I’ve been trying to launch Baldur’s Gate 3, but it won’t start. Right after I try to open the game, I get an error saying: ‘Failed to create dir: \?C:userssteamuserAppDataLocalLarianStudiosBaldur’s Gate 3ModCrashSanityCheck — Path not found.’ Has anyone else seen this or figured out how to fix it? The game just won’t open past this point.
5 Answers
Same issue here. At first, I thought it might be a steam deck issue, so I tried installing on windows, but got the same popup. Thankfully, this method worked for me: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3284052303.
As the linked fix explains, there were three files that needed different permissions: two in the bin folder (bg3.exe and bg3_dx11.exe) and one in Launcher (larilauncher.exe). On Windows, right click the file, choose properties, then compatibility, check run as administrator, click OK. I did this for each of the three files and the game was able to launch again.
Fixing it on steam deck required going into desktop mode, locating the above three files, right click, choose properties, then permissions, then setting all three drop down menus to view and write (I don’t remember the specific wording but I think that was the idea).
I hope this works for others!
If you don’t have any mods, try verifying the game files through your launcher or Steam. Sometimes corrupted or missing files cause these directory errors. Also, switching your Proton version to GE-9-26 or 9.27 reportedly helps some users launch the game without issues.
I had the same error and tried a few things: verified files, switched Proton versions, and even uninstalled a Decky plugin I was running. None fixed the issue yet, but I recommend doing those steps just in case. Keep an eye out for updates or patches from Larian Studios too.
I ran into the same error but no mods installed either. For me, the game actually still launched properly after closing the error popup. Have you tried just dismissing that error and seeing if the game continues to load in the background?
Hey ByteCrusherX, yeah mine just returns me to the home screen, but I’ll try closing it and waiting a bit to see if it actually launches behind the scenes.
Worth noting that this error seems related to the game trying to create a mods folder during startup, which can cause issues if the path is missing or has permission problems. Double-check that the directories exist and that the game has permission to write there. Manually creating the ‘ModCrashSanityCheck’ folder in that location might also help as a workaround.
Thanks GlitchHawk9000, I’ve already verified files and tried Proton GE-9.27 but still no luck so far. I’ll keep experimenting with different Proton versions and report back if I get it working.