Preparing Game Data

[Mortred-2632]

Greetings! I have trouble launching HOTS, every time “preparing game data” comes along for 1000 mb, and just downloads for hours at low speed even though internet speed is ok. Tried to launch it without battle net but it doesn’t launch. Every time I turn off my laptop this happens. Been to different topics via reddit and support but nothing helped. What can I do? Thanks in advance!

[Kershew]

Hey there,

So there could be a couple of things happening here. It could be something simple like the download settings being corrupted, or there could be some sort of connection related issue between your system and the patch service. There may also be interference from other software on the network or system. The following should help:

Try doing an extended power cycle on your system. Turn off all devices including the modem. Wait 30 minutes, turn on the modem, wait 5 minutes, turn on any network devices, wait 2 minutes, turn on your computer and try the game.

Sometimes firewall or routing software/hardware will have some advanced settings to prioritize and manage types of network traffic. Normally that is not an issue but we have seen situations where it can interfere with the delivery of the data for our games/voice chat.

Let’s try turning off these features:

QoS
SIP ALG
RoG (ASUS Routers Only)
Security firewalls (Some ISP provided modems)

Not all devices will have these options and the steps for turning these functions off will be different depending on the make/model/software version of the devices and programs involved. If necessary look at the documentation for your security and routing products to find out how to turn these options off.

Checking the network limits for the Blizzard Desktop Application:

1. Open the BDA if it is not already open.
2. Click the Blue Battlenet logo on the top left of the app.
3. Choose Settings then Downloads.
4. Scroll down and adjust the Network Bandwidth Settings.

You can try disabling them but they may not solve slow download issues. If disabling does not work, you can try manually setting higher limits than what you are experiencing to see if that forces the client to allow a faster download rate. You may need to try multiple limits to find one that gives you the best potential rate.

Please note that due to global internet usage increases with the ongoing pandemic. Many Content Delivery Networks including the ones we use may intentionally limit the download rates of large files during business hours and primetime usage. In these cases, the only solution will be to initiate the download late at night and let it run overnight for the best potential speeds.
Let’s manually clear the Battlenet Desktop Application and all supporting data from the system. This will not remove existing game clients.

1. Open file explorer/file manager (Right Click Windows Start)
2. Navigate to the folder where the desktop application would normally be installed. Delete that folder if it exists (usually program files x86)
3. Type the following into the address bar (not the search bar): %APPDATA% and press enter.
4. Delete the Bnet and blizzard folders inside the appdata folder if they exist.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with %PROGRAMDATA% %LOCALAPPDATA% and %TEMP%
6. Empty the recycle bin.
7. Now reinstall the app to the C: Drive.

Try running your system in selective startup mode: https://battle.net/support/article/200483

Create a new administrator account: Blizzard Support - Creating a New Administrator Account

Once the account is created, shut down the computer, wait 60 seconds, restart, log into the new profile and try the app/client.

If that doesn’t solve the issue, then I recommend submitting a ticket with an msinfo attached for further investigation. (instructions for collecting that msinfo report will be on the form.)

Click your name at the top right of this page, click support, click contact support.