EAC Detected Local File Integrity Violation: Unknown file version (Athena\Content\Paks\[file name].pak). Application shutting down.

After trying for a long time I found a fix to this problem:

I uninstalled steam and every game I had on steam. After that I installed them again, this time making sure that sea of thieves and steam were on the same drive. This worked en now I can play again. I tried just reinstalling the game again and that did not work. just make sure to save your characters and worlds in games like terraria before uninstalling steam.

I have no idea why this worked, I just noticed that on my old pc and for my friend sea of thieves did work and this was the only difference I could think of.
hope this helps some people

Also getting this issue on what's basically a fresh install of Windows. Has there been any word from the Devs on this at all? Fully half the folk I know that picked up on the Steam sale are getting this error every ~10-20 minutes.

Just bought this game on steam wanting to play it again as last I played it was a few years ago on console. Now I find out I cannot play the game I just bought because of this error. :(

I have the same problem but I think I have the solution, ask for the money back, since I have 1 hour spent trying to fix this error.

@fansea97 hey there! Did you ever find a solution for this? My app just started doing this same thing starting 2 days ago and I have tried everything I can think of. Thanks!

Throwing mine out there as well, same issues as above, none of above solutions works.

If it isnt fixed soon that'll be a refund job for me. Which sucks as I used to play it on xbox a couple of years ago and was keen to see the new changes that my mates were excited to show me.

Same thing occurs on Linux (arch-based) + ProtonGE9-10. I tried everything here but it still does not work as it used to. RARE please fix your anticheat, EAC is really bad, and it always was.

Post 3.1.0 update I have started having the same issue, my previous 30 hours I never had the issue, but after the update I get the error - on Steam, totally ruining what was supposed to be an enjoyable grind with some friends.

Following someones advice from this thread, I added the Sea Of Thieves directory to a whitelist in the windows defender then verified the integrity through steam, it installed the missing files and then I played 4 hours perfectly fine.

1. Open windows security
2. Virus & threat protection on the left
3. Under Virus & Thread protection settings click "Manage settings"
4. Scroll down to "Add or remove Exclusions"
5. Add an exclusion and add the directory of your game that opens when you open the directory. For me it was D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Sea of Thieves.

Then I verified integrity in steam and it said there was 2 files missing. It replaced them and then I ran fine.

After a few weeks of relative stability (I count over an hour without crashing as "stability"), this is back with a vengeance for me in Season 13. It's happening to me now in the menu before I even load into a session. I crashed once browsing the emporium from the menu, once browsing the seasonal rewards from the menu, and twice while trying to load into the game.

I added all the exceptions in Windows Security. Doesn't matter.

Don't say "verify your integrity." Just stop.

EAC has messed up this game on Steam. Rare needs to acknowledge this.

@fansea97 things i've tried that i got from this forum and they haven't worked. (i still can't play)

-installing the game on another disk, didn't work
-deleting the files it mentions in the game and checking the files through steam, didn't work
-installing steam on the same drive as the game, didn't work
-deleting the athena and EAC files from the C drive, didn't work
-deleting the EAC file from the game folder, didn't work
-deleting the EAC file from the game folder and downloading it again through steam, didn't work
-making the EAC executable solve the problem, didn't work
-checking the EAC compatibility issues and having win11 fix the problem, didn't work
-making my antivirus (kasperski) whitelist the drive where i have the game installed, didn't work

just uninstall the game and play something else

What I found worked for me is deleting the whole 'Paks' Folder and then running 'Verify this game's files are installed correctly'

Sea of Thieves Properties > Installed Files > Browse > Athena > Content. Delete Paks folder.
Go back to Installed Files and click Verify this game's files are installed correctly.
It will re-download that whole file, which is about 100Gb.

After trying to run the game the first time, it had some issues. Let it run its diagnostics; it took about 10 minutes. (This might of been just my issue cause I was playing another game at the time of it downloading again)

After it corrected that issue, I had no problems.

Just played for 5 hours without running into the error again.

Got the same issue and it starts to be really annoying. It pops on randomly since beginning of this year, verification always redownloads one file and then it either runs fine for few hours or crashes after few minutes with another file verification needed.

Recently, in last two days the game also hang up twice, out of the blue. One time it happened to me and other crew mate at the same time, second time only for me. There were noticeable stutters also from time to time. Not sure if this is related, but never experienced that before.

I've removed game completely and reinstalled it yesterday, today I've launched game to look at some guild stuff in menu and it detected another integrity violation. All the files in paks folder were last modified when the game was being downloaded, nothing else touches them.

@moistascetic said in EAC Detected Local File Integrity Violation: Unknown file version (Athena\Content\Paks[file name].pak). Application shutting down.:

What I found worked for me is deleting the whole 'Paks' Folder and then running 'Verify this game's files are installed correctly'

Sea of Thieves Properties > Installed Files > Browse > Athena > Content. Delete Paks folder.
Go back to Installed Files and click Verify this game's files are installed correctly.
It will re-download that whole file, which is about 100Gb.

