Troubleshooting
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On this page:
Problems commonly solved by clearing the cache:
Since Trinity, EVE has an option to clear the cache ingame. Open the settings by hitting ESC and go to thereset settings tab. In the reset to default section, there's a clear all cache files option. You will still need to restart your client.
Before you clear the cache...
Before you actually clear the cache, which causes you to lose a lot of settings and such, you may want to try these options:
What is a cache anyway?
Before you clear it, you may want to know what it is. While you play, your client gets all sorts of information from the server. Character portraits, log messages, chat and tons of other stuff. It would put an enormous load on the server to send you all this information over and over, if it hardly ever changes. So, instead, the client saves this information in the EVE folder, in a folder called 'cache'.
In general, a cache is a storage of information that you check before asking a server to ask you that same information. For instance, your webbrowser will have a cache for downloaded files. If you look up the same page you looked up earlier, the browser will get some of the files from your cache, causing the webpage to load faster and decreasing the load on the webserver.
However, EVE also stores some settings in the cache. This is not what a cache is for, typically, but because of this poor design decision, clearing your cache also means erasing all your settings. Check below to find out how not to lose your settings or use the ingame option for clearing your cache to avoid it.
Ok, so how do I clear it?
By far, the preferable way of clearing your cache is to use the ingame option in the settings (ESC) window, on the 'reset settings' tab, under 'reset to default'. Clearing all cache files will require you to restart the client.
To clear the cache manually, exit EVE. Go to the EVE Application Data folder and look for a subfolder called 'cache'. You can either delete everything in it or just rename the folder for the time being.
Once you delete or rename it, every setting in EVE will revert to its default. So, you'll get the tutorial again, your windows will be all over the place and any bookmarks you had will be in the root of your P&P places tab. But, if it worked, your problem has been solved.
If the problem you had wasn't solved, you might as well exit EVE again, delete the newly created cache folder and rename the old one back to 'cache'. If you log back in, you'll notice that everything is back to normal.
Not losing all your settings...
NOTE: this section needs to be checked against latest builds.
If the problem was solved, but you want to rescue some of your settings, you could try exiting EVE and copying the following items from the renamed cache into the newly created one:
The EVE Launcher utility allows you to seperately clear cache and/or settings and undo those steps if you need to.
Getting rid of usernames...
If you want the EVE client to forget about usernames that you've used to log in (for privacy or other reasons), you don't have to clear the entire cache. Just open the prefs.ini file in a text editor and change the line "username=SomeName" to "username=". And then delete any pc.dat files in the Settings folder. Remember, exit EVE before making these changes.
Note: CCP recommends against editing EVE files (and flatout forbids it for most of them). I feel they should make an exception for the ini, or include the option to clear this value in the configuration window. But consider yourself warned :). Take it from me though, that as long as you just clear this one value, no harm will come of it. Make a backup of the file before you make any changes, to prevent mistakes.
On this page:
- Before you clear the cache
- What is a cache anyway?
- Ok, so how do I clear it?
- Not losing all your settings
- Getting rid of usernames
Problems commonly solved by clearing the cache:
- Learned skills not updating properly
- Windows refusing to open
- Agents refusing to accept mission pilots (even with sufficient standing)
- Being unable to log in with one of your pilots
- Character portrait not updating
Since Trinity, EVE has an option to clear the cache ingame. Open the settings by hitting ESC and go to thereset settings tab. In the reset to default section, there's a clear all cache files option. You will still need to restart your client.
Before you clear the cache...
Before you actually clear the cache, which causes you to lose a lot of settings and such, you may want to try these options:
- Undock and then dock (if you were docked when the problems started)
Thus can help because the client will update some values whenever you dock, undock or jump to another system. - Log off and back in (relogging)
This can help if the problem isn't in your cache directory, but the client is caching some value in memory that needs to be updated from the server. - Log off and stay logged off for 3 minutes, then log back in
This sometimes helps because the server can be caching data about your account. Once it realizes you've really logged off, caching on the server will be cleared.
What is a cache anyway?
Before you clear it, you may want to know what it is. While you play, your client gets all sorts of information from the server. Character portraits, log messages, chat and tons of other stuff. It would put an enormous load on the server to send you all this information over and over, if it hardly ever changes. So, instead, the client saves this information in the EVE folder, in a folder called 'cache'.
In general, a cache is a storage of information that you check before asking a server to ask you that same information. For instance, your webbrowser will have a cache for downloaded files. If you look up the same page you looked up earlier, the browser will get some of the files from your cache, causing the webpage to load faster and decreasing the load on the webserver.
However, EVE also stores some settings in the cache. This is not what a cache is for, typically, but because of this poor design decision, clearing your cache also means erasing all your settings. Check below to find out how not to lose your settings or use the ingame option for clearing your cache to avoid it.
Ok, so how do I clear it?
By far, the preferable way of clearing your cache is to use the ingame option in the settings (ESC) window, on the 'reset settings' tab, under 'reset to default'. Clearing all cache files will require you to restart the client.
To clear the cache manually, exit EVE. Go to the EVE Application Data folder and look for a subfolder called 'cache'. You can either delete everything in it or just rename the folder for the time being.
Once you delete or rename it, every setting in EVE will revert to its default. So, you'll get the tutorial again, your windows will be all over the place and any bookmarks you had will be in the root of your P&P places tab. But, if it worked, your problem has been solved.
If the problem you had wasn't solved, you might as well exit EVE again, delete the newly created cache folder and rename the old one back to 'cache'. If you log back in, you'll notice that everything is back to normal.
Not losing all your settings...
NOTE: this section needs to be checked against latest builds.
If the problem was solved, but you want to rescue some of your settings, you could try exiting EVE and copying the following items from the renamed cache into the newly created one:
- Browser subfolder
This folder contains the IGB's cache. You can copy this to get your bookmarks and trusted sites back, as well as a lot of cached files. - Settings\char_xxxxxxxx.dat files
These files contain the personal settings for each of your pilots. This includes window positions and sizes, bookmarks folders, etc. - Settings\*.* files
The other files in this folder contain the rest of your settings, apart from the preferences which you'll find in: - prefs.ini
This file contains some basic preferences about your interface.
The EVE Launcher utility allows you to seperately clear cache and/or settings and undo those steps if you need to.
Getting rid of usernames...
If you want the EVE client to forget about usernames that you've used to log in (for privacy or other reasons), you don't have to clear the entire cache. Just open the prefs.ini file in a text editor and change the line "username=SomeName" to "username=". And then delete any pc.dat files in the Settings folder. Remember, exit EVE before making these changes.
Note: CCP recommends against editing EVE files (and flatout forbids it for most of them). I feel they should make an exception for the ini, or include the option to clear this value in the configuration window. But consider yourself warned :). Take it from me though, that as long as you just clear this one value, no harm will come of it. Make a backup of the file before you make any changes, to prevent mistakes.