Forum Discussion

Rising Novice

2 months ago

Mass Effect Andromeda "You are not allowed access to online features"

Yes, another one of these. After spending many hours over multiple days discussing this issue with both EA and Steam support I was finally told to just report my issue here. In short, you have probably heard this one before.

When I boot up Mass Effect Andromeda it greets me with the error message "You are not allowed to access the online features of this game". After following the steps outlined in this ( [PC] Mass Effect Online Access Error in Multiplayer Mode | EA Forums - 9200656 ) forum post to no avail I contacted the EA support for the first time. Over the course of a few hours with multiple support agents attempting to help the end result was, that their internal system does not recognize me owning the game in the first place. They instructed me to reach out to Steam support since I had bought the game through them and ask for "the specifics of the purchase" (The automatic translation making it quite difficult to actually follow what exactly they were trying to tell me by the way). So I did just that, with the Steam Support getting back to me after two days stating that on their end all is fine, I own the game and it is registered in their system. Great, back to EA support I was sent.
I explained my issue for what felt like the 100th time and eventually the support agent figured out that yes, indeed, their system does not recognize any ownership on my account of a product key regarding Mass Effect Andromeda. After telling me that they would help me if they could, they said they would report it to their internal team and sent me here to report my issue once more, hence this post.

I have seen multiple posts about this reaching back many years. Some are marked as resolved, others aren't. Lets see my luck

17 Replies

Arestiel
Rising Novice
1 month ago
Unfortunately I still get the same error message upon launch.
The following are the case numbers I have that should be associated with this issue:
233856618
233675170
I believe that is all the cases I had regarding this issue.
Arestiel
Rising Novice
30 days ago
Its been another 2 weeks since my last message so I felt another poke might be needed. I don't know where this one will end up, above or below the one with the screenshot and case numbers you asked for, Im sure you can find that post. Either way I hope to not be forgotten.
EA_Shepard
Community Manager
29 days ago
Arestiel Apologies for this. It should have been taken care of. Let me take a look and see what is happening and I will message you again.

Just to verify, can I get the EA ID you use when you log into the game?

Also, your Steam username linked to the EA account.
Arestiel
Rising Novice
28 days ago
Sure, what's one more time.

[removed id]

Steam username should be "thegamingguide"

EA ID: Arestiel

CM edit removed PID
EA_Shepard
Community Manager
26 days ago
Arestiel Thanks. I am going to send you a DM on this one.
Arestiel
Rising Novice
1 day ago
So, the important stuff for those facing similar issues first. EA and Steam have different definitions of what an ID is. Steam refers to a collection of numbers as the "Steam ID". When EA Support asked for my Steam account ID I, in my opinion understandably so, provided said numbers...twice. Instead of telling me that this wasn't what they wanted they, EA support, proceeded with various steps that ultimately led nowhere. I can not tell you exactly what they were doing on their end since from what I now know they didn't even have the correct ID to check against. We ended up in DM's where they essentially told me "The ID's don't match up". Only upon my, admittedly fairly salty, reply did they finally tell me the ID I have been providing is not what they wanted or needed. I then provided any form of ID I could find on Steams side. Account name from creation, accounts current display name, the stuff in the accounts link on your profile page. I wish I could say which was the one they really wanted (in my case these are all different from each other) but since that message I have not gotten another reply. Its been well over twenty days, hence I felt I should update this thread. I wont mark this as the solution yet, nothing has been solved after all. I may update again if anything changes, I wouldn't hold my breath.
EA_Shepard
Community Manager
1 day ago
Arestiel Hey, there

I know that whole situation is real frustrating. You are right, their version ID and EA Help is not the same. Essentially EA Help needs, and what players have to verify on their account is the Steam account name. The issue could be that, on a Steam account, you can add a display name, so your "Account Name" what you log into Steam with is not the display name everyone can see. I tested it out myself, and was able to find my own account with the name and not ID numbers.

When contacting support, and they ask for that for Steam specifically, provide them the name on your profile, not numbers. If it is not correct on your account, that means the information was changed. Fastest was to verify that yourself is log into EA.com and under connections, make sure you see the correct Steam ID Name linked to your EA account.