Watching your favorite game download getting stuck at a point is disheartening. Many EA players have complained about this issue, where the download gets stuck in the middle. Despite multiple tries, the EA app constantly displays the error message “There’s a problem with your download”. If you can’t download games from the EA app, fret not. In this guide, I’ll explain the reasons and effective troubleshooting techniques to help you get back to gaming.
Electronics Arts (EA) is one of the most popular video game publishers in the world. Whether you like playing adventure games, shooting games, role-playing games, or sports games, EA has a good variety of games across genres. However, not everything is sunshine and rainbows here. Although EA has a good collection of video games, the platform sometimes runs into problems.
Games failing to download is a common problem that many EA players have complained about in the past. Your internet connection is the primary suspect, as an unstable connection is a common reason for download failure. You should also check the EA server’s status to know if there are technical issues on their end. The EA games may also fail to download due to insufficient storage, corrupted EA app cache, or corrupted EA app installation.
Now that we have a fair understanding of the problem and its causes, let’s dive deep into the troubleshooting techniques.
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Here’s How to Fix EA App Download Error
Whether your EA app downloads are getting stuck in the middle or not starting at all, the solutions I’ve mentioned below should resolve the problem. They apply to both Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers.
Sometimes, there’s a minor glitch affecting the downloads. These can be resolved by closing the EA app and launching it again. Try doing the same and then download a game to check if the issue persists.
1. Check if EA is Down
EA servers can experience downtimes or technical issues that may prevent you from downloading games. So, you must check if there are ongoing issues.
Check out Electronic Art’s official support account (@EAHelp) on X (formerly Twitter) for the latest information about ongoing problems, server maintenance, and other important announcements.
You can also check out third-party services like Downdetector.com to see if other players are also facing problems.
If EA servers have technical issues, wait for them to get resolved before you download your favorite games again on the EA app. Usually, the servers are restored in an hour or so.
However, if everything seems fine on EA’s end, but your downloads are not completing, your internet connection could be the culprit (more on that in the next solution.
[Note: If you are trying to download a game that has just been released, the servers are likely to be busy, as a lot of players might also be downloading that. In such a case, the download may get stuck or fail. So, if that’s the case, you should try downloading it again after a few hours.]
2. Check Your Internet Connection
A fast and stable internet connection is crucial for downloading games via the EA app. If your router can’t provide a stable connection, the downloads may get stuck in the middle or fail. So, rather than scratching your head, inspect your internet connection for any weakness.
Run multiple internet speed tests via speedtest.net or fast.com to test your connection stability. If the results are similar, you have a stable connection.
Try rebooting the router to improve your connection speed and stability. To do this, disconnect the router from the power source, wait for 2-3 minutes, and connect it to the power supply.
Close the EA app and then connect your PC to the internet. Launch the app and download a game to check if the problem has been resolved.
For downloading heavy games, a wired connection is always preferred over wireless. In fact, going this route has solved the EA app download error for many users.
3. Check Disk Capacity and Format
Before downloading a game, make sure your disk has sufficient space. Another thing to check here is your drive formatting. Hard drives with FAT32 formatting typically have issues downloading large files (over 4GB), as the official website mentions. Make sure the drive is NTFS-formatted.
To check the drive formatting, right-click on your drive (where EA downloads are stored) and select Properties. Check the File system type. If it’s NTFS, there is no need to make any changes. However, if it’s FAT32, follow these steps to format it to NTFS type:
- Open File Explorer on your computer.
- Right-click on the drive you want to format and choose Format.
- Under File system, select NTFS from the dropdown options.
- Check the Quick Format box and click Start.
[Note: While formatting a drive to NTFS does not cause data loss, saving a copy of your important files to a different location is a good practice. Also, ensure that EA is closed before formatting the drive.]
4. Clear the EA App Cache
To ensure that the corrupted EA app cache is not interfering with the downloads, clear the cache. Don’t worry; it won’t delete any games or their data.
Steps to clear cache for the EA app:
- Launch the EA app.
- Click on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
- Tap on Help and click App Recovery.
- Click CLEAR CACHE.
After clearing the cache, close the EA app and launch it again. Now, try downloading a game to check if the issue is resolved.
5. Restart Your Download
First, remove all unfinished downloads in the EA app. Then, close entirely the EA app and try downloading a game.
