[Solution] Problems patching multiple WoW client installs (Vista)

[Stabface]

Seems a lot of people are having issues patching, including myself.

First off, if you're getting "Failed to patch" or some such when you launch WoW, try running the Launcher.exe not WoW.exe (this fixed it for me). Why, I don't know, I've always ran wow.exe directly since before the stupid launcher was created, and the game has always patched correctly every single time up until this one. I think maybe Blizzard tweaked their patch mechanism for some reason.

If the patch downloads but won't patch, you can copy the WoW-2.4.0.8089-to-2.4.1.8125-enUS-patch.exe file, found in C:\Users\Public\Documents\Blizzard Entertainment\World of Warcraft\ on Vista, or on some mirror websites, to your WoW folder and directly run it from there.

One last thing, you might also check the permissions on your WoW folder - I don't see why this would ever change but some users were reporting that their WoW folder was set to read-only and the game couldn't patch.

Hope this is helpful!

[Khazrael]

Great post, helped me out. I didn't realize the patch got downloaded to the public users folder. I know for a while it would download straight to the wow directory, did they change that at some point or is that a vista specific thing for some reason?

I'm using the junctions, so I only have to update one copy, which is nice, but I had all my 5 accounts loaded up and tried to log in at the same time not realizing there was a patch. It caught whichever one managed to log in first (one of my slaves, as it would happen) and ended up botching the install though. I'll have to look out for that in the future.

[Katharsis]

Thanks for that! I used the Launcher today and still got the error so I went looking for the patch that wasn't there. But after reading this, sure enough, there are the patch files in the users folder. D'oh!

[Khazrael]

I'd also like to add a side note. After trying to log in and botching the installation because one of my clones hit it, I had to do some manual stuff to get the files back in order. Since this didn't complete correctly, every time I tried to patch my primary instance (the one all my other instances "junction" off of) it would fail mid-way because it thought the versions were out of whack.

After some inspection, the Data folder, and the subsequent localization folder (for me, enUS) had a couple of patch-2.MPQ files I had to remove. After that, it was no longer confused about the versioning and the update went through as expected.

Now I'm back up and running, all is well.

[Edit] I seem to have a problem with opening my mouth too soon. I also had to copy over the executable file, which seems abnormal to me. Even though all of my data comes from the same instance, my clones kept prompting to update. I notice the .exe file had been last modified today, so I copied it over and now that seems to have fixed it. Strange. [/Edit]

[yarr]

cool i'll have to try some of this stuff when i get home

[Stabface]

I think the Vista location may vary with the patch. For example 2.4 was downloaded to the <wow>\Patches directory. Generally it seems the minor version x.x.1 x.x.2 etc small patches go to the public users folder, while the major version big x.1.0 x.2.0 etc patches go to the <wow>\Patches directory. And of course, 1.x -> 2.0 came on a disc.

[kermitforney]

My solution before I switched to one primary folder that was shared, was to run wow.exe as an Administrator.

THink it was . .

Right Click/Run As Administrator

. . . used to work like a charm for all 4 alt accounts. Should work just fine, but let me know if it doesn't. inch:

[yarr]

My solution before I switched to one primary folder that was shared, was to run wow.exe as an Administrator. THink it was . . Right Click/Run As Administrator . . . used to work like a charm for all 4 alt accounts. Should work just fine, but let me know if it doesn't. inch:

this post is win, fixed it for me! Thanks a lot!!



BTW if anyone is wondering, this fixes the vista message "Cannot update patch... you don't need to because you already have 2.4.2.x installed" (i.e. it wont install the patch because it thinks you've already updated)



thx kermie

[Havelcek]

My solution before I switched to one primary folder that was shared, was to run wow.exe as an Administrator.

THink it was . .

Right Click/Run As Administrator

. . . used to work like a charm for all 4 alt accounts. Should work just fine, but let me know if it doesn't. inch:

I do this for keyclone and it seems in-turn run the clients as administrator. I had a bunch of headaches with my first patch experience and ended up copy/pasting everything from one client to the other (except for WTF).