After trying to run the game the first time, it had some issues. Let it run its diagnostics; it took about 10 minutes. (This might of been just my issue cause I was playing another game at the time of it downloading again)

After it corrected that issue, I had no problems.

Just played for 5 hours without running into the error again.

EDIT: After a few more days and many more hours of playing. I can guarantee that this has solved my issue.

just to add my experience here,
i got into this problem right after recent installation on steam. But after checking integrity it replaced 1 file and the problem did not occur since then.

I have the same problem, nothing has been written for 3 months. Is there anything new about solving the problem?

Fresh Windows 10 install, fresh Steam install with Sea of Thieves on it. Got that exact error. Will ask Steam for a refund. Never tried anything like it.

Hi all, steam user here. I've the same problem but I believe it's a bit different, because the anticheat refuse to let me start the game (with a different error code each time, marvelous) or sometimes accept and that's when the problem with EAC file integrity occurs, when I launch the game, however, each times I booted the game after veryfing file integrity or booted EAC setup and the game as an admin, it somehow worked, I've played for the past 6 month , before EAC on SoT, and this error occured when I restarted to play the game from a long pause lasting season 12 and the beginning of season 13, right with EAC

New player here.
Didn't have an issue until 18 hours in.
Now it's a roll of the dice if EAC lets me play.

Instant crush when trying to play this game. If integrity check doesn't work, I dump the game. It's just nonsense.

I contacted support and here is what they came back with...

1. Unknown File Version
   Initially, please ensure that the game's installation folder is not compressed.
   Find your Sea of Thieves installation folder (eg. C:\XboxGames), right click on it and head into "Properties".
   In the general tab, click the "Advanced" button.
   Ensure that the "compress contents" button is unchecked.
   Test the game after this.

Please note that Game Security violations are caused by the game process or system's integrity being compromised, making the game exit. This is usually caused by outdated or insecure background third party software. To resolve this, update or disable third party software and restart your PC.

It might be worth performing this clean boot first, then launch the game. If this works, you will then need to enable background tasks one by one until you can identify the software causing the conflict. It may be worth trying to install the game to another drive if possible.
Additionally, if you have software that controls RGB lighting (for example, ASUS Armorcrate) - ensure this is turned off.

2. Unrecognized Game Client
   This error relates to corrupt game files.

To potentially resolve this issue, could you please try the following:
Within the Xbox app, Right Click the Sea of Thieves Entry and then click Manage.
From this, navigate to the Files Tab within the Pop-up Window That appears.
Then, within the options section at the bottom of this window, select the Verify and Repair option.
From this, you will need to wait for this process to complete.

If you are playing on Steam, please verify your game files and test the game again. Alternatively, a complete deletion and fresh reinstall of the game is known to resolve this as well.

3. EasyAntiCheat Not Installed
   You can install the service manually if you are seeing this error.
   Locate your games installation files and select the root folder 'Sea of Thieves'.
   Locate the 'InstallEasyAntiCheat' Batch File.
   Run the file to install.

3.1. General
There are some general steps you can take to ensure EAC is installed correctly.
Ensure your antivirus does not block EAC.
Install Sea of Thieves on the same drive as your OS.

3.2. Windows/Xbox App
If you are trying to run the game via the Windows/Xbox Store, please repair the game:
Open the Xbox app for Windows
In My Library, select the game title
Select the More options (…) button and choose Manage
Select Files and then Verify and repair

3.3. Steam
If you are trying to run the game via Steam, please verify your game files and test again. If the issue persists, please try manually installing EAC as mentioned at the start of this section.

4. Ghostbeard & Connectivity Issues
   This error is generally caused by a home network issue preventing EAC from communicating with Epics online service. There are a number of network related tests to perform.

4.1. Verify connectivity to Easy Anti-Cheat
Ensure you can access the EAC Content Distribution Network by following these links.

You should see the message: '200 - HTTP OK'

If neither of the links display the expected message, make sure that nothing is blocking your Internet connection. If necessary, add Easy Anti-Cheat and the game folder to your firewall exception list or temporarily disable your firewall.

4.2. Update Windows
System files that the game relies on may be missing. Make sure all the latest updates for your operating system are installed.

4.3. Close all unnecessary programs
Background processes may be affecting connectivity between EAC and our game. Please close any unnecessary background processes, and test the game after a clean boot.

4.4. Virus & Rootkit Removal
One cause for EasyAntiCheat to fail is incompatibility with certain rootkits and viruses. Please ensure your anti-virus software is up to date and perform a full system scan.

If the issue persists, please also perform a full system scan using an anti-malware tool. Here is a freely available option, verified by EasyAntiCheat.

5. Further Information
   If EAC is still not working correctly after following this guide, please note that we are regularly investigating any errors related to it, and aim to improve performance through game updates. As such, we appreciate your patience while we do so.

Hopefully this helps :)