Validating with every launch (Steam)

+1 Still getting this issue :(

+1 Same issue. 3rd day.

+1 validation issue every time game is launched (I use SA server)

Hopefully this will "resolve itself" when the next patch is released 🤞

+1 south africa as well. It adds a lot of time in my attempt to play. and is getting increasingly aggravating

South African player here, as of 23rd June 2025 the issue is still persisting, really hoping GGG can fix this issue .

+1 experiencing same thing. Also South African.

I have found a fix here:
Clearly this is an issue with South African servers here since if we look at the steam logs below, we can see that it is saying that the cached files in the Johannesburg server is corrupt or not the same, triggering it to get the same version that is committed there.

To fix this, change your download region to anywhere else (I used Belgium). It validates and downloads the "missing files" and then the issue doesn't show up again. I switched back to the JHB server and the issue comes back up. I am from JHB so I dont know if the problem persists for the Cape Town server.

Below is logs from steam:

[2025-06-17 19:12:46] AppID 238960 state changed : Update Required,Fully Installed,Update Queued,Update Running,
[2025-06-17 19:12:46] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,
[2025-06-17 19:12:46] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,Preallocating,
[2025-06-17 19:12:46] AppID 228980 preallocated 97 files (285 MB)
[2025-06-17 19:12:47] AppID 238960 preallocated 2 files (70 MB)
[2025-06-17 19:12:47] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] AppID 228980 update started : download 0/285758592, store 0/0, reuse 0/0, delta 0/0, stage 0/308275659
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] AppID 228980 state changed : Update Required,Fully Installed,Update Running,Update Started, (Update delayed for 38803 secs)
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] AppID 238960 update started : download 0/579696, store 0/0, reuse 0/61267280, delta 0/58121552, stage 0/73850192
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] AppID 238960 state changed : Update Required,Fully Installed,Update Queued,Update Running,Update Started,
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,Downloading,Staging,
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] Moving to source priority class '3'
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] Created download interface of type 'SteamCache' (7) to host cache2-jnb1.steamcontent.com (cache2-jnb1.steamcontent.com)
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] Created download interface of type 'SteamCache' (7) to host cache4-jnb1.steamcontent.com (cache4-jnb1.steamcontent.com)
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] Created download interface of type 'SteamCache' (7) to host cache1-jnb1.steamcontent.com (cache1-jnb1.steamcontent.com)
[2025-06-17 19:12:49] Downloading 20 chunks from depot 228983
[2025-06-17 19:12:50] HTTPS (SteamCache,95) - cache4-jnb1.steamcontent.com (155.133.238.147:443 / 155.133.238.147:443, host: cache4-jnb1.steamcontent.com): Negotiated HTTP/2
[2025-06-17 19:12:50] HTTPS (SteamCache,424) - cache2-jnb1.steamcontent.com (155.133.238.146:443 / 155.133.238.146:443, host: cache2-jnb1.steamcontent.com): Negotiated HTTP/2
[2025-06-17 19:12:50] HTTPS (SteamCache,423) - cache1-jnb1.steamcontent.com (155.133.238.130:443 / 155.133.238.130:443, host: cache1-jnb1.steamcontent.com): Negotiated HTTP/2
[2025-06-17 19:12:56] Downloading 15 chunks from depot 228984
[2025-06-17 19:13:01] Downloading 17 chunks from depot 228985
[2025-06-17 19:13:02] Increasing target number of download connections to 4 (rate was 0.000, now 27.591)
[2025-06-17 19:13:02] Current download rate: 27.591 Mbps
[2025-06-17 19:13:02] Created download interface of type 'SteamCache' (7) to host cache3-jnb1.steamcontent.com (cache3-jnb1.steamcontent.com)
[2025-06-17 19:13:06] Downloading 28 chunks from depot 228986
[2025-06-17 19:13:07] HTTPS (SteamCache,96) - cache3-jnb1.steamcontent.com (155.133.238.131:443 / 155.133.238.131:443, host: cache3-jnb1.steamcontent.com): Negotiated HTTP/2
[2025-06-17 19:13:12] Downloading 26 chunks from depot 228987
[2025-06-17 19:13:14] Increasing target number of download connections to 5 (rate was 27.591, now 38.154)
[2025-06-17 19:13:18] Downloading 26 chunks from depot 228988
[2025-06-17 19:13:26] Downloading 203 chunks from depot 228990
[2025-06-17 19:13:46] Downloading 70 chunks from depot 229004
[2025-06-17 19:13:59] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,
[2025-06-17 19:13:59] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,Downloading,Staging,
[2025-06-17 19:13:59] Downloading 4 chunks from depot 238962
[2025-06-17 19:14:00] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,
