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PSN Account bug that prevents License Restore on PS4 (Cannot play any games)

So I’m not exactly sure when this started happening, but about 3 weeks ago when I downloaded the July PS+ games, I noticed that Strider kept saying “Unlock full game” at the bottom when I tried to play it. Not really being that enthused about playing the game anyway I kinda shrugged it off and tried to do a license restore. It didn’t work. The error message I got was “An error has occurred. (CE-33945-4)”. I looked up the error code and found out that it is the universal code for a failed connection to the server. “Connection to server failed. The PS4 was unable to connect to the server. Please try again later. You can check the status of the PSN here.”

So like I said, I wasn’t all that pressed about it and I thought the server was down at the time I tried, no biggie. None of my other downloaded games had an issue, including the rest of the July PS+ offerings, on top of that the Destiny beta downloaded and worked fine for me so I thought all was well.

Cut to yesterday with a little backstory, I do some freelance writing for two websites (Which I am not naming because this topic isn’t about pimping them out), so I recieved a review code for a game that will be releasing this week. I redeemed it yesterday and started downloading it.

Everything downloaded fine, patch and all. I go to start the game and it throws an error code at me. “Cannot start the application. (CE-34632-8)” So I look it up and it seems that this error is fixed by restoring the licenses. Except that when I try to do that, I get that same error that I got 3 weeks ago. “An error has occurred. (CE-33945-4)” A little frustrated, I check all of my networking settings and everything seems fine. I sign into my Wife’s Psn account, My EU account, and my JPN account, expecting to get the same error. Nope. The License Restore process on all of those work fine.

It is literally only my primary account that is affected. So I bite the bullet and call Sony to start the long and arduous process of dealing with their Customer Support line. After about 15 minutes on hold I finally speak to someone in the PSN department who takes me through all of the tedious troubleshooting steps. Activating/Deactivating the console, Rebuilding the database on the HDD from safe mode, and finally doing a Full Initialization on the console. Twice.

No dice, none of this solves the issue. So the guy on the other end of the phone tells me it must be my ISP, to which I say is completely incorrect because my other accounts restore just fine. I am then transferred to an “Account technician” and placed on hold for another 7 minutes. At this point I have been on the phone for over an hour, and my PS4 has been wiped clean. Settings, Saves, Installed games, all gone at this time. While I am on hold I start recording the call. I figure it can’t hurt, and it might be helpful for anyone else having this problem in the future.

When someone finally answers the phone they proceed to tell me that this is a known issue and that they do not have a solution yet. They have no idea what causes it and basically I am shit out of luck. I tell them how important this is because I have work to do that can now only be done with this account, again there is no solution and it cannot be fixed at this time. They have no ETA on when this will be fixed, but the tech did confirm that it has affected other accounts, not just mine. She suggested that I deactivate all of my Playstation devices (PS3s, Vita) and try activating the PS4 again first, but thats all she could say. (I did this later and it didn’t work)

I end the call politely and go to my now blank PS4. I start downloading my stuff again, Netflix, Amazon Prime, the game I need to review, the Destiny beta, etc. However, now everything has a lock next to the “Start” option and throws the “Cannot start the application. (CE-34632-8)” error at me.

Yes, thats right. You cannot even start Netflix without restoring your licenses. Frustrated and dismayed I go spend some time with my wife and daughter and take a break from this whole gaming thing for the rest of the night.

When I woke up this morning I browsed NeoGaf as I often do and I saw that there was a PS4 update. “HOPE!” I thought. Nah, it didn’t fix the issue. In fact, it introduced a new one. When I try to activate my console it now throws a new error: “An error has occurred. (WS-37470-1)” This error code is not even on the support site at all, so I don’t know what it means.

It must not affect that many accounts, as I wasn’t able to find anyone posting online who has this issue (Through Google), but I thought maybe I would tell my story here anyway in-case someone else encounters this issue.

TL:DR; Can’t “Restore Licenses” on my main account. No other accounts affected. Called Sony, offered no solution, but confirmed that this is a known problem which it being worked on. I have now lost access to my entire PS4 digital library, and purchases new, old, and otherwise cannot be played.

