When I try to start Plants vs zombies, I always get the same error message. It says I haven't activated the game, even though I was able to play it normally on Origin. I also have some ingame time. Any way to fix this?
Same issue. Had it for years and this week it started asking for a registration code, which it won't allow me to enter.
I got on with support and they walked me through clearing the cache, repairing, and reinstalling the game. No joy.
@in2action was 100% correct. I was having this issue as well. I originally had the Origin app installed and had played Plants vs Zombies several times before. However, now it looks like the Origin app is very dead, and the old license file was causing the issue. I ensured Plants vs Zombies was closed (easy to do since it wasn't working) and then I deleted the following file
C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License\71592.dlf
Then I reopened Plants vs Zombies, and it launched without issue. I went back to the folder listed above, and a new license file with the exact same name was in the folder. So it must have downloaded/activated the license from EA once it launched. This is absolutely a bug, and I would hope that EA would be looking at a way to resolve this issue.
Unfortunately for me, I'd tried uninstalling/reinstalling several times, so I have once again lost all my progress on Plants vs Zombies. Good thing this game has high replay value. Although, if it didn't, I might not have had to troubleshoot a 13 year old game :-)
Good luck everyone
Community ManagerI can't seem to be able to find this so called licenses folder. I'm using Windows 11 so it may be different than other users, like instead of Program Data, it's Program Files, and the Electronic Arts folder in said folder doesn't have a Licenses folder, so maybe it's located somewhere else?
I discovered that ProgramData is a hidden folder you have to use the View option to make show up. it has fixed the issue.
thanks ya'll!
Community Manager
@HoshinoSOL wrote:
I discovered that ProgramData is a hidden folder you have to use the View option to make show up. it has fixed the issue.
thanks ya'll!
This is a good call out. In most cases, depending on how Windows was installed on the PC, most of those folders are not hidden.
Just in case anyone else runs into this issue, you can make changes to the Hidden Files and Folders Here!
Cheers!
Fantastic, I had a feeling there would be something buried in there somewhere :-)
I just ran into this problem myself. I had not played this game in a while now (my local save and cloud save were both the same date: Jan 3 2022) so I'm sure it was last played on the older Origin App. When I tried to start it I ran into this issue. The games catalog (the "buy" area) says it's in my library.
I'm hoping it's not a case where EA figures the game is so old now it's not worth bothering with coming up with a solution.
So I downloaded Plants Vs Zombies from EA, and I didn't download it off of Origin, and all of a sudden, the game won't open.
Upon booting the game, I got a window informing me that I had to activate the game on my origin account despite the fact that I didn't download through origin.
Does anyone know how to fix this? When I say EA, I mean on the windows PC. I downloaded the new EA play app on PC.
