Critical Bug: Trade Chat State Desynchronization (PS5)
Trade chat on PS5 has been experiencing a state desynchronization bug where the server incorrectly flags accounts, causing intermittent loss of trade chat functionality.
Platform & Issue
- Platform: PlayStation 5
- Severity: Critical - affects core trading functionality
- Frequency: Intermittent (randomly starts/stops working)
Symptoms
Trade chat shows as “connected” in UI
Cannot send or receive messages despite being “connected”- Error message: “You can only activate trade chat after profanity filter is enabled”
- Profanity filter is already disabled in settings (screenshot available)
- Party chat and whispers work perfectly fine
Reproducibility Pattern
The bug is intermittent and cannot be reliably reproduced, but follows this pattern:
When it breaks:
- Trade chat suddenly stops working mid-session
- Shows as connected, but messages don’t send/receive
- Profanity filter error appears randomly
Temporary workarounds that SOMETIMES work:
- Logging out completely and back in (50% success rate)
- Restarting the console (30% success rate)
- Switching from WiFi to wired connection or vice versa (40% success rate)
- Changing world tiers or restarting the game (20% success rate)
Important: When trade chat starts working again, zero network configuration changes were made - proving this is a server-side session/state issue.
Technical Analysis
This appears to be a server-side session state bug where:
- The server incorrectly marks the player session as “restricted” or “muted”
- The profanity filter state becomes desynchronized between client and server
- Client shows filter as disabled, but server thinks it’s unconfigured
- Server silently drops all trade chat messages without notifying the client
- Forcing a new session (relogging, IP change) sometimes fixes it temporarily
Why Network Configuration is NOT the Issue
I have verified the following (all correct):
- UPnP enabled on router
- NAT Type 2 (Moderate)
- All required ports open (TCP: 1119, 3478-3480 | UDP: 1119, 3074, 3478-3479, 6120)
- Tested multiple DNS servers (Cloudflare, Google)
- Party chat and whispers work 100% of the time
- Trade chat works intermittently without ANY network changes
The fact that it works sometimes without changing anything proves this is not a network/firewall issue.
Impact on Gameplay
- Cannot reliably participate in trading economy
- Miss trading opportunities during the brief windows when it works
- Forced to use external Discord/Reddit for trading (defeats in-game feature purpose)
- Other console players report identical behavior across different ISPs/regions
Request for Development Team
This is a critical server-side bug that requires investigation:
- Check trade chat session initialization logic for console platforms
- Investigate profanity filter state synchronization between client/server
- Review why forcing new sessions (relogging, IP changes) sometimes resolves it
- Add proper error logging to identify why server marks sessions as restricted
This is not a “user configuration” issue - multiple players across different networks experience identical intermittent behavior. The server-side session management for trade chat on console platforms needs to be fixed.
Evidence Available
- Screenshots of profanity filter settings
- Video showing “connected” status with no messages sending/receiving
- Logs of multiple attempts at workarounds
Please escalate this to the engineering team. Trade chat has been broken on console for 18+ months with no official response or fix.
**UPDATE: Trade chat just started working again** Posting this 10 minutes after creating the topic. I did NOTHING different: - Same network configuration - Same PS5 settings - Just logged in normally after 2 days of it being broken This proves the intermittent nature of the bug - it’s server-side session assignment, not client configuration. The fact it randomly works/breaks without any changes on my end confirms this is a session state desynchronization issue on Blizzard’s servers.