Getting NP-9978-3 since Mar 8

[ChenZheCHN]

Hello everyone.

 

One of my Vita seems to be not working well on Mar 8, so I decided to deactivate it in case it stops working forever.

 

However, I got NP-9978-3 when deactivating.

 

At first, I googled and found that the error code is for “activating and deactivating too many times within 7 days”. I thought OK, maybe I was activating and deactivating too much (which I don’t remember at all), so I waited for 7 days, but still cannot deactivate it on Mar 15. I then waited several days more, but still cannot deactivate it today (Mar 19).

 

My main account is a US account. I wonder if other players have the same issue, or it is just my Vita that is not working.

Edited March 19, 2022 by ChenZheCHN

[DaivRules]

23 minutes ago, ChenZheCHN said:

Hello everyone.

 

One of my Vita seems to be not working well on Mar 8, so I decided to deactivate it in case it stops working forever.

 

However, I got NP-9978-3 when deactivating.

 

At first, I googled and found that the error code is for “activating and deactivating too many times within 7 days”. I thought I was activating and deactivating too much, so I waited for 7 days, but still cannot deactivate it on Mar 15. I then waited several days more, but still cannot deactivate it today (Mar 19).

 

My main account is a US account. I wonder if other players have the same issue, or it is just my Vita that is not working.

I’m wondering why you need to activate and deactivate it so often and if there might be an alternative solution that doesn’t require doing that. 
 

Sonys pretty bad at fully explaining these errors and depending on how their engineers (poorly) implemented something like (limiting activations and deactivations within 7 days) they could have made a pretty convoluted process that a user might not be able to resolve on their own. 
 

[ChenZheCHN]

1 hour ago, DaivRules said:

I’m wondering why you need to activate and deactivate it so often and if there might be an alternative solution that doesn’t require doing that.
 

 

The memory card of my Vita is not working well. Sometimes there is a writing error, which means I cannot save or take a screenshot. I don’t know if it’s because of a broken memory card or a broken motherboard, so I decided to deactivate my Vita just in case its motherboard gets worse soon.

 

I don’t remember frequently activating or deactivating at all, and that’s why I am wondering if it’s just me or something is wrong on Sony’s server. I have edited the original post with more details.

Edited March 19, 2022 by ChenZheCHN

[MrHealthy]

You can always deactivate all your consoles on the website.

[Camokidd87]

2 minutes ago, MrHealthy said:

You can always deactivate all your consoles on the website.

My thoughts exactly. Just google deactivate Playstation system and do it that way. 

[ChenZheCHN]

14 hours ago, MrHealthy said:

You can always deactivate all your consoles on the website.

 

Yes, I know, but it’s very risky to do so for now.

 

In case there is something wrong with my Vita, I bought another Vita and still got the same error message (NP-9978-3). So there are two possibilities:

1. Something is wrong with my account. But I don’t remember activating and deactivating frequently, and I have waited for so long, therefore this is probably not the case, and;
2. Something is wrong with Sony’s activation server.

If it’s Sony’s server that went wrong, and I deactivate all consoles on the website, I will have no console to play any game because they are all deactivated, and I cannot activate them because of Sony’s server going wrong.

 

So, first of all, I’d like to know if any other player is having the same issue, especially players with a US account.

Edited March 21, 2022 by ChenZheCHN

[bcns10]

On 21/03/2022 at 8:11 AM, ChenZheCHN said:

 

Yes, I know, but it’s very risky to do so for now.

 

In case there is something wrong with my Vita, I bought another Vita and still got the same error message (NP-9978-3). So there are two possibilities:

1. Something is wrong with my account. But I don’t remember activating and deactivating frequently, and I have waited for so long, therefore this is probably not the case, and;
2. Something is wrong with Sony’s activation server.

If it’s Sony’s server that went wrong, and I deactivate all consoles on the website, I will have no console to play any game because they are all deactivated, and I cannot activate them because of Sony’s server going wrong.

 

So, first of all, I’d like to know if any other player is having the same issue, especially players with a US account.

Good night my friend, I'm having the same problem as yours, I can't deactivate the psvita account, and it keeps giving this same error code.
Have you managed to resolve it?
And my account is not US.

