Game not launching on EA App (F1 22)

Hello all!

I recently installed F1 22 through EA Play (not PRO) on my computer (Windows 11) and it failed to launch. By "failed to launch" I mean the following:

1. Click on the F1 22 desktop icon
2. The EA App opens
3. The EA App opens a "Launching game" window indicating that it is now starting to launch F1 22.
4. The small "Launching game" closes.
5. The EA App minimizes
6. Wait for... 6 seconds?
7. The EA App unminimizes.
8. F1 22 has not launched.

If you start by launching the game through the icon in the EA App itself, steps 3 to 8 happen. The application never once launched even after reinstalling both EA App and F1 22.

This is what you would see in Task Manager as steps 1 to 8 above happen:

• F1_22.exe first shows up in the "Apps" section under "EA", alongside other processes.
• F2_22.exe loads in RAM up to around 454136 kB or so.
• F2_22.exe process disappears
• F2_22.exe pops up in its own section under "Background processes"
• F2_22.exe loads in RAM up to around 454136 kB or so.
• F2_22.exe process disappears

At this point, the EA App unminimizes itself. No error messages, no other popups, no sort of indication that something went wrong other than the game not starting.

So I found this log file: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\Logs\EADesktop.log and inspected it to find the following curious logs:

1045 [2023-06-06T12:23:29.370Z] PID: 15176 TID: 25004 INFO (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) Requesting license: 16274530.
1046 [2023-06-06T12:23:29.372Z] PID: 15176 TID: 25004 WARN (eax:: services::drm::checkLicense) Invalid license
1047 [2023-06-06T12:23:29.372Z] PID: 15176 TID: 25004 INFO (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) License not found or needs updating: 16274530. Requesting new license.
1054 [2023-06-06T12:23:34.730Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1055 [2023-06-06T12:23:34.730Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1059 [2023-06-06T12:23:35.252Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1060 [2023-06-06T12:23:35.252Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1064 [2023-06-06T12:23:35.798Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1065 [2023-06-06T12:23:35.798Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1069 [2023-06-06T12:23:36.315Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1070 [2023-06-06T12:23:36.315Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1074 [2023-06-06T12:23:36.805Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1075 [2023-06-06T12:23:36.805Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1076 [2023-06-06T12:23:36.886Z] PID: 15176 TID: 25004 INFO (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) Successfully requested license: 16274530
// The F1-22.exe process terminates at this point, and is spun up again to retry a few seconds later.
1126 [2023-06-06T12:23:44.126Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1127 [2023-06-06T12:23:44.126Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1131 [2023-06-06T12:23:44.612Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1132 [2023-06-06T12:23:44.612Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1136 [2023-06-06T12:23:45.414Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1137 [2023-06-06T12:23:45.414Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1141 [2023-06-06T12:23:45.902Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1142 [2023-06-06T12:23:45.902Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1146 [2023-06-06T12:23:46.434Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 WARN (eax:: services::drm::requestLegacyLicense) Failed to get license: [100008]
1147 [2023-06-06T12:23:46.434Z] PID: 15176 TID: 5288 ERROR (eax:: services::LicenseManager::requestLicense) SDK failed to request new license: 985249808
1148 [2023-06-06T12:23:46.538Z] PID: 15176 TID: 20484 INFO (eax:: components::gameLocalServices::ProcessCoordinator::FsmHost::doProcessActiveGames) Game process terminated
// At this point, the EA App just unminimizes, with no message or anything of the sort.

So I figured this license problem is the issue.

So this is the problem I was facing. Just to be clear, F1 22 could start just fine on another computer. The above "invalid license" issue didn't appear on my 5 years old Windows 10 laptop, but it did on my 1.5 years old Windows 11 desktop.

HOW I SOLVED IT

This solution is painfully simple. Hopefully it actually solves this particular issue 100% of the time:

1. Open the EA App

2. Click on the burger menu on the top left of the window (the option with 3 lines). Click on "Help" then "App Recovery":

3. A popup window will open. If it looks like EA App has frozen after clicking "App Recovery", it has not. You'll have to alt-tab to a window with the EA App icon on it, but that isn't the EA App itself:

3. Press the "CLEAR CACHE" blue button.

Let the app work, you'll have to log in again. After that's done, the game should be able to start.

In my case, that meant I got the see the "Play F1 22, Play F1 22 VR" window for the first time. I've had no issues since.
The above logs were completely different too. The first request for a license returned a "Invalid license" message, but the second request for a new license was successful.

Hopefully this helps someone that might have the same issue.