My Sad Story of Error (NP-34978-1)

[realm722]

EDIT ON DECEMBER 16TH 2019: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN - THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN FIXED!!!!!!! - Thank you to user HeGotOwned. The solution is to reset your router. It solved his issue, and it solved the issue of another user on the PS4 Reddit who had far deeper troubles. I will be leaving this post up and the OP in-tact since it is the #1 search result for those who search the error code number. This solution couldn't have been reached without a number of people making an effort - thank you all! 

 

 

 

WARNING: THIS IS LONG AND OVERLY DRAMATIC - 99% OF YOU WILL SCROLL TO THE TL;DR ANYWAY. Hello reader. This post is directed at those who have suffered the dreaded Error (NP-34978-1) when trying to "Restore Licenses" on their PS4 Account via Account Management. It is unbelievable, but I only found 3 other instances on the entire internet of people suffering this issue, and ZERO received a reply or some form of help. I titled my post this so future sufferers know what they're getting in for. Warning now, this is a sad tale. Proceed with caution.

THE BACKSTORY: I booted up my PS4 today. I wanted to download a new batch of games. I did not notice but when I logged in, for whatever reason, my PSN account suggested I did not have PS+. I knew this was BS since it re-news every August. I go to my PS4 Library. None of my games are there except the ones I have installed. I do not panic. I shut my PS4 off, and turn it back on. Oh would you look at that. It fixed itself. Let me download my new games. Knack 2? Hell yeah baby. Mirror's Edge Catalyst? I love parkour. Graveyard Keeper? I love corpses. Awesome, fun new batch of games - oh hey - let me also download Sundered: Eldritch Edition. Some guy on the PS4 subreddit recommended me it. That will be fun and it was on sale for $5 when I bought it.

 

NARRATOR: IT. WAS. NOT. FUN.

 

What the heck is this? What's that lock symbol?

 

 

HOW STRANGE. I have bought over 80+ games via PS Store. Never had that lock symbol. Let me enter the YouTube and Playstation Support rabbit hole of trying to solve it.

 

"DO YOU USE ANOTHER PS4 OR ACCOUNT?" - NO - This is my only PS4. It is my primary. This is my only account. I have only ever bought games from this account.

"DO YOU SHARE GAMES / ACCOUNTS WITH ANYBODY? - NO - I am literally the only person who touches this account and I don't share things (dates back to childhood). 

"HAVE YOU TRIED RESTORING YOUR LICENSES?" - oh that sounds like a great idea!

 

attempts to restore licenses

 

It gets 99% of the way through and BOOM. It happens. The dreaded error. "An error has occurred. (NP-34978-1). I click on Playstation Support for help on this error. There is ZERO help. I search online for people who've had this error. ZERO help. It's happened to 1-2 other people who pre-ordered like FIFA 20 and some other game. There were 0 replies. Awesome. Now I'm kind of at a loss.

 

There was also a system update that was available but NOT mandatory to 7.0.1 dropped this past Wednesday. I figured that may be the issue - I update - it rebuilds the database - NOPE. Still not working and it still has that lock symbol even when it's fully downloaded.

 

 

So now I have to resort to desperate measures... entering the 7th dimension of hell which is contacting Playstation Support directly with a representative. Wonderful. I have 17 people in front of me, 5 minutes go by, and I'm in. Her name was Monica. Monica starts explaining to me the spiel of restoring licenses. I tell her I've tried and I receive this error. She dismisses the error. She says to delete the game and download it from the PS Store on my computer and try. I follow her steps. As it's downloading - it's still locked. She then resorts to full nuclear level tactics of re-initializing everything and going back to default settings which I did not want to resort to - but here we went - after the long process.... STILL LOCKED OUT OF THE GAME. 

