Black screen after launching the game

[NiceNBreezy]

I have been struggling with this issue for months, seemed to happen right around when I purchased all the DLC...
Support has been very unhelpful and continued to offer meaningless advice from port forwarding to re-installing steam.
It also seems that their support system is insanely not optimized as each time I would get a response from someone new.
I will continue to try to get them to acknowledge this issue but it seems that might not get anywhere as they do not seem to be recognizing the issue.

So far the only that that has worked for me have been the solutions posted here. As well I directed them to this thread multiple times and it seems they just ignore it...

[CaffeinePanda]

Stopping by again to confirm that:
- this thread is about a bug that prevents a number of players from logging in, unless they perform 1 of a handful of really specific workarounds, like renaming a particular file
- this thread is ~1 year old and hasn't received an official response, nor a fix, more importantly
- the actual issue is actually a little older, but this is just the thread that we happen to spend the most time on
- players have shared they asked SE support to attend this thread over the phone, but it hasn't eventuated into anything (anecdotal)

What is the issue:
- Client upon launching enters in a black screen state
- Client is not able to be forced closed using ctrl+alt+del or anything similar, as the task manager will open behind the window
- You can only force close by opening another desktop using win+tab, however, there's a better semi-permanent workaround

How to fix this issue:
1) visit your FF14 within Steam folder => <Steam Folder>\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online\boot
2) find steam_api64.dll
3) rename it to steam_api64-bak.dll
4) repeat this every major patch e.g. 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8 and so on

Have a great day, friends.

[Fieryone]

Stopping by again to confirm that:
- this thread is about a bug that prevents a number of players from logging in, unless they perform 1 of a handful of really specific workarounds, like renaming a particular file
- this thread is ~1 year old and hasn't received an official response, nor a fix, more importantly
- the actual issue is actually a little older, but this is just the thread that we happen to spend the most time on
- players have shared they asked SE support to attend this thread over the phone, but it hasn't eventuated into anything (anecdotal)

What is the issue:
- Client upon launching enters in a black screen state
- Client is not able to be forced closed using ctrl+alt+del or anything similar, as the task manager will open behind the window
- You can only force close by opening another desktop using win+tab, however, there's a better semi-permanent workaround

How to fix this issue:
1) visit your FF14 within Steam folder => <Steam Folder>\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online\boot
2) find steam_api64.dll
3) rename it to steam_api64-bak.dll
4) repeat this every major patch e.g. 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8 and so on

Have a great day, friends.

It is absolute ridiculous this SPECIFIC ISSUE has not been FIXED or even acknowledged, and yeah it takes two seconds so no big deal BUT THAT ISN'T THE BLOODY POINT

[Sove92]

Hmm, I don't play the game on Steam, but had this very same issue after the patch. I repaired the game and it started working. I have renamed the file, let's see if it reoccurs later.

[LostHope_Saki]

I was really confused for a second about the blackscreen after the update - and then I remembered...

[Darkobra]

I had to do it again after the update. You'd think they'd fix it after all this time.

[CaffeinePanda]

Stopping by again to confirm that:
- this thread is about a bug that prevents a number of players from logging in, unless they perform 1 of a handful of really specific workarounds, like renaming a particular file
- this thread is ~1.5 years old and hasn't received an official response, nor a fix, more importantly
- the actual issue is actually a little older, but this is just the thread that we happen to spend the most time on
- players have shared they asked SE support to attend this thread over the phone, but it hasn't eventuated into anything (anecdotal)

What is the issue:
- Client upon launching enters in a black screen state
- Client is not able to be forced closed using ctrl+alt+del or anything similar, as the task manager will open behind the window
- You can only force close by opening another desktop using win+tab, however, there's a better semi-permanent workaround

How to fix this issue:
1) visit your FF14 within Steam folder => <Steam Folder>\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online\boot
2) find steam_api64.dll
3) rename it to steam_api64-bak.dll
4) repeat this every major patch e.g. 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8 and so on

Have a great day, friends.

[ShikiRyougi]

same issue... seems to be affecting a lot of people, wonder why there isn't any news on why this is happening.

[Zulwarn]

Yea, I just found this was happening to me too after rebuilding my computer and installing Windows 11. I didn't have this problem before I switched to Windows 11 since my last computer had Windows 10 on it. So simply having to remove the steam_api64.dll after update is only solution?

I have been tempted to try reinstalling Windows 11, just to see if it did anything since I am not sure what is making the game "sometimes" get black screen on startup, and get a black screen on exit "everytime". I'm not sure what steam_api64.dll does but it seems it was breaking the connection between the game, and the computer whenever you exit the game.

[Zuloh666]

I had this issue now happening to me too, just to find out that this bug is present for at least 2 years? This is ridicules. Renaming the steamclient file did work however. Thanks for that!