Game "soft" freezes - still able to chat

[Koshey]

Beginning 2/11/24, my game will "soft" freeze, meaning I can still move my character around, but everything else in the environment will be frozen. Other PCs will not move, NPCs will not be interactable, I can use spells and the animation plays but nothing else happens. Curiously, chat seems to still function 100% normally. I cannot even log out or exit the game without force closing the game from the task manager (I play on PC), because trying to click those buttons from the menu does nothing. I've waited up to 30 minutes seeing if it would unfreeze on its own, but it never seems to, so I have to force close the game.

This has happened to me in alliance raids, in the open world, in limsa, and in my FC's housing ward. Sometimes it seems stable when I am only standing in my FC's housing ward and accessing my retainers or crafting but then freezes when I leave to try doing a duty or going out in the world, and other times it has frozen immediately upon logging in, while in the housing ward and elsewhere.


- Error messages (If any): No error messages
- Type of connection (wired or wireless): Wired
- Has this been a long on-going issue or has this only been occurring very recently: This began very recently, on 2/11/24, and never happened to me before that in over 2 years of frequent playing.
- Frequency at which error occurs (If this occurs during specific hours, please provide the date(s), time and timezone): All times of the day. Has happened to me at 8 AM CST, noon CST, 3 PM CST, 5 PM CST, 8 PM CST, 10 and 11 PM CST, and midnight.
- Are there other programs being used when running FFXIV?: Firefox, but that has never caused any issues before.
- Re-Confirm what data center and server/world were you trying to connect to?: Primal/Excalibur
- What is the ISP and what region/country are you connecting from?: ISP is Metronet, and I am connecting from the Midwest, USA (Iowa).

Here is my traceroute data, in case this is related to packet loss.

Tracing route to 204.2.29.122 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 14 ms 13 ms 13 ms 10.192.208.213
7 13 ms 13 ms 14 ms ae-53.a05.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [128.241.9.232]
8 15 ms 14 ms 14 ms ae-4.r23.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.239]
9 65 ms 64 ms 64 ms ae-1.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.17]
10 67 ms 68 ms 66 ms ae-4.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
11 67 ms 67 ms 67 ms xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
12 67 ms 68 ms 68 ms 204.2.29.241
13 67 ms 68 ms 68 ms 204.2.29.122


This issue is extremely frustrating, and renders the game completely unplayable. The longest I have gone without the issue occurring is about 5 minutes, sometimes much less.

[Indal]

Having exact same issue as OP, started this morning (Feb 13 2024) after patch 6.57 update. Have only observed it in instanced areas (raids, dungeons) so far.

- Error messages (If any): No error messages
- Type of connection (wired or wireless): Wired
- Has this been a long on-going issue or has this only been occurring very recently: This began very recently-2/13/24
- Frequency at which error occurs (If this occurs during specific hours, please provide the date(s), time and timezone): All times of day.
- Are there other programs being used when running FFXIV?: Firefox, Steam, Discord
- Re-Confirm what data center and server/world were you trying to connect to?: Aether/Jenova
- What is the ISP and what region/country are you connecting from?: ISP is Metronet, and I am connecting from the Midwest, USA (Iowa).

tracert results:
1 1 ms <1 ms 1 ms Linksys17831.ankniaaa.metronetinc.net [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms 10.192.208.213
5 16 ms 16 ms 17 ms ae-53.a05.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [128.241.9.232]
6 16 ms 16 ms 15 ms ae-4.r23.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.239]
7 69 ms 76 ms 92 ms ae-1.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.17]
8 69 ms 70 ms 71 ms ae-4.a00.scrmca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
9 70 ms 71 ms 71 ms xe-0-0-5-0.a00.scrmca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [128.241.2.18]
10 70 ms * 71 ms 204.2.29.241
11 70 ms 70 ms 75 ms 204.2.29.122

[Keyumars]

Hey guys, I'm having the same issue. And what's interesting is how so far the three of us are all in Iowa and all using Metronet.

