(Re-)signing up for newsletter deactivates all purchased DLCs

PJ R shared this bug 15 days ago
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https://steamcommunity.com/app/244850/discussions/1/4700160821458187390/?tscn=1728940800


I own all the DLCs except the newest Contact Pack.


Upon updating the game and testing both an old Save and a brand new Save, all of my DLCs were working just fine in both saves.


I then remembered the Flush Cockpit exists, so I exited to main menu and (re-)signed-up for the newsletter (which I had signed up to in the past, many years ago) so I could check that out, because it wasn't already showing up as available in my blocks list.


Then I reloaded the new Save to check out the Flush Cockpit - and now all of my DLCs are broken; I can't select or place any of the DLC blocks (even the ones that are still on my hotbars from before).

(The only non-vanilla content that I can access now is the Flush Cockpit).


All of the icons for my purchased DLC still show up on the main menu, though.


This is with no mods.


Steam is online, and online features are working just fine in this and other games. (I can connect to official servers, access online-only DLCs from other games, etc).


TRIED ALREADY: restarting the game; starting up a new save; switching to creative mode; deactivating then reactivating DLCs through Steam to reinstall them; verifying all game files; and just now finished a fresh reinstall (including renaming all save, config and cache folders so new ones could be recreated from scratch) - no change.


I also tried signing up for the newsletter AGAIN, thinking that process could have somehow stalled/broken and caused a downstream problem that could perhaps be ironed out by another attempt, but that didn't help at all either.


To rule out an issue with my main Steam install and any other possible machine-specific issues, I just now finished installing Steam on one of my server machines (which has never previously had Steam on it, ever), downloaded and installed SE on it, and booted it up - and DLCs are all still broken in exactly the same way.


All of my purchased DLCs are all currently inaccessible.

Replies (5)

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0

Hello!

Thank you for contacting us. Since this is a bug report, I'm moving your ticket to our support page, where our QA team will take care of you.

Kind Regards

Keen Software House

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1

Hello engineer,

Thank you for writing to us and we sincerely apologize for the issue you have been experiencing.

Just to confirm, could you please tell whether the issue is occurring on the Steam account where you own the game (including purchased DLCs), and not on the account that is being used for playing Space Engineers on Family Sharing?

If the issue is with your main account, please try the following workarounds, which may help resolve the issue ;

Disable and Re-enable Steam Cloud Sync :

  1. Open Steam and go to your game library.
  2. Right-click on Space Engineers and select Properties.
  3. In the General tab, you'll find the option labeled Keep game's saves in the Steam Cloud for Space Engineers.
  4. Uncheck this box to disable Steam Cloud Sync for Space Engineers.
  5. Close the window and then launch the game to check if the issue persists.
  6. If the issue still exists, close/exit the game, go back to the same tab, and re-enable Steam Cloud Sync by checking the box again. Check if the issue still present.

You can also try, clearing Steam Download Cache :

  1. Open the Steam client.
  2. In the top-left corner, click on Steam and then select Settings.
  3. In the Settings window, go to the Downloads section.
  4. At the bottom of the page, you will see a 'Clear Cache' button in front of the Clear Download Cache section.
  5. Click on it, and Steam will prompt you to confirm. Select OK.
  6. Once cleared, Steam will restart, and you'll need to log back into your account.

After these steps, relaunch Space Engineers and check if the DLC issue is resolved. If the issue persists, please send us the log file from the time you experienced the issue on a new vanilla world (one without active mods or scripts). Please also ensure that no plugins are active in your game.

  • You can access your log files by typing %appdata% into your Windows search bar and you will be redirected to the hidden Roaming folder. After that just follow: \Roaming\SpaceEngineers.

Kind regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

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1

Correct, this is on the Steam account that owns the game. I don't use Family Sharing at all. No mods nor plugins.


I had already tried both disabling/re-enabling cloud sync and clearing the download cache with no change in result, so I will attach my last log.


(Please note as mentioned in my OP that I have also tried a completely fresh/virgin install of both Steam and SE on another machine, as well).

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1

Hello engineer,

Thank you for writing back to us.

We apologize that the previous workarounds did not resolve your issue. In a similar case reported previously, here, this player was able to resolve the issue by deleting all folders and files within the Steam folder, except for the 'steamapps' folder and the 'Steam.exe' file.

If you would like to try this workaround, you can find the Steam folder in the 'C:\Program Files (x86)\' directory. Before proceeding, we strongly recommend creating a backup of your Steam folder by copying it to another folder/drive. This will allow you to restore your files in case something goes wrong.

Additionally, please ensure that you're not logged into your Steam account on more than one device.

Please let us know if this resolves the issue for you.

Kind Regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

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1

That step only resets a Steam installation to its default settings; I've already tried that (as previously mentioned... third time now). A fresh/default Steam installation has no effect on this issue. Also, the rest of my Steam inventory is working just fine (as also previously mentioned). ONLY the DLCs are inaccessible.


I have *temporarily* worked around (NOT FIXED) this problem on my own using the following two steps, which together effectively revert the newsletter subscription and then allow the Flush Cockpit to be accessed without it:


1) Edit the SubscriptionReward key within SpaceEngineers.cfg, changing

<Value xsi:type="xsd:string">True</Value>
to

<Value xsi:type="xsd:string">False</Value>
This effectively un-subscribes you from the newsletter as far as the SE client is concerned. (This is the step that actually provides the workaround to the bug. At this point, my DLCs started working normally again, as they had before subscribing to the newsletter post-update).


2) Scroll to the very bottom of CubeBlocks_Control.sbc and scan up from there (about 5 or 6 lines) until you see

<NewsletterSubscriptionNeeded>true</NewsletterSubscriptionNeeded>
then change its value to

<NewsletterSubscriptionNeeded>false</NewsletterSubscriptionNeeded>
This allows the Flush Cockpit to be used in-game without subscribing to the newsletter.


The fact that this workaround is successful is a clear indication that some aspect of the newsletter-subscription-verification process itself is responsible for the bug.


I strongly suggest reverting whatever backend change was made to this feature set in the recent update, until it can be re-implemented in a functional/working manner.


My initial educated guess is that some additional layer of DRM or analytics was added to the newsletter subscription, and that addition is the root of the problem.

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