 

At this point she concedes. She offers me a refund. I want to play this freaking game - but I too concede. I'm granted the refund and the $5 is restored. Strangely enough, the game is STILL in my PS4 Library despite the fact she insisted it was removed upon the refund. So freaking bizarre. I wonder if the glitch at the start of it not saying I was logged into my PS+ was the cause. I tried to restore my licenses again, STILL not working. I decided to download Titanfall 2 from the PS Store even though I had 0 interest in it, it started downloading, and it did NOT have this lock symbol so that's good. I can't figure out for the life of me why this issue was specific to this one specific game. I'm afraid to make a purchase in the future in case this happens - I'll make a small one and see - and if it works fine, I'm gonna assume this was divine intervention to have me not play Sundered: Eldritch Edition. The one thing I left to presume otherwise is that there's a hardware issue with my PS4 I'd need to take manually to get repaired but I REALLY don't want to go through that fuss given the Playstation 5 is less than a year away at this point. If this one game is unplayable - fine.

 

Literally nobody is going to read all of this - but if you did - thank you. If you are a person from the future (this post was made on December 14th, 2019) and suffer this issue - I sympathize with you my friend. If you somehow found a solution, hit me up! 

 

TL;DR - I bought game. I was locked out of it. I go through literally every step possible to resolve it and it still won't work. I have an unfixable error I still don't know to resolve. I was given a refund. I will never watch any YouTube videos regarding Sundered: Eldritch Edition OR attempt to play it on PC. If I can't have it how I want it, I don't want it DAMMIT. If you have no help to offer, a simple F in the chat to pay respects would suffice (edited: actually don't do that)

Edited December 17, 2019 by realm722

[Mesopithecus]

I found someone else that had posted about having the issue you're having, they give the same error code in the thread and it looks like their situation is worse as Playstation can't even find record of them purchasing the game despite them having the payment confirmation email   

 

License issue that I've not seen any relevant information about

 

[realm722]

3 minutes ago, Mesopithecus said:

I found someone else that had posted about having the issue you're having, they give the same error code in the thread and it looks like their situation is worse as Playstation can't even find record of them purchasing the game despite them having the payment confirmation email   

 

License issue that I've not seen any relevant information about

 

 

Yoooooo THANK YOU for this. Here's the crazy thing I left out of my OP: This exact part happened to me. I contacted Playstation Support earlier in the day and they wanted the transaction ID. I go in looking for the $4.99 purchase and can't find it. I thought I wasn't charged. Then like 4-5 hours went by, I checked again, and it was there. 

 

I will reply there to try and exchange some details with this guy. 

[pinkrobot_pb]

Gaming on consoles used to have an edge over PC gaming for an important reason: it would just work. When you need to start fiddling with licenses, rebuilding databases, safe modes, etc, that's not a good thing.

 

In short, F.

[remtalemta]

Is there any indication that creating a new account - for this game only - wouldn't help?

[AK-1138]

 

F

[AnWalls]

F

[SnowxSakura]

While it's possible it's a hardware issue, I think it's unlikely as it would affect more than just one of your purchases. Seems more like the game isn't properly registered to your account to show that you own it, whether it's a playstation store bug itself, or an issue with the way it assigns licenses, sony won't say it's their fault.

[dakk55]

F

 

 

Be careful if some guy in leather shows up and offers you a red pill.

[DaivRules]

6 hours ago, realm722 said:

If you have no help to offer, a simple F in the chat to pay respects would suffice

please don’t encourage people to break Rule 5. 
 

If this is all just to play one game, create a 2nd account on the PS4, buy the game from that account, then see if you can access the game on your main account once your 2nd account buys and installs it. 

[realm722]

17 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

please don’t encourage people to break Rule 5. 
 

If this is all just to play one game, create a 2nd account on the PS4, buy the game from that account, then see if you can access the game on your main account once your 2nd account buys and installs it. 

 

My bad on the first matter.

 

As for your advice, here's the weird thing: I can't even buy the game again. Even though I've gone through the lengthy process of getting a refund and everything - the game is STILL in the my PS4 Library. So even if I made a 2nd account on my PS4, I still wouldn't have the option to purchase it new all over again.

 

Since I've made this post I've gotten 2 more replies on the PS4 Subreddit of people who've had the same error code restoring licenses. As I said, there's little to 0 information on it outside of 3 posts from a few years back. I don't hope this is a new issue causing problems for players - but something tells me this is an error on Sony's end to people who have something in common. It could be something to do with the new system update that hasn't been mandatorily released yet OR something happened in a small window of purchases in the past few days in December causing this. 

