I can try that and I’ll be back if it doesn’t work.
Like I said classic works but retail doesn’t?
I have now reset my entire computer and it still isn’t fixed.
Hi again Borathal
The Battle.net launcher is installed on C drive now - correct. Are you still attempting to install the game on external drive?
We should take a look at your DXDiag system report.
The second section of page has DXDiag report instructions - we don’t require the MSinfo report.
That will be a wall of text. If you have issues pasting on the Forum here go ahead and put it up on pastebin.com. Provide the link code portion of the URL - example below.
(The green bold portion at the end of this example link: https://pastebin.com/Qk28Ed1P <=== this code)
Alternately you can place the link in a Preformatted Text box. Paste the link in the chatbox - then highlight it. Click the preformatted text button along the top of the chatbox - looks like this </>
Will look like this example afterwards:
https://pastebin.com/xxxxxxxx
There are also installation/update issues since a hotfix crash around the time of your last post. I hope you aren’t caught up in that.
I deleted my cache lastnight and it didnt work either. What did work was going to retail and deleting data folder. It did not mess up any settings or addons and took about 15 mintues to redownload.
I tried literally everything. Even deleting All traces of Battle.net on the registry, formating a new drive, and starting everything fresh. All games work but WoW.
I am almost certain that this issue is related to their servers not being able to handle all requests to download such a large game. However, instead of admitting the issue and helping their clients (US), what they do is keep forwarding you to those troubleshooting steps which in reality won’t work because the issue is with their infrastructure.
Most people reading it here have already tried deleting the ProgramsData Battlenet folder, uninstalling the launcher, trying different drives, no other software running, no firewall, no anti-virus, all perfect system administrator settings.
Come on, what else is there to do until Blizzard comes over and says “Hey guys, just chill out until we have fewer requests to download the game; it’s not user error, it’s on us”
But they won’t do that, so we are all here struggling to wait and trying different things, wasting our time…
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Same thing is happening to me, stuck in an initialization loop while trying to download a fresh install. Already deleted and reinstalled Battlenet, updated my drivers, nothing works.
How the hell is this still a thing after so many years? Its pathetic. Was thinking of returning to try out Dragonflight but I can’t even get the base game downloaded without a headache. I don’t get paid to fix this damn game.
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ya im at a loss my self now. i uninstalled both battle net and wow and it STILL sits at initializing. not sure what else i can do.
They don’t GAF, their “influencers” can still play and pimp the game that’s all they care about.
Hey there everyone,
First, thank you all for taking the time to report this. We aren’t aware of any server-side problems that would be preventing WoW’s updates, and because of this we can’t say for sure whether there is a common denominator causing this issue to be widespread. If there is a problem impacting the patch server, we would expect to see a flood of reports instead of just a few reports over a few days such as this thread. In most cases, we find that “Initializing…” getting stuck is typically caused by a conflicting third-party program, damaged/corrupted local Battle.net files, or a problem connecting to the patching server. As Tratt mentioned, the troubleshooting steps below should have the most impact:
-
Fully update or temporarily uninstall antivirus programs which may be interfering with your connection to the patching server. If you’d like more information on troubleshooting security applications, click here
-
Reinstall the Battle.net Desktop App with these steps:
• Uninstall the Blizzard Battle.net App (skip Step 6 for now, we will re-install later).
• Next (before re-installing) let’s delete any Battle.net, Blizzard, and/or Blizzard Entertainment folders in the Windows temporary file locations below. If you don’t see all 3 folders in each location, that is okay—just delete the folders you have):
- Press Windows Key + R and type: %LOCALAPPDATA%. Delete any Battle.net, Blizzard, and/or Blizzard Entertainment folders.
- Repeat the process for %APPDATA%, %TEMP%, and %PROGRAMDATA%. Delete any Battle.net, Blizzard, and/or Blizzard Entertainment folders.
• Finally, re-install the App.
If the error persists, many potential problems related to your installation of Windows can be resolved by creating a new administrator account, logging into it, and testing on the new account.
If the issue is fixed on the new Admin account, this could indicate damaged or missing Windows system files or an issue with how the old user account is configured. This is somewhat common, and the easiest fix is to move any user-specific files that you wish to keep from the old user account to the new admin account. You can also work with Microsoft’s Support to troubleshoot the problem with the old account if preferred.
If the problem continues, temporarily test a different network such as a mobile hotspot to determine whether the problem is isolated to your current network.
Hopefully, one of these steps will do the trick. Please let us know if you have any questions or run into additional issues.
Sat there for about 5 min …
I stopped and restarted computer.
10 min later I got it to update.
Oh and I had battle.net open all night.
Set to auto update…still 15 - 20 min of whatever.
…
I just ran into this issue on my PC too and reinstalling Battle.net alone didn’t seem to do anything for me.
However, what did seem to fix it for me was launching the command prompt (or Terminal in Windows 11) as an administrator and running the following command:
SFC /scannow
After that, I restarted my PC and tried installing World of Warcraft again. Then it worked!
Hopefully this is to some help to people who encounter the same issue.
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Good to see Hashirimasu - thanks for reporting your solution.
Blood and thunder, this actually worked for me. Thank you so much!
Thanks for reporting that Chirnent. I will link a tutorial for anyone else wanting to run Windows System File Check.
How to Repair Windows 11 with SFC and DISM (winaero.com)
The tutorial is for Win 11. Win 10 is basically the same steps with the exception of directly opening a Administrators Command Prompt instead of through Windows Terminal.
(To open Administrator Command Prompt in Windows 10 type cmd in Search box. The Command Prompt result should appear - select Run as Administrator found in right column.)
I’m also trying to come back and try out dragonflight. I’ve tried everything listed on this thread (including trying with my antivirus turned off), but I still am stuck on initializing (2145571/2145571). And, yes, this is a fresh install on my laptop.
I feel like something with the most recent windows 10 update is causing issues with Battle.net and updates, at least when my PC was forced to restart and install a recent windows update is where I have run into similar issues. I’ve had to reinstall battle.net once so far to get updates to work again, today it worked, although I had to force restart Battle.net by closing with with task manager and relaunching it, in which it still took a very long time to start the update.
Thankfully it worked this time, I am concerned though that it will eventually break again and will force me to reinstall battle.net in the future.
Hope this helps for my issue, my DXDiag report:
https://pastebin.com/bY1hiC8t
Hi Thelonemoose
You mention you disabled the Antivirus - what Antivirus are you using there?
I notice that nice Asus notebook has the Game First network software. Is that installed. Software like that (Dell - Killer networking) has a history of borking the Wow connection.
If installed I would disable or set to default any functions it may be performing. If it was my notebook it would be gone the way of an uninstall.
[Gaming NB] GameFirst VI - Introduction | Official Support | ASUS USA
Got the offer for 3 free days of playtime to checkout the new expansion and then getting hit with this error.
Talk about frustrating, sorry I even tried. I agree with the above poster that rather than take credit for something being wrong with their program / server they say it is the end users fault.
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