I’m trying to install WoW on my Mac for the free weekend and it downloads about 1GB (of 58ish) and then freezes, saying it can’t download the data. I’ve looked up previous posts and solutions and wiped all Blizzard games and apps (including Battle Net) and re-installed Battle Net and it still won’t work.
It will install Diablo 3 and Hearthstone just fine, but WoW just won’t budge past 1GB before giving me an error that it can’t download the files.
I’ve also had WoW installed before on this Mac so I know it’s possible but something’s not working properly this time.
Yes. I have 99.9% of WoW downloaded. The issue is that when I launch through Battlenet it tries to do a very small update of 1.71mb, freezes, then kicks me out with an error.
I’ve taken to just launching WoW directly from the retail folder and it seems to work fine. Must not need that last 1.71mb of data for anything important.
Sorry to hear you’re having issues with installing WoW… if you are able to launch the game directly, then that is a suitable workaround… the final bit of data is likely a zone or content you haven’t encountered yet, but it may be an issue down the line.
With Macs, the bulk of issues we see are due to permission restrictions on various files or folders.
Let’s make sure your operating system isn’t imposing any unnecessary restrictions on the software, and that it has permission to do what it needs to, such as patch existing game files and create new ones. Here are the steps you’ll want to try (do the first set of steps, then retest, if it’s not working, proceed to the second, etc.):
Here’s how I got it to install (and you’re probably not gonna like it)
I basically had to baby sit the install the entire time, and every time I got the error I clicked away the message then clicked Update to continue the install in tiny increments. I had to repeat this 100+ times to get the full game as it never did trigger the “Playable” state for me. The entire install remained red, but every so often I would go into the install folder and try and launch WoW directly.
Eventually it let me in the game and then proceeded to continue downloading in the background as I played, but even that stopped eventually, so I still had to keep installing it in bits through BNet until it was done. It took me two days.
However, even still today it refuses to download the last 1.71mb of data, though the game plays perfectly fine if I launch it directly from the install folder.
Blizzard needs to get on this and fix the issue because it’s clearly a WoW issue and not a user problem. I can download Diablo 3, Hearthstone, StarCraft 2 no problem. It’s ONLY World of Warcraft this is happening with.
We’ve seen some similar issues in the past with the installs stopping just a few megabytes before the end and in many of those cases they were network related. If you have the option, we’d recommend seeing if you can grab the last part of the download while on a different network. If you have a phone and data plan that supports tethering, then testing with the mobile connection would be one way to do this.
World of Warcraft was unchecked. So I checked the box and tried again. Same issue whether the box is checked or not.
However, I tried connecting to my mobile network through tethering and it downloaded the last 1.71mb and completed the installation. That’s a good solution for that last little bit, but I wouldn’t be able to download 58GB on the tether.
What is it about my ethernet connection that WoW doesn’t like, but Diablo, StarCraft, Hearthstone, etc is perfectly fine with?
EDIT: As a side note: I’m also on High Sierra not Mojave because I have programs I need for work on the Mac that won’t work with Mojave, so upgrading the OS isn’t an option for me.
Wouldn’t say its the ethernet connection specifically causing issues. If the tethered connection worked then this would narrow it down to either a setting on the router or how the connection is being routed. Previous cases we’ve seen were often on university networks where the security may be blocking the connection.
With that said, making sure the ports here are forwarded may help. As well, if you have a separate router and modem, then bypassing the router and connecting directly to the modem may also help.
It looks like the issues impacting the area where most of these reports came from has been resolved. Please post back if you are still having issues installing WoW after a computer restart!