Some screenshots of the Errors and stuff:

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YSZdm0C.jpg

AaW8jLt.jpg

Edit: Also my first thread on gaf, as it turns out.

Edit 2: Seems I am not the only one afterall.
http://community.us.playstation.com...-4-Error-CAN-T-RESTORE-LICENSES/td-p/44060652
 
Wow,

Tweet this to @yosp

Yeah, I tweeted him the thread after I posted it.

Do you have still access to your account on vita and ps3?
Have you tried with a different ps4?

Vita and PS3 seem to work fine. I believe they use a different system for licensing. Didn't try another PS4, but I don't think that would change anything. My other accounts are able to restore just fine, and I have done a full initialization on the console twice.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
That sucks, but good to know that it is a known problem that is being worked on. Hopefully it will be fixed as soon as possible.
 
Can you PM me your email address associated with your PSN ID? As a Playstation MVP I'll send your information to my community manager and see if they can confirm whether that really is a known error with no fix, or whether they can do anything for you. Thanks!
 
Can you PM me your email address associated with your PSN ID? As a Playstation MVP I'll send your information to my community manager and see if they can confirm whether that really is a known error with no fix, or whether they can do anything for you. Thanks!

If this fixes the problem, there's something horribly wrong with Sony customer support. There have been too many threads with Sony horrors.
 

cjp

Junior Member
Another reason to be cautious of of a digital only future, I guess.

I hope you managed to get it sorted, OP. This sounds like a monumental ball ache and I certainly don't envy you having to deal with PS Support after the experiences I've had.
 
Damn I feel for ya OP. Hopefully everything gets sorted out for you. I guess this is another deterrent for me to go all digital...gonna go check on my Strider and Transistor downloads
 
Can you sync your trophies? The reason I ask this is because i had a similar issue like this on the PS4. I couldn't play or even sync trophies for Resogun(And other as well). The way I fixed it was booting some of the games I had at the time(Like 5) and then booting the game I had issue with. Trophies for all my games sync, and I was able to play Resogun...
 
I doubt CS can help you. I had a similar issue. It's time to initialize the PS4, start from scratch.

Did this twice, no dice.

Can you sync your trophies? The reason I ask this is because i had a similar issue like this on the PS4. I couldn't play or even sync trophies for Resogun. The way I fixed it was booting some of the games I had at the time(Like 5) and then booting the game I had issue with. Trophies for all my games sync, and I was able to play Resogun...

Yes, my trophies synced fine after this issue started.
 

stryke

Member
While I am on hold I start recording the call. I figure it can’t hurt, and it might be helpful for anyone else having this problem in the future.

Maybe not all that important in the light of your predicament, but did you inform the other person you were recording the conversation because if not I'm pretty sure that's illegal in some countries.
 

Yagharek

Member
If this fixes the problem, there's something horribly wrong with Sony customer support. There have been too many threads with Sony horrors.

And if it doesnt fix the problem, its even more damning if there is a known bug with no known fix which basically wipes all your licenses.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
Yeesh, now I don't feel bad about being paranoid over digital content and just sticking with physical. This sounds like quite the situation.
 

anddo0

Member
Did this twice, no dice.



Yes, my trophies synced fine after this issue started.

damn. Your account is in the loop somehow.
I don't think there's much more you can do on your end.

It's definitely a server side issue on Sony's end.
Just because you can sync trophies, doesn't mean you still have ownership of your games unfortunately.



And if it doesnt fix the problem, its even more damning if there is a known bug with no known fix which basically wipes all your licenses.

This bug is nothing new. It dates back to PS3. My friend lost ownership of Diablo 3 after having hard drive issues.. Sony couldn't do anything to help him.
 
Maybe not all that important in the light of your predicament, but did you inform the other person you were recording the conversation because if not I'm pretty sure that's illegal in some countries.

It is legal in my state as long as I am part of the phone call myself.
 

Chris_C

Member
I noticed that a couple of updates ago, my PS3 games all had padlock icons showing up on the bottom left when I'd start it up. Typically takes a few minutes before they go away. As of 1.73, they don't show up any longer tho.
 