Edited December 14, 2019 by realm722

[SnowxSakura]

1 minute ago, realm722 said:

 

My bad on the first matter.

 

As for your advice, here's the weird thing: I can't even buy the game again. Even though I've gone through the lengthy process of getting a refund and everything - the game is STILL in the my PS4 Library. So even if I made a 2nd account on my PS4, I still wouldn't have the option to purchase it new all over again.

 

Since I've made this post I've gotten 2 more replies on the PS4 Subreddit of people who've had the same error code restoring licenses. As I said, there's little to 0 information on it outside of 3 posts from a few years back. I don't hope this is a new issue causing problems for players - but something tells me this is an error on Sony's end to people who have something in common. 

Buying it on an alt account shouldn't be an issue

[realm722]

11 minutes ago, SnowxSakura said:

Buying it on an alt account shouldn't be an issue

 

I've actually never made an alternate account other than a guest account before. I'm knee-deep in this issue now but you've motivated me to see if this would work as a loophole (still not a 100% solution since I'd want the trophy list on my main but just to play the games it makes sense). I'll post back with my findings. 

[X_Wizi_X]

2 days ago, while I was playing on Ps3 in offline mode, I tried to login but I got a message where I had to quit the game before going online. I thought that was pretty weird because that was the first time I saw a message like that. Thus, I quitted the game, went online and I had to accept the new Playstation privacy policy. Maybe it's related in some way

[StraightVege]

1 hour ago, realm722 said:

(still not a 100% solution since I'd want the trophy list on my main).

 

Well, you can—just activate the alternate account as primary in the settings, then you should be able to play it on your main: https://support.playstation.com/s/article/Activating-your-PlayStation-4-System-as-your-Primary-PS4?language=en_US

 

I've shared many games between accounts this way, and you can always change it back.

[HusKy]

Have you tried unregistering your console as primary and then registering it as primary again? This helps with licensing issues from time to time.

[Vive_ut_vivas]

This happened to me as well but with a different game. It started with one when i tried to reregister all licenses (restore tomato/tomatoe) it affected more and more games.

As suggested unregister as main ps, warning it will disable all games. (At least this happened on my ps)

Then register again, then in safe mode use the repair database.

Then reregister all licenses.

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by Vive_ut_vivas

[realm722]

2 hours ago, HusKy said:

Have you tried unregistering your console as primary and then registering it as primary again? This helps with licensing issues from time to time.

 

I did! I had it as "Activated" selected "Deactivate" and then registered as primary again. Really thought that would fix it as well - no luck. 

 

2 hours ago, Vive_ut_vivas said:

This happened to me as well but with a different game. It started with one when i tried to reregister all licenses (restore tomato/tomatoe) it affected more and more games.

As suggested unregister as main ps, warning it will disable all games. (At least this happened on my ps)

Then register again, then in safe mode use the repair database.

Then reregister all licenses.

 

 

Question though - did you get an error when trying to restore licenses originally before unregistering as main PS4 and so forth? The NP-34978-1 is the baffling part for me. 

 

 

 

Small update: I've proceeded to scour on Twitter and a few Russian and Portuguese forums and found a few more people having trouble with it. Two more replies to the PS4 subreddit issues - so it's clear I'm not the only one and more firmly believe the issue is on Sony's end. Here's the thing: I FINALLY found somebody who said they got the locked symbol issue resolved. The solution? They waited 24 hours and then were allowed to play the game. Not exactly a pro-active approach one can take but I'm gonna give it a few days and see if people who've had the issue can get it resolved this way. I don't know if it means just the game is unlocked, yet they still can't restore licenses cuz of the error or not, but we'll see. 

[Vive_ut_vivas]

1 hour ago, realm722 said:

Question though - did you get an error when trying to restore licenses originally before unregistering as main PS4 and so forth? The NP-34978-1 is the baffling part for me. 

 

With me it happened when downloading Anthem. A few minutes after starting the download the PS4 update was also downloaded and installed.

It was still downloading Anthem when I restarted to apply the update.

After that at 99% the download got stuck and the lock icon appeared.

Whatever I did deleting the game and redownloading or checking for update it gave the error.

When I tried restore licenses all digital games from my main PS4 account got the lock symbol, and the error then came after the first attempt.