[ChenZheCHN]

10 hours ago, bcns10 said:

Good night my friend, I'm having the same problem as yours, I can't deactivate the psvita account, and it keeps giving this same error code.
Have you managed to resolve it?
And my account is not US.

 

Hello there.

 

No, I haven’t solved it.

[bcns10]

4 hours ago, ChenZheCHN said:

 

Hello there.

 

No, I haven’t solved it.

Complicated, my friend.
The only thing I haven't tried yet, was to talk to sony support, but as you may know, they never know anything or don't know how to solve it

[ChenZheCHN]

On 3/25/2022 at 9:47 PM, bcns10 said:

The only thing I haven't tried yet, was to talk to sony support, but as you may know, they never know anything or don't know how to solve it

 

That’s exactly what I think. I’ll try as much as possible before talking to them

[ChenZheCHN]

On 2022/3/25 at 9:47 PM, bcns10 said:

Complicated, my friend.
The only thing I haven't tried yet, was to talk to sony support, but as you may know, they never know anything or don't know how to solve it

 

I tried it again today and it’s still not working. May I know many Vita do you activated? I have 3 so I wonder if that’s the problem.

[DaivRules]

15 minutes ago, ChenZheCHN said:

 

I tried it again today and it’s still not working. May I know many Vita do you activated? I have 3 so I wonder if that’s the problem.

 

Three? I was never able to activate three Vitas and you're not supposed to be able to:

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/account/deactivate-playstation-console/#:~:text=Important%3A activation limits&text=1 PlayStation®5 console,or PS Vita%2FTV).

 

Quote

Important: activation limits

Activating a console links your it to your account and allows you to access PlayStation™Store purchases. Depending on which console you want to use, there are different activation restrictions. You can have the following activations on your account:

• 1 PlayStation®5 console with Console Sharing and Offline Play active.
•  
• 1 primary PlayStation®4 console.
•  
• 2 PlayStation®3 consoles.
•  
• 2 portable PlayStation systems (PSP or PS Vita/TV).

 

Maybe that is your problem.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by DaivRules

[ChenZheCHN]

3 hours ago, DaivRules said:

Three? I was never able to activate three Vitas and you're not supposed to be able to.

 

Maybe that is your problem.

 

Hi Davi. Thank you for your reply.

 

However, I googled it for a while and there are other people reporting that 3 is possible.

 

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/620272-playstation-vita/68121838

https://www.reddit.com/r/vita/comments/2vqojw/portable_devices_activation_limit_is_it_2_or_3/

 

It seems that at some time, Sony increased the limit without updating their website, which caused some inconsistency.

 

Also, I just gave it a try and deactivated all my consoles on the website. After deactivation, I activated one of my Vita, and then immediately tried to deactivate it. Failed again with NP-9978-3, so 3 Vitae wasn’t the problem. It’s still the same error code even if I have only one Vita activated.

 

(Good news: after deactivating all consoles, I can activate Vita without any issue. So at least my issue is partly solved.)

Edited March 30, 2022 by ChenZheCHN

[Maxie_M0us3]

Hey, I have a second vita with a Chinese alt account. I bought Rayman Legends Chinese stack and I simply cannot download it at all, constantly with this error code. I make sure it’s activated, I even deactivated all devices via browser, reactivated and it still doesn’t work. What should I do?!?

 

And there’s no way to download the game via PS3 since it wasn’t commercialized and was banned in China back then.

Edited April 2, 2022 by MaxieM0us3

[ChenZheCHN]

11 hours ago, MaxieM0us3 said:

I simply cannot download it at all, constantly with this error code. I make sure it’s activated, I even deactivated all devices via browser, reactivated and it still doesn’t work. What should I do?!?

 

I’ve never run into this issue. Have you tried enabling Two-factor authentication (2FA)?

[Maxie_M0us3]

2 hours ago, ChenZheCHN said:

I’ve never run into this issue. Have you tried enabling Two-factor authentication (2FA)?

How would this make it work?

 

EDIT: I activated 2FA and it still doesn't work, still with the NP-9978-3 error code.

Edited April 3, 2022 by MaxieM0us3

[RockySanchez666]

I'm having a problem with rayman origins, it says buy now but i've already brought it ages ago, its in my download list, it downloads but install, every other games is fine just rayman origins, thats annoying me

[ChenZheCHN]

6 hours ago, MaxieM0us3 said:

How would this make it work?

