This thread is a correctly-named version of this slightly-older thread started by another player: Fail to go online
Symptoms:
Game load after clicking on Diablo II splash screen is longer than usual
After a short wait – presumably while an internal call to fetch online characters is timing out – the main screen loads with no characters populated in the right column, and the “Offline” tab is selected by default.
Clicking the “Online” tab shows a dialog with the exact string in this topic title.
After performing step 3, you can click on “Create New” while the “Online” tab is selected. This brings up the class selection screen, after which you are brought back to the main screen in step 2, again with the “Offline” tab selected by default. Character creation appears to fail (which isn’t surprising, given that we were unable to fetch online characters in the first place).
Hi! I have managed to resolve this issue by using the “Scan and Fix” option (gear icon next to “play” button) in the battle.net launcher. It takes a long time to scan, then briefly asks to be allowed to make changes to the computer. Say yes, relaunch, online characters are back! I hope this helps!
Yeah… Nevermind. All characters gone again 1 minute later… At least I know they’re still in the server somewhere? Sorry. Waiting on reply from tech support…
All of my online characters were back for a moment though, so there’s hope. It has to be a server communication issue, meaning it’s on their end… They have to find a way to resolve it. I may get impatient if it takes them longer than a day, and I may try a complete uninstall, full re-download and install, but I strongly believe it is an issue between account data and their side server communication… Fingers crossed that they care enough to resolve it. (not likely, knowing Blizzard…)