[New Report] Mass Effect Online Pass-Access Error For Multiplayer Modes

Reaching out here because I'm at the absolute end of my rope. I've been going back and forth with people from EA Help for the last 3 days regarding this and they keep sending me a new agent with each response and none of them are actually reading my ticket. I'm so frustrated that I want to rip my hair out at the root!

I've followed every step outlined regarding this issue from the insanely helpful people around these forums -- reach out to EA Help, specifically say Mass Effect 3 - Entitlement, sent screenshots specifically of the "Online pass required to access online features" screen, outlined everything, and not a single person of the like six agents they've sent me even bothered to comprehend what I wrote them. The first agent asked for the email I use for my account, if it's still active, and my EA username -- all stuff to confirm and junk. Then a different agent responded to me sending me a link about how to clear my cache, which I did and it didn't help. A third agent came in and send me a link about Microsoft connection troubleshooting, a fourth agent asked me "what DLC in specific is causing me issues," a fifth sent me the SAME link about Microsoft connection troubleshooting, and I flew off the handle.

I'm just praying to any deity that'll listen that somebody who can read and understand the issue from EA's support sees this and fixes it because I'm genuinely on the verge of a full-on collapse over this whole friggin' ordeal.

holger1405
2 years ago
@tallventii

Please clear your temp files:

Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time

Into the new window, type or copy & paste: "%temp%" (Without the quotes.) > hit "ENTER"

Now your Windows Explorer should have brought you to the "C:\Users\>your user name<\AppData\Local\Temp" folder. > Delete all files and folders in it.
(If some files or folders can't be deleted, reboot and try again.)

Then:

Make sure EA app and Steam are closed.

Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time.

Type or copy and paste "%ProgramData%\Electronic Arts\EA Services" (without the quotes) into the new Window > ENTER

Move the "License" folder to your desktop.

Test.

67 Replies

rococozy
2 years ago
Sounds good. Appreciate you looking into it further.
holger1405
Hero+
2 years ago
@rococozy

After you reinstalled, the game is still not showing inside the "Apps" control panel in Windows?

(Press the Windows key and "i" at the same time > Apps)
rococozy
2 years ago
Hey @holger1405, weirdly no, it doesn’t show up there. And that’s the case whether I reinstall it on my C (SSD) or D (HDD) drives. I usually result to manually deleting the game and install files to remove it.
EA_Shepard
Community Manager
2 years ago
@rococozy The account itself is in good standing. I know you said you reinstalled it, but if you are playing through Steam, verify the files and launch it again. Or, log into the EA app as there should be a game icon on there as well, and repair the game.

If you are playing through Steam, both apps and the game need to be on the same drive as well. If the game isn't showing up as able to uninstall as stated, that could be a part of the issue. Your game and registry arent matching the what is linked to the account. There is a mismatch somewhere.
holger1405
Hero+
2 years ago
@rococozy

Additional to @EA_Shepard and if it still not showing up in "Apps":

Please create a DxDiag in text file format and post it with your next reply. You can do that with the "Choose file" button at the bottom right corner of the reply window.

Also:

1. Hit Windows key and X.
2. Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” or "Windows Terminal (Administrator)", whichever option is offered.
3. Inside PowerShell, CMD or Terminal enter or copy and paste: “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Checkhealth” without quotes. > ENTER.
4. If errors are found, notify us. If no errors were found reaped steps 1 & 2.
5. Inside PowerShell, CMD or Terminal enter or copy and paste: “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes. > ENTER.
6. The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here.
7. After it reaches 100% reaped steps 1 & 2
8. Inside PowerShell, CMD or Terminal enter “sfc /scannow” without quotes > ENTER.
10. Post the message you receive at the end of the processes here.
rococozy
2 years ago
Okay some good news: the Online Pass error is gone!
I had repaired it a few days ago to no avail. But I tried starting the game offline, then turned on my internet and manually logged on in-game. Not sure if that exact process triggered the game to recognize the entitlement, but I can get into multiplayer now. I have it through EA, not Steam, so I didn't need to go though any process there thankfully.
I did not have DLC access in multiplayer upon launching, so I re-repaired the game, it reinstalled them, and now I'm getting DLC access error I had before (even says they're corrupted??). That said, I've still been able to access the MP DLC, and have even have been able to play a few games, so it doesn't seem to be materially affecting my gameplay experience? I'll report back if anything happens. (As a side note, this did lead me to some digging in my EA account and account game/DLC permissions and purchase history, and ME3 wasn't a listed key, and I have a weird archipelago of allowed DLC, which may have led to all of these issues. But even purchased DLC get the access error.) But I digress... @EA_Shepard, massive shout out for helping me (and everyone) through this issue. Thank you!
As for the app not showing up, @holger1405, I really appreciate this guide. I haven't gone through these steps yet but I'll give it a try and report back. I feel like I've manually deleted the game files so often that it has something to do with this weird lack of communication between certain parts of my system!
Thanks all!
EA_Shepard
Community Manager
2 years ago
@rococozy I made some last-minute changes with the Online Pass, so I'm guessing that worked after those repairs.

With the DLC, That may have changed when the game was changed on the accounts. But, with that DLC error, you can follow the same steps and just delete them from your install location and reinstall them. As long as you own them, and they are entitled to your EA account, they would show up under managed content. That one is way less of an issue than the Online Pass error is.