You should remove all EA processes from the Task Manager to close it completely. Here are the steps:
- Press Windows + X and select Task Manager from the available options.
- Right-click on any EA process and click End task.
- Repeat step 2 to remove all EA processes from Task Manager.
Now, you should be able to download games from the EA app without getting stuck.
6. Run the App as an Administrator
If you are still struggling to download a game from the EA app, try running it as an administrator. It gives additional permissions and full access to system files and settings.
So, if the downloads were getting stuck because of limited permissions, running the app as an administrator should resolve it. To do this, right-click on the EA app icon and select Run as administrator.
7. Change the Download Location
An official EA help article mentions that changing the download location can solve the download error on the EA app. Here are the steps involved in the process:
- Close the EA app completely.
- Go to C:\Program Files\EA Games and move the game folder (the game you’re trying to download) to a different place.
- Now, go to C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\EA Desktop and Right-click on EADesktop.exe.
- Choose Run as administrator.
- Start downloading the game and pause it after 30 seconds.
- In C:\Program Files\EA Games, copy the content of the old folder for the game into the new folder for the game.
- Resume the download.
8. Adjust EA Download Settings
A couple of EA users got rid of download errors by tweaking the download settings with the app. They set a download rate, resumed the download, and then removed the download rate limit.
Here’s a breakdown of the process in steps:
- Launch the EA app on your computer.
- Click on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner and select Settings.
- Tap on Download from the left pane.
- Under Limit download rate, select a lower download speed, such as 512Kbps.
- Resume downloads.
- Now, remove the download speed restriction.
Do let us know if stagnant EA app downloads have resumed.
9. Try This Workaround
A user on the EA community has shared an unusual way to fix the download error. He was able to fix download issues with Mirror’s Edge and Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. But it can work for other games as well.
These are the steps he performed:
- Make sure your download queue is empty, and close the EA App. You might want to reopen the app and double-check that it doesn’t show a frozen download in progress, which kept happening to me while I was doing this. I also closed the EA Background Service in the Windows Task Manager, but I don’t think that’s necessary.
- In your EA Games directory (by default, this is C:/Program Files/EA Games), create a new folder with the same name as your game’s normal installation directory. It’s usually just the name of your game, but if you’re not 100% sure what it is, you might be able to find it listed on your game’s wiki article in the PC Gaming Wiki. Otherwise, there’s no harm in trial and error since the remaining steps take like 5 seconds.
- Inside the folder, right-click -> New -> Text Document.
- Make sure you can see and edit file extensions. If your new file doesn’t show “.txt” at the end of its name, then you need to open any folder in Windows and in the top bar: View -> Show -> File name extensions -> make sure this is checked.
- Rename your new file to match exactly the name of the executable program from the game you’re trying to download (e.g., “MirrorsEdge.exe”). The PC Gaming Wiki will almost certainly have this somewhere in your game’s wiki article if you press Ctrl + F and search for “.exe”.
- Relaunch the EA App. It should say that your game is already downloaded, but there’s an “Update Required.” Just ignore that. Instead, click the three dots in the top-right corner of the game icon and select “Repair”.
- Once it’s finished downloading, play the game.
Try this solution if it makes sense to you, or move on to the next one.
10. Reinstall the EA App
There could be issues with EA app files on your PC, causing the download error. To ensure that it’s not the source of the problem, uninstall and reinstall the EA app.
Reinstalling the EA app will remove all your game files. So, you’ll need to download them again, which can be time-consuming. You can backup your game files to a different location on your computer and restore them after installing the EA app.
How to reinstall the EA app:
- Type Control Panel in the Windows search box at the bottom and hit Enter.
- Tap the dropdown next to View by and select Large or Small icons.
- Select Programs and Features.
- Right-click on the EA app and choose Uninstall.
- Click Uninstall again to confirm.
The EA app should be removed within a few seconds. Once done, download the latest app version to the official website. Install it, sign into your account, and app download your favorite games.
Conclusion
Resolving download errors with the EA app is crucial to play your favorite games. I hope this guide has been a valuable resource for you. We’ve discussed various effective solutions to address the download errors on the EA app.
In the evolving gaming landscape, technical hiccups are not uncommon. But, it should not limit your gaming sessions. Following the proper troubleshooting methods, you can easily fix the EA app download error and get back to gaming quickly. Don’t forget to check out our gaming section for awesome tips and tricks.