[2025-06-17 19:14:00] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,Verifying Staged,
[2025-06-17 19:14:01] Verified 70 MB in 'D:\Steam games', clean bytes tally is now 259 MB
[2025-06-17 19:14:01] Triggered async write of Steam library folders configuration (2 libraries).
[2025-06-17 19:14:01] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,
[2025-06-17 19:14:01] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,Committing,
[2025-06-17 19:14:01] AppID 228980 starting commit from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\downloading\228980" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared" : 186 updated, 0 moved, 0 deleted files
[2025-06-17 19:14:01] AppID 228980 state changed : Fully Installed,Update Running, (Update delayed for 38731 secs)
[2025-06-17 19:14:01] AppID 228980 finished update, 8 mounted depots (BuildID 17627579) : 228983 (8124929965194586177),228984 (2547553897526095397),228985 (3966345552745568756),228986 (8782296191957114623),228987 (4302102680580581867),228988 (6645201662696499616),228990 (1829726630299308803),229004 (5220958916987797232),
[2025-06-17 19:14:01] AppID 238960 starting commit from "D:\Steam games\steamapps\downloading\238960" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Path of Exile" : 2 updated, 0 moved, 0 deleted files
[2025-06-17 19:14:02] AppID 238960 state changed : Fully Installed,Update Queued,Update Running,
[2025-06-17 19:14:02] AppID 238960 finished update, 2 mounted depots (BuildID 18889289) : 238961 (7424223709366395273),238962 (8769228168924030193),
[2025-06-17 19:14:02] AppID 238960 App update changed : Running Update,
[2025-06-17 19:14:02] AppID 238960 App update changed : None
[2025-06-17 19:14:02] AppID 228980 state changed : Fully Installed, (Update delayed for 38730 secs)
[2025-06-17 19:14:02] AppID 238960 state changed : Fully Installed,Update Queued,
[2025-06-17 19:14:02] AppID 238960 state changed : Fully Installed,
[2025-06-17 19:14:02] AppID 238960 scheduler finished : removed from schedule (result No Error, state 0xc)
[2025-06-17 19:14:03] Current download rate: 0.000 Mbps
[2025-06-17 19:14:59] HTTP/2 (SteamCache,95) - cache4-jnb1.steamcontent.com (155.133.238.147:443 / 155.133.238.147:443, host: cache4-jnb1.steamcontent.com): Closing connection
[2025-06-17 19:14:59] HTTP/2 (SteamCache,423) - cache1-jnb1.steamcontent.com (155.133.238.130:443 / 155.133.238.130:443, host: cache1-jnb1.steamcontent.com): Closing connection
[2025-06-17 19:15:00] HTTP/2 (SteamCache,96) - cache3-jnb1.steamcontent.com (155.133.238.131:443 / 155.133.238.131:443, host: cache3-jnb1.steamcontent.com): Closing connection
[2025-06-17 19:15:01] HTTP/2 (SteamCache,424) - cache2-jnb1.steamcontent.com (155.133.238.146:443 / 155.133.238.146:443, host: cache2-jnb1.steamcontent.com): Closing connection
[2025-06-17 19:17:50] stats: (SteamCache, 424) cache2-jnb1.steamcontent.com: 108731456 Bytes, 52 sec (16.67 Mbps). 163 Hits / 0 Misses (100 %, 100 % bytes)
[2025-06-17 19:17:50] stats: (Invalid, 0) : 286338288 Bytes, 54 sec (42.62 Mbps). 410 Hits / 0 Misses (100 %, 100 % bytes)
[2025-06-17 19:17:50] stats: (SteamCache, 95) cache4-jnb1.steamcontent.com: 106107552 Bytes, 47 sec (17.91 Mbps). 139 Hits / 0 Misses (100 %, 100 % bytes)
[2025-06-17 19:17:50] stats: (SteamCache, 423) cache1-jnb1.steamcontent.com: 55165920 Bytes, 37 sec (11.90 Mbps). 80 Hits / 0 Misses (100 %, 100 % bytes)
[2025-06-17 19:17:50] stats: (SteamCache, 96) cache3-jnb1.steamcontent.com: 16333360 Bytes, 41 sec (3.20 Mbps). 28 Hits / 0 Misses (100 %, 100 % bytes)
[2025-06-17 19:26:55] AppID 238960 state changed : Fully Installed,App Running,
[2025-06-17 19:27:19] AppID 238960 state changed : Fully Installed,Files Corrupt,App Running,
[2025-06-17 19:29:51] AppID 238960 state changed : Fully Installed,Files Corrupt,

Can confirm. Also playing on SA servers.

Touch wood, seems to behave itself tonight, but dont want to log out and test again...

when is ggg going to fix this. i had to validate now twice in 30min.

24 June 09:30 AM

Issue persists.

If you got the game launched you can bypass the "update" message on loggin by spamming the login button. However, if you ever exit the game and try to relaunch the game it will have to validate again, super frustrating!

From the steam logs and investigation from others I assume GGG would just have to "refresh/update" the game files on South African servers? Sounds like a quick/easy fix although I am not an expert in this matter. I hope that at least if a new patch happens it will sort itself out.

Is there any way to force steam (advanced launch codes?) not to check before launch or to force it to check with a different game server allowing us to at least launch the game and enable us to then choose SA server in game?