Blizzard’s actual unistaller isn’t working is nothing less than a clownshow. As is the fact that I can’t even reinstall battlenet to get things working again, because the same error message shows up if I go to download the installer exe from the battlenet site directly. This is absolutely unacceptable.

2 Likes
5

i installed battlenet just fine on 2 new handheld devices and when i returned to my laptop for my old account, it refused to work or uninstall. Im thinking of upgrading my windows but it may be irrelevant

6

I have a fresh install on a factory reset Steam deck. same issue. Is there a way to make the installer use an archived version of the updater? Like someone has the files from an earlier install handy?

7

same issue here, on both laptop and desktop. + i get the WoW not launching but is running in task manager.