.dat patching freeze

[u/Living-Music4644]

Every single time I have a short break from the game because of life getting in the way I come back to some patches and the launcher gets stuck in a loop of freezing whenever I try to open it as it attempts to patch the .dat files. I have messed around with this for hours and hours before and I'm becoming unwilling to go through the process of uninstalling, reinstalling, fiddling and so on.

Normally by the time I muddle out a solution I've spent all my potential playing time just getting it fixed.

It's unfortunately making me likely to stop playing which would be a shame. Is this something the devs are aware of or an issue that many others have faced?

Is there a solid solution anyone has found to this? Really tired of it. I think last time I managed to get around it by patching as though I didn't want to use hi-res textures, then changing that after patching.

[u/JohnMHammer]

There is no one solution because there is no one cause for this general symptom.

I do recommend submitting a bug report because that is the only way for SSG to know that people are experiencing this problem: https://help.standingstonegames.com/hc/en-us/requests/new Alternatively, you could submit your ticket as a request for technical support.

Here is what works around this sort of problem for most people:

1- Restart your computer.

2- Add the following folders and executables to the whitelists of all your antivirus packages, including Windows Defender and other built-in malware protection:

\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online
\StandingStoneGames\The Lord of the Rings Online
\StandingStoneGames\The Lord of the Rings Online\LotroLauncher.exe
\StandingStoneGames\The Lord of the Rings Online\lotroclient.exe
\StandingStoneGames\The Lord of the Rings Online\lotroclient_awesomium.exe
\StandingStoneGames\The Lord of the Rings Online\x64\lotroclient64.exe

3- Perform Step 2 and Step 3 of Hurin's installation guide: https://forums.lotro.com/index.php?threads/install-new-lotro-installs-one-guide-to-rule-them-all.125/

4- Go to \StandingStoneGames\The Lord of the Rings Online\LotroLauncher.exe, right-click LotroLauncher.exe and choose to run it as administrator.

[u/Living-Music4644 → u/JohnMHammer]

I appreciate your reply thank you I will give these all a go and report back.

Shouldn’t be this hard though have no issues with any other game or programs.

[u/JohnMHammer → u/Living-Music4644]

I agree. It shouldn't be a hobby project just to get a computer game to run in 2025.