Battle.net App Update Loop

Talked my tech challenged guildmate through uninstalling and installing a fresh game and it worked for him so far.

Not saying it will fix everyone but it is worth trying once at least. For the rest of you suffering, I hope you get help. I will update if his problem returns.

Been Having this scanning/update loop issue for almost a month now. Im not sure why this isnt being fixed. We pay to play this game… Would be nice to be able to play. I also thought that the Update on tue/wed would fix this issue. No Luck. Not sure what do anymore, Yall Don’t even Acknowledge it’s happening.

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I got it to work for about a day an half by deleting the launcher and removing the WTF, Interface and Cache folders in my retail file. Logged out and in a few times with no issue. But, the update loop is back again this afternoon.

I really think this dang loop is causing me to have DC’s issue right now …I have done everything to stay online with this game now…my comcast main trunk line was replaced …all connections replaced…new modem from them and I am still getting DC even though Comcast says there is nothing wrong with my internet now.

I have reinstalled the game and bnet app…and still getting it.

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try running the game using - Wow.exe - from the retail (or classic if you have it installed) folder. this way is to bypass the Battle.net Launcher. if the realm list is incompatible then it is another problem that maybe out of your control.

That’s how it feels. It’ll be a year before an actual fix is in place at this rate.

The battle.net app is borked, fix it already. This is stupid. What update can it possibly be waiting on? Nothing else is doing anything. Is Blizzard-Activision that compromised now?

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For an issue that cropped up 21 days ago, you seem to have not made the issue better, only worse. Maybe an update on what you have discovered over the period would convince otherwise.

My download manager right now has a DL named Pre-release update available…I have it turned off right now as I have been having huge issue with my bnet app and staying connected to the game…its a mess for me…

Oh wow, I thought this problem was just me! I have been having problems with my updates as well.

Sounds about right.

Mine has nothing available it just says there is an update for everything, but there isn’t.

Windows user here, this problem went away on its own for me… for a couple weeks, then it started up again a few days ago

I had to reinstall the Battle.net app to make the issue go away again, following the instructions on this blue post (except I did NOT create a new user account):

Of particular note was the Battle.net folder in C:\ProgramData, which was so stubborn I had to enable the Windows “Administrator” account just to properly delete it; even my main user account (WITH admin privileges) couldn’t do it.
(to enable admin account, you have to load Command Prompt (Admin) then enter “net user administrator /active:yes” without quotes, then switch user and select Administrator)

When I reinstalled Battle.net, I made sure to put it OUTSIDE the “C:\Program Files (x86)” folder, instead I chose a new folder that didn’t have the weird Windows Program Files restrictions

Logged in, pointed it to my existing WoW installation, and it properly updated and let me load the game!

I hope this helps someone

I posted some of this once before and pretty much got downvoted into oblivion by folks who don’t really know better or aren’t aware of everything involved.

Yes, Blizzard is attempting to solve this, but no, it’s not essentially a Blizzard issue.

Some, most probably, inexpensive or free anti-malware software adjusts file meta-data in order to prevent ransomware attacks (or at least try to prevent them - this method is not terribly effective, but it’s common).

NEW files get written just fine, but UPDATES to files can get lost - they’re saved but not saved in a sense. They’re not “committed” (in technical terms) because the meta-data says not to unless approved by the anti-malware.

Sometimes registering the software with the anti-malware is not possible or fails internally.

Windows default protection and Malware Bytes are two that do this and also have the occasional problem (by occasional, I don’t mean each machine has an occasional problem - I mean occasionally a system update will cause all machines using these products to have the problem). I’ve seen it with McAfree and Norton as well.

There is a solution, but it involves several steps that have to be taken in the correct order.

  • Replace your anti-malware software with something less basic. Two that I know work are Kaspersky (Russian in origin and somewhat suspect because of the endemic criminal activity there - enough so that most European governmental computers are prohibited from using it) and Bitdefender (Romanian in origin). These two are neck and neck the best two available at any price and at least Bitdefender is free (I think there’s a free version of Kaspersky as well, but I’m not certain. I’m gonna assume Bitdefender going forward with this, but substitute Kaspersky if you wish.

  • Once Bitdefender is in place and has completed its initial scan, you are still left with the meta-data from the PREVIOUS anti-malware, so you have to reset it. For most things, you can simply copy the folder where the files live to another location, delete the original, and the rename the copy as the original. The COPIES don’t get the meta-data settings of the originals. They get default settings. But for program files you’ll want a reinstall. so I recommend this:

  1. Copy (Ctrl-C, not Ctrl-X) your WTF folder somewhere safe. This contains all your add-on settings (assuming you have addons).
  2. Uninstall the game.
  3. Reinstall the game.
  4. Paste your WTF folder back where it was to start with under its original name.

This should fix the problem.

I’ve been running Bitdefender for a decade and every time this issue pops up (and it does every few years) it ends up being the fault of anti-malware software.

Try this or not. No one’s making you.

But I’ve not had this issue at all and if it were Blizzard’s software, there’s no real explanation for that.

Again, Bitdefender alone will not solve this. Once the meta-data on your files has been set, you have to unset it. There are ways to go about this without a reinstall, but they’re so finicky that I don’t want to attempt to explain them. This solution is simpler, if a bit more time consuming, and it should work just fine.

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I hope that Blizzard finds a solution for this issue that affects people on pc, mac, and linux.

Unfortunate that bitdefender didn’t solve the issue for you.

BD won’t solve the problem by itself. This is the trope that showed up earlier and I gave up on correcting.

If you have EVER had WoW installed with a different anti-malware package, even just Windows’ own, you’ll need to clear the meta-data tags on the underlying files to fix it.

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I took the time to install bitdefender, do a scan, uninstall hearthstone, and reinstall hearthstone. And I am happy to report that when I closed the battle.net app and relaunched it…Hearthstone started an update.

Hello everyone,

There were a couple of bugs that occurred in recent Battle.net Agent updates which caused permission issues for game installs and resulted in “update loops” for players. Each of those bugs have now been resolved with the latest Battle.net app and Agent versions. The issue should not show up with fresh installs of the Battle.net desktop app or the games themselves.

To verify if you have the latest Battle.net and Agent versions: Open the Battle.net desktop app, click on the Battle.net logo in the top left, select Settings, then click About on the left side. At the time of this post these are the latest versions:

Battle.net Version 2.7.0.13177
Battle.net Update Agent Version 2.25.5.7614

If you’re still experiencing updating issues with game installs, we recommend doing a full wipe and reinstall of the Battle.net desktop app.

  1. In Windows 10 go to Start → Settings
  2. Click on Apps
  3. Uninstall the Battle.net desktop app
  4. Press Windows key + R
  5. Type the following into the Run window and hit Enter: %APPDATA%
  6. Delete the Battle.net and Blizzard folders inside the appdata folder if they exist.
  7. Repeat steps 4-6 with %LOCALAPPDATA% and %PROGRAMDATA%
  8. Empty the recycle bin.

Now reinstall the Battle.net desktop app: https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/apps/battle.net/desktop

Afterwards the Battle.net app should recognize the game install and attempt to repair it if needed. If you do experience the “update loop” issue again you may need to uninstall and reinstall the game itself to correct the issue.

Should anyone come across this thread in the future please contact us and include your DXDIAG and MSINFO files which will assist with investigating the problem further. Thanks!