After going trough all the steps I described it was fixed. I have not had it since then.

 

[HaGetOwned]

On 12/14/2019 at 11:40 AM, realm722 said:

 

I did! I had it as "Activated" selected "Deactivate" and then registered as primary again. Really thought that would fix it as well - no luck. 

 

 

Question though - did you get an error when trying to restore licenses originally before unregistering as main PS4 and so forth? The NP-34978-1 is the baffling part for me. 

 

 

 

Small update: I've proceeded to scour on Twitter and a few Russian and Portuguese forums and found a few more people having trouble with it. Two more replies to the PS4 subreddit issues - so it's clear I'm not the only one and more firmly believe the issue is on Sony's end. Here's the thing: I FINALLY found somebody who said they got the locked symbol issue resolved. The solution? They waited 24 hours and then were allowed to play the game. Not exactly a pro-active approach one can take but I'm gonna give it a few days and see if people who've had the issue can get it resolved this way. I don't know if it means just the game is unlocked, yet they still can't restore licenses cuz of the error or not, but we'll see. 

Did the game unlocked? I just experienced this issue today with my Need For Speed Heat game.

[starcrunch061]

On 12/14/2019 at 0:39 AM, realm722 said:

WARNING: THIS IS LONG AND OVERLY DR

TL;DR - I bought game. I was locked out of it. I go through literally every step possible to resolve it and it still won't work. I have an unfixable error I still don't know to resolve. I was given a refund. I will never watch any YouTube videos regarding Sundered: Eldritch Edition OR attempt to play it on PC. If I can't have it how I want it, I don't want it DAMMIT. If you have no help to offer, a simple F in the chat to pay respects would suffice (edited: actually don't do that)

 

Well, if it's any consolation, Sundered sucks. 

 

Sorry to hear about your error.

[realm722]

19 hours ago, HaGetOwned said:

Did the game unlocked? I just experienced this issue today with my Need For Speed Heat game.

 

Unfortunately not man. :/ Here is the link to a Reddit post that's been updated by somebody far more dedicated than me to the cause and trying to get to the bottom of this situation. It's quite baffling at this point to where he's now going to contact corporate. He's done EVERYTHING (factory reset PS4, debugging safe mode, etc...)

 

Of course - if you learn about anything your end - please let us know. 

[Aceterix]

On 12/14/2019 at 2:10 PM, X_Wizi_X said:

2 days ago, while I was playing on Ps3 in offline mode, I tried to login but I got a message where I had to quit the game before going online. I thought that was pretty weird because that was the first time I saw a message like that. Thus, I quitted the game, went online and I had to accept the new Playstation privacy policy. Maybe it's related in some way

I had this two days ago also in the same scenario on ps3, I've never had it before but it looked like I was setting up a new account, it does make me think something has gone pop behind the scenes as the timeframe is the same as the original guys (slightly different/substantially worse) issue.

 

I had heard the network was down for a while in the morning too, no idea if that's related at all?

[HaGetOwned]

2 hours ago, realm722 said:

 

Unfortunately not man. :/ Here is the link to a Reddit post that's been updated by somebody far more dedicated than me to the cause and trying to get to the bottom of this situation. It's quite baffling at this point to where he's now going to contact corporate. He's done EVERYTHING (factory reset PS4, debugging safe mode, etc...)

 

Of course - if you learn about anything your end - please let us know. 

Aye, so I did what you were recommended to which was wait 24 hours and nothing happened. I chatted with a Playstation employee through there live text chat and was recommended to reset my router and you should be able to restore your license and the game should be unlocked. It worked for me, hopefully it works for you & anyone else that has this same problem. Shout out to Brendon on the Playstation Live Chat.

[realm722]

2 minutes ago, HaGetOwned said:

Aye, so I did what you were recommended to which was wait 24 hours and nothing happened. I chatted with a Playstation employee through there live text chat and was recommended to reset my router and you should be able to restore your license and the game should be unlocked. It worked for me, hopefully it works for you & anyone else that has this same problem. Shout out to Brendon on the Playstation Live Chat.

 

Yoooooo thank you for this. I can't test out the method right now but I'll pass it along to the others.