- Error messages (If any): No error messages
- Type of connection (wired or wireless): Wired
- Has this been a long on-going issue or has this only been occurring very recently: Currently back on the 4-day free play. Has been occurring since 2/11 for me. Prior to this it was never an issue.
- Frequency at which error occurs (If this occurs during specific hours, please provide the date(s), time and timezone): All times of day.
- Are there other programs being used when running FFXIV?: None.
- Re-Confirm what data center and server/world were you trying to connect to?: Aether/Cactuar
- What is the ISP and what region/country are you connecting from?: Iowa, US and Metronet.

Was able to have this soft-lock issue where it says my character is occupied and unable to do any task in the open world, in multiple dungeons, at the GS, in both main cities in Endwalker. Because I kept getting this issue I stopped doing dungeons with other people and was able to repeat the problem in Trusts. Never did disconnect from a party in a dungeon, just didn't want to try.

This issue has occurred for me after using the repair feature in the launcher, and completely reinstalling. I also swapped out my GPU and the issue happens on both of mine.

[Nearly05]

Same issue with me and I am also from US/Iowa/City of Ames. Problems started on 2/11/24 and increase in frequency over 3 days. Right now the soft freeze happens after 1 - 15 minutes of play anywhere (dungeons/free world/city).
Game is pretty much not playable.

- Error messages (If any): No error messages
- Type of connection (wired or wireless): Wired
- Has this been a long on-going issue or has this only been occurring very recently: This began very recently, on 2/11/24, and never happened to me before that in over 2 years of frequent playing.
- Frequency at which error occurs (If this occurs during specific hours, please provide the date(s), time and timezone): any time of the day 8am - 12 pm central US time.
- Are there other programs being used when running FFXIV?: discord, Microsoft Edge, Logitech Gaming Software (for gaming mouse), but those did not cause problems before.
- Re-Confirm what data center and server/world were you trying to connect to?: Primal/Hyperion
- What is the ISP and what region/country are you connecting from?: ISP is Metronet, and I am connecting from city of Ames, USA (Iowa).

I have installed all PC system updates, reset router, reset network, cleaned DNS caches, nothing helps.

[golbat91]

I am having the same issue, located in central Iowa with Metronet. I am on aether, sargatanas

[Hayles]

Same issue here, discovered it about 12 hours ago, but no one else had reported the issue yet. Since I thought it was only me, I reset the client data 3 times and in the process lost all my screenshots since patch 2.2 when I first started playing. Dismayed over that loss and with nothing else to lose, I reinstalled the whole game. Only just finished the install after hours of downloading and once again... soft freeze.

- Error messages (If any): No error messages
- Type of connection (wired or wireless): Wired into Mesh WiFi Node
- Has this been a long on-going issue or has this only been occurring very recently: 2pm CST on 2/13/24
- Frequency at which error occurs (If this occurs during specific hours, please provide the date(s), time and timezone): All times of day.
- Are there other programs being used when running FFXIV?: Chrome, Spotify, Steam, Discord
- Re-Confirm what data center and server/world were you trying to connect to?: Crystal/Diabolos
- What is the ISP and what region/country are you connecting from?: ISP is Metronet, and I am connecting from the Midwest, USA (Illinois).


Patch 6.57 for me has been one of the worst from a technical support perspective ever. Not having a good time or day.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I have Metronet and live in the Western Suburbs of Chicago.

[Nearly05]

The common denominator is Metronet @ Midwest USA - I am guessing we need to call them.

[Tempestwolf79]

I am also having this exact same issue since 6.57.

The game will just soft freeze, and no way to get out but to End Task. This is rendering the game unplayable.

I do also live in central Iowa and use Metronet

[Hayles]

The only fix I have found at this time is to use a VPN. Other than that, it's on MetroNet to fix it.

[Mrs_Etringer]

I have the same thing from Iowa Metronet! Glad I found this. Called and they are working on it. Something to do with packet loss