Windows Can't Start Game - Could not fully initialize Epic Online Services

[XtremeRevolution]

I play this game with my sons. Worked fine for several days, then my one son's stopped loading entirely.

Error message saying "Could not fully initialize Epic Online Services: Not logged into Epic Online Services or running in Offline mode.

This is a STEAM-only install.
STEAM is in online mode.
Game worked fine yesterday, won't start today.
Already tried validating integrity of game files, already tried deleting and reinstalling the game, already tried starting game launcher and cleaning all game data. Nothing has resolved it.
Firewall is not blocking 7D2D.
No antivirus installed outside of the Windows 11 built in.
Running "Launch game without EAC" doesn't change anything.

Game no longer even allows offline mode. Error message shows up saying the game must be started in online mode once.

There are no mods installed. Log file attached. Please assist.

 

[LittleNightma]

If you're still experiencing this issue, you can try restarting both your router and computer and if you haven't already, exclude the game client from your antivirus/firewall. Excluding can help boost performance even if it's not the cause of your issue. If your son's game recently updated to 2.3 Stable, you may need to validate game files more than once (2-3).

 

[valeskas]

I play this game with my sons. Worked fine for several days, then my one son's stopped loading entirely.

Seems to be this error from log:
2025-09-15T23:02:44 14.633 INF [EOS] Connection test failed: Invalid URI: The hostname could not be parsed.

I think it tries to open https://api.epicgames.dev/sdk/v1/default in this particular case.
Idk why it can fail, maybe try opening this url in the browser to check if its game-specific or computer-wide

The game uses epic online services even for steam install, its unrelated to the store.

 

[XtremeRevolution]

Thanks for the replies.

Rebooting the router and his desktop worked the first time we tried it. Then the issue came back the next day. Yesterday the issue persisted annoyingly until myself and my other son quit the game, my son with the issue restarted his desktop, and then he joined without using being in-game.

Today, the issue yet again came back. I quit the game, and he couldn't load. My other son quit the game, and then he was able to load his game.

There seems to be an issue with this game when there are multiple people using it on the same network. My other son and I have never had an issue loading the game and we're on the same wireless network.

 

[LittleNightma]

Thanks for the replies.

Rebooting the router and his desktop worked the first time we tried it. Then the issue came back the next day. Yesterday the issue persisted annoyingly until myself and my other son quit the game, my son with the issue restarted his desktop, and then he joined without using being in-game.

Today, the issue yet again came back. I quit the game, and he couldn't load. My other son quit the game, and then he was able to load his game.

There seems to be an issue with this game when there are multiple people using it on the same network. My other son and I have never had an issue loading the game and we're on the same wireless network.

Possible your internet isn't strong enough to handle multiple people playing at the same time. Ethernet might work, but I highly recommend doing exclusions if you haven't done so already.

 

[XtremeRevolution]

Possible your internet isn't strong enough to handle multiple people playing at the same time. Ethernet might work, but I highly recommend doing exclusions if you haven't done so already.

Netgear Orbi network which benchmarks around 500 Mbps on my laptop, on a frontier Fiber 2Gb connection.

My son that's having the issues is on a desktop running onboard wireless with an external antenna, which benchmarks 70Mbps.

My other son's desktop benchmarks about 85Mbps.

It's entirely possible that the Netgear Orbi system I'm running (which is at least 6 years old at this point) might be the cause of the issues, but ethernet isn't an option where the desktops are located so I have to figure something out.

7D2D is already set to be allowed through the Windows firewall so I'm not sure what else I can do in that area.

 

[Space4Ace]

I'm no expert but 70 - 85 Mbps is kind of low for a game like 7 Days to Die which has so much data to transfer back and forth. A wired connection is always best. Wi-Fi? Not so good.
But if you say it was working fine and suddenly started to give problems, then it might be something else.

 

[NiteViper]

I play this game with my sons. Worked fine for several days, then my one son's stopped loading entirely.

Error message saying "Could not fully initialize Epic Online Services: Not logged into Epic Online Services or running in Offline mode.

This is a STEAM-only install.
STEAM is in online mode.
Game worked fine yesterday, won't start today.
Already tried validating integrity of game files, already tried deleting and reinstalling the game, already tried starting game launcher and cleaning all game data. Nothing has resolved it.
Firewall is not blocking 7D2D.
No antivirus installed outside of the Windows 11 built in.
Running "Launch game without EAC" doesn't change anything.

Game no longer even allows offline mode. Error message shows up saying the game must be started in online mode once.

There are no mods installed. Log file attached. Please assist.

View attachment 36651

I'd probably get ahold of your ISP and look into possibly a new router, and something else too, if their PC's are newer, try disabling mircosoft one drive, I learned awhile back that will bog down your bandwidth when it is running in the background.

 

[XtremeRevolution]

I'd probably get ahold of your ISP and look into possibly a new router, and something else too, if their PC's are newer, try disabling mircosoft one drive, I learned awhile back that will bog down your bandwidth when it is running in the background.

OneDrive is disabled.

Yesterday I installed new TP-Link Wifi 7 PCIE wireless cards for both of my sons. The ones with the huge external antennas. They are now getting a full 866Mbps connected to the Orbi mesh network. Internet speed benchmarks a solid 300Mbps on each of their computers. I've done countless re-verifications of game files on STEAM.

The issue continues to exist. He was able to play for a couple of days (before I installed the new wireless cards), and then suddenly it stopped working again. Resetting the router didn't fix it. Neither of my kids are having any issues with any other games. I bought both of my sons a copy of this game so we could play together and I wholly regret that decision.

Both of my sons have almost identical PCs, with the only difference being the motherboards and hard drives.

Post automatically merged: Oct 2, 2025

I'm no expert but 70 - 85 Mbps is kind of low for a game like 7 Days to Die which has so much data to transfer back and forth. A wired connection is always best. Wi-Fi? Not so good.
But if you say it was working fine and suddenly started to give problems, then it might be something else.

Definitely something else considering I just installed top of the line WIFI 7 wireless PCIE cards for both of them that have a stable connection running 866Mbps to my mesh network now. I was on board with this potentially being a network issue but it doesn't explain why one of my sons can connect without any problems and the other one won't connect.

 

[Space4Ace]

Did the son having the issue tested his connection? If he gets a low result, maybe it could be why. He needs to test his connection using speedtest or something. Check both upload and download results and see if it matches your's and your other son's results.