Nokterian

Member
What a surprise i am getting the same error to activate my PS4 as primary on that last screenshot. That update messed up more then it fixed something.
 

SaucyJack

Member
This bug is nothing new. It dates back to PS3. My friend lost ownership of Diablo 3 after having hard drive issues.. Sony couldn't do anything to help him.

Had this issue with Borderlands GOTY which stopped working and wouldn't let me re-download base game (although DLC was fine!).

Sony CS sent me a code to repurchase the game free of charge.
 
TL:DR; Can’t “Restore Licenses” on my main account. No other accounts affected. Called Sony, offered no solution, but confirmed that this is a known problem which it being worked on. I have now lost access to my entire PS4 digital library, and purchases new, old, and otherwise cannot be played.

Have you tried again today? PSN was having some issues in the afternoon (pacific time) yesterday. Probably not the issue. But there's always the slim chance I'm right and you'll get back to some gaming.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
I had a few issues renewing licenses right when the Destiny Beta opened up and PSN was on it's knees. People were spamming the service left and right to get the beta to grant them access.

Worked fine an hour later though.
 
Have you tried again today? PSN was having some issues in the afternoon (pacific time) yesterday. Probably not the issue. But there's always the slim chance I'm right and you'll get back to some gaming.

Didn't work today, before or after the update. Like I said in the OP, I haven't been able to restore my licenses for almost 3 weeks now.

OP, did you tied accessing your content via another PS4 console [both as a guest and as activated account]?

I don't have one immediately available. I'm thinking about hitting up my friend and seeing if he wants to bring his PS4 over and try.
 

4lejandro

Member
You said you tried with your multiple accounts (japanese, etc), I think I read somewhere that Sony didn't like multi-region account holders or something like that?

I have multiple region accounts on my ps3 but just NA ones on my ps4, maybe it's the difference in licensing system
 
Did you update yous PS4 to 1.74?

Yes, its in the OP.

When I woke up this morning I browsed NeoGaf as I often do and I saw that there was a PS4 update. “HOPE!” I thought. Nah, it didn’t fix the issue. In fact, it introduced a new one. When I try to activate my console it now throws a new error: “An error has occurred. (WS-37470-1)” This error code is not even on the support site at all, so I don’t know what it means.
 
I've had to restore my license before and other small things but this sucks. I had a similar thing happen on 360 last year and eventually MS could restore it but the customer service was awful. My 360 was my primary and I had hundreds of digital games. I want my PS4 to be the same but if stuff like this is happening so early on it makes me nervous going forward.
 

Raptor

Member
Is a problem with the account or the PS4 itself, you can do all of that on another account on the same console?

It seems a Server side issue to me if you can do it with another accounts.
 
Well, they need AT LEAST do one of those things:

-restore your purchased content with freebie from Plus, giving your three weeks of problems with a free month of Plus
-give a discount code so you can re-download for free all your contents
-give your money back

Call them again and say you need this for work.

I have a ton of work to do today, but I will be calling them again for sure. I am by no means going to let this sort of thing stand.

Is a problem with the account or the PS4 itself, you can do all of that on another account on the same console?

It seems a Server side issue to me if you can do it with another accounts.

Yeah, other accounts work. The developer was able to provide me with another code for the game (because they are awesome), and I redeemed it on my wife's account. So I am able to play on my account that way.
 

Yagharek

Member
This bug is nothing new. It dates back to PS3. My friend lost ownership of Diablo 3 after having hard drive issues.. Sony couldn't do anything to help him.

Wow. So basically they dont know what the bug is, and it basically ruins your account for good.

Be interesting to see how common this is and what remedies customers get (refunds or a cold shoulder).
 

huffster999

Neo Member
Just noticed this thread and dam now i'm worried.At least once a week i have to restore my licences and the last time it took 4 attempts for them all to work.I've gone pretty much all digital this gen and would cry like a baby if i lost access to them
 

Jigolo

Member
Try rebuilding the database

Power down completely --> Hold power button until you see a screen showing you to connect DS4 via cable --> "rebuild database"
 
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