Unable to Launch DAI from anywhere (Steam, EA App, Origin)
A bit of context, I purchased two copies of DAI. First one was when Origin was still a thing and I purchased it there and I was able to play it just fine.
Then once DAI was re-released on Steam I bought another copy from there, and I was able to play it just fine for a while. Yesterday was the last time I played DAI through Steam without issues.
Usually, this is what happens:
- I launch the game through Steam.
- Steam will run the EA App to auto-login my account. (which I have linked my EA account with my Steam account). I can see that DAI is also listed in the library in EA App.
- Once the EA App is done, DAI will start and I can play the game as usual.
Yesterday was the last time it actually does the above steps. Suddenly today I was about to play the game again and did the same thing. But this time, nothing happened:
- I launched the game through Steam.
- Steam will run the EA App to auto-login my account.
- But the EA App stays open. What's strange is that DAI is no longer listed in my EA App library unlike yesterday. It's like EA App no longer detects that I have the game at all, yet Steam still have it on its list, but unable to launch it.
- I went to Steam and Open the Local Game directory folder. Then I saw something strange. The EXE file DragonAgeInquisition.exe was renamed to DragonAgeInquisition.origin.exe (I might make a typo somewhere because that's how I remember it) and the original EXE file was nowehere to be found.
So I thought it must have been corrupted at some point, so I did what I always do for troubleshooting, uninstall the game. So I uninstall the game via Steam, then make sure I delete any remaining folders. I also signed out of the EA App, and use my Windows Control Panel to uninstall EA App as well. So I want it to be completely clean. I restarted my PC, and started to reinstall the game via steam again. Everything went without a hitch, and I even verify the file installation until it's successful. Now I did the same thing as I always do:
- Launched the game through Steam.
- Steam will treat this as first installation and prepare to download the EA App.
- I login to the EA app using my Steam account as they're already linked.
- Once successful, the EA App is open and DAI is now once again listed in my game library and correctly labeled as managed from Steam.
- But the game still doesn't launch.
- I tried Launching the game through Steam, EA App suddenly closes, then reopens, and I got a message saying "Your latest sync was interrupted" (Please see the attached image for detailed error message).
- I pressed Launch Game and I got another message saying "Failed to upload DAI data to the cloud" with only an OK button (again, attached is the detailed error message).
- I pressed OK, and then nothing happened.
Every time I tried to launch the game through Steam this message always occurs. What's weird is that the second message was saying something about using account on multiple devices. and launching the game from this machine should resolve the issue. It's been on the same machine this whole time and I don't even have EA account log in to my other devices, so this is already weird as it is.
So I tried to do another approach. I uninstalled the game again from Steam. Make sure all the folders are clean. Sign-out and uninstall EA app, and I restarted my PC. This time I manually download the EA app, install it separately and Sign-in again. Once done, I install DAI from the list, and it's successful without any issue. Then I tried to launch the game, the two error messages appear again. And the game just won't launch.
So I tried another approach again, this time I thought, maybe the EA app or Steam is having the issue. So I uninstall the game again, sign-out of EA app, uninstall it. make sure all the folders are cleaned. Restart the PC. This time I downloaded the old Origin Desktop Client. I sign-in again, and download and install DAI from Origin. The installation was successful. But when I tried to launch the game, guess what? Nothing happens. It just process a little, and do a bit of minimising but back to restoring the window and the Play button becomes active again. No matter what I do, I just can't get the game to launch.
I know I'm writing a lot of things here, but I just want to give whoever is reading this all the information as I can give. I know saying something like "DAI App won't launch" is not enough right? So I'm giving all the chronological chain of events that happened with the hope that there's a clue in there somewhere as to what's preventing me to play a game that I paid for "twice" on every single launcher that ever existed for this game.
Is there something that needs to be checked in my account status somewhere of my DAI play counter. Maybe it's detecting that I still have a session in-play somewhere that needs to be reset?