 

When I desperately searched for solution of NP-9978-3, I saw some people complaining about their Vita not being able to download anything, and they solved the issue by enabling 2FA. Unfortunately it did not work for you

[Maxie_M0us3]

5 minutes ago, ChenZheCHN said:

When I desperately searched for solution of NP-9978-3, I saw some people complaining about their Vita not being able to download anything, and they solved the issue by enabling 2FA. Unfortunately it did not work for you

 

Do you think that it has to be an issue specifically for Chinese accounts?

[RyuDaegron]

1 hour ago, MaxieM0us3 said:

 

Do you think that it has to be an issue specifically for Chinese accounts?

Seems to be an issue for Asian accounts. This is happening to both my HK and SG accounts. This issue has happened before and I am not sure if they are related.

[Maxie_M0us3]

2 hours ago, RyuDaegron said:

Seems to be an issue for Asian accounts. This is happening to both my HK and SG accounts. This issue has happened before and I am not sure if they are related.

Sony better look into it.

Edited April 3, 2022 by MaxieM0us3

[Fitz4242564]

I am also getting this error (np-9978-3) on my SG account. Was playing a free ps plus game when I suddenly lost access with the said error.

 

At first I thought it was because my ps plus subsription lapsed so I had it renewed but it's still the same. I can't download anything whether free ps plus or digitally purchased games.

 

Have tried deactivating through Sony website and activating my vita and at the very least it lets me play digital games I already have in the system. I still can't download anything.

[ShadowhunterrX]

Also getting the Error here and also on the PS3 having problems with downloading some games and most of them just downloaded fine. Yes, some random games dont download which is very strange. Bec some anothers are downloading just fine. Like de PS1 Final fantasy games, Persona 3, World of Final fantasy (Vita). Also try on the PS3 part my Tales of Graces F preorder theme bec Symphonia one had a error. Graces on just downloaded fine.

 

Games I cannot download

- Final Fantasy X/X-2 (Vita)

- Duck Tales Remastered (PS3)

- Tales of Symphonia 1 and 2, Preorder Theme (PS3)

 

Must be a error on Sony`s end again. Bec three weeks ago FFX/X-2 downloaded just fine on my second Vita.

 

(EU account. With 7 months of PS+ left)

Edited April 7, 2022 by ShadowhunterrX

[Fitz4242564]

On 4/6/2022 at 2:25 PM, Fitz4242564 said:

I am also getting this error (np-9978-3) on my SG account. Was playing a free ps plus game when I suddenly lost access with the said error.

 

At first I thought it was because my ps plus subsription lapsed so I had it renewed but it's still the same. I can't download anything whether free ps plus or digitally purchased games.

 

Have tried deactivating through Sony website and activating my vita and at the very least it lets me play digital games I already have in the system. I still can't download anything.

 

I'm not sure if the issue is resolved now or what I did worked/fixed it but basically I manually restored licenses on my ps4. I believe there isn't an option to manually restore licenses on vita though.

 

I am able to download and access digital games properly now on my vita. Still, this obviously will only work if you have a ps4 or perhaps any other console (ps3/ps5) to manually refresh licenses.

 

 

[ravenn411]

On 3/31/2022 at 1:04 AM, DaivRules said:

 

Three? I was never able to activate three Vitas and you're not supposed to be able to:

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/account/deactivate-playstation-console/#:~:text=Important%3A activation limits&text=1 PlayStation5 console,or PS Vita%2FTV).

 

 

Maybe that is your problem.

 

 

Initially, it was limited to only 2 PS Vita Consoles.
But, when the PSTV/ Vita TV was released, the third Vita activation was enabled. 
Interestingly, it is not totally limited to PSTV. We can actually activate a third Vita handheld console.

I am currently looking for answers since I'm having the same error code probably for the last 2 months.
but I'm insisting to have my other Vita activated since I seasonally switch the two handheld units to use.
Pains of having multiple Vita units. boasting aside, I have 4 handhelds and 2 PSTVs.
my PSTVs are currently asleep until now.
 

Edited April 15, 2022 by ravenn411
additions