Gears of War 4 Known Issues and Workarounds

Gears of War 4 finally came out this week on Xbox One and PC. Unfortunately for some, the launch hasn't been entirely smooth. Developer The Coalition has now put together a forum thread in which the studio is keeping a running tab on known issues and providing workarounds where available.

First up is matchmaking; some are reporting that finding matches takes too long. The Coalition has already released multiple server side updates to address this and other matchmaking problems. The developer added that it is "continuing to work hard to fix remaining issues as soon as possible." More information about the matchmaking-specific issues can be found in this thread.

Another known issue for Gears of War 4 on Xbox One and PC are missing DLC items. The Coalition is investigating reports about content from the season pass and other sources not showing up properly. People affected by this issue can read this FAQ and send in their Gamertag at the same page.

Gears of War 4 is also facing an audio issue where the settings revert to default every time the game is loaded up. There is no word on a workaround or if The Coalition is actively working on a fix now.

Gallery

An Xbox One-specific Gears of War 4 issue has to do with "hitching" at the start of a multiplayer match and also during "extended" gameplay sessions. Thankfully, The Coalition has a workaround available for this problem until it can release a title update that fixes the problem altogether.

• Solution: Open four other games (allow them to load past the initial splash screen) and then load Gears of War 4.
• Alternative Solution: As a last resort, you can also uninstall and re-install the game to fix the issue.

As for Windows 10-specific problems, one of these is an issue where the Gears of War 4 download experiences an error and restarts before it's done.

"We are actively working with the Windows Store team to investigate some instances where users are unable to initiate or finish their download," The Coalition said.

Below are instructions for how you may be able to fix this issue; go to the forum thread to see other ways that the problem can be fixed.

1. Windows+R and type regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx\PackageVolumes
3. Right click and Modify DefaultVolumeKey to 1
4. Restart your download

Below are even more Gears of War 4 known issues and workarounds, as written by The Coalition. We will continue to update this post as new issues are discovered and others are addressed. Note, too, that the items mentioned in this post and the forum thread may not encompass all of the issues and problems people are experiencing right now.

Windows Store - Error trying to download Title Update

• If you launch the game on Windows 10 without the update, you will get a message that an update is required to play with a link to the store. Clicking this link only minimizes the game when it takes you to the Store - please close the game fully before updating to avoid errors.

Windows Insider Build 14936

• Insider Build 14936 of Windows has a known issue with UWP games. If you wish to play Gears of War 4 you will need to temporarily roll back until the next Insider Build is released.

One or more of my Achievements won't unlock

• Solution: Ensure that your Telemetry and Application Telemetry Settings are enabled and that the service "Connected User Experiences and Telemetry" is enabled. Make sure that any privacy tools you are using allow telemetry to be sent. This will rectify the issue and should unlock any 'stuck' achievements.

Minimum Spec – Textures do not appear to stream properly

• When running the game on a minimum spec 2GB VRAM video card for the first time, textures may not appear to stream properly.
• Solution: Restart the game to resolve the issue.

Co-Op: Second player gets kicked to menu upon load in

• Some users have reported their co-op partner being kicked to main menu upon loading Campaign.
• Solution: Ensure your Firewall is turned ON and your NAT settings are Open or Moderate to prevent this issue.

Co-Op: Non-Host player appears to freeze after a Checkpoint Restart for Host player

• If hosting a co-op game with another PC user that has a slow computer, the other user may appear to freeze for a few seconds when restarting checkpoints if the host has vsync disabled.
• Workaround: The host can pause the game to avoid this becoming a detriment (reloading into combat, for example).

Potential performance impact if SLI is enabled in the Nvidia Control Panel

• Gears of War currently does not support explicit multi-GPU. However, we have found an issue where single-GPU performance will drop if SLI is enabled in the Nvidia Control Panel. As a result, please disable SLI prior to playing Gears of War 4 if you have multiple-GPUs. Nvidia and The Coalition are working on the issue and will inform the community as soon as we have the issue resolved.

General Troubleshooting

• Gears of War 4 must be installed to an NTFS drive otherwise it may fail to install, run or update properly.

• You make sure that the Windows EFS service is running in order to run the title. Do not disable it.

• Some players have reported that the title will not boot when the Windows automatic update service is disabled. Enabling the automatic update service will resolve this issue.