Origin error: "Origin is unable to install games here. Please choose another folder."

Scam · 6 Nov 2021 at 12:23

Ok, I'm not a regular gamer beyond RDR2 and CSGO at the moment (lockdown brought me back into the fold last year!), but I nabbed a few free games via Origin and have had it installed for probably 6-7 months now.

Bizarrely as of last week it keeps coming up with this error (per subject) and I don't know what to do. It seems to let me re-choose my game install folder which is my secondary gaming SSD here G:\Program Files\Origin (not the same as windows). I never had any problems with this when I first got setup, I've had BF1, BFV, Star Wars Battlefront II installed for a while (regrettably not played yet).

Any ideas? I'm loathe to change the folder and/or download them again as I'm only on a 78Mbps line.

Cheers.

MrRockliffe · 6 Nov 2021 at 12:47

Would be worth doing a diagnostic check on the SSD to see if it’s failing?

I feel like you can back up game files in origin and then when you go to reinstall it’ll verify them. I.e. move the install to another SSD or folder.

Not 100% on the last bit though

loftie · 6 Nov 2021 at 12:47

While I won't swear to it, I believe with Origin you can copy/paste folders with games in and out and just point it to the folder on install. If I'm right, maybe you could copy the files somewhere else, uninstall, copy it back and tell it to install in the location you copied it over to.
I don't recall having that issue with Origin before though, so YMMV.

Scam · 6 Nov 2021 at 13:34

MrRockliffe said:
Would be worth doing a diagnostic check on the SSD to see if it’s failing?

I hope not, it's les than a year old! Good shout though, how do I do that? Just in Windows?

I noticed EPIC Games needed updating, I know they're linked. Could that have anything to do with it? I'll dig into it this afternoon, maybe try moving/backing up games etc.

MrRockliffe · 6 Nov 2021 at 13:43

Scam said:
I hope not, it's les than a year old! Good shout though, how do I do that? Just in Windows?

I noticed EPIC Games needed updating, I know they're linked. Could that have anything to do with it? I'll dig into it this afternoon, maybe try moving/backing up games etc.

A few different ways to do it - can’t think of anything off the top of my head though.

Most likely Origin being… Origin.

Scam · 6 Nov 2021 at 16:15

MrRockliffe said:
Most likely Origin being… Origin.

Hmn, no joy with any of that. I noticed that those Program Files folders seem to be Read Only though. That shouldn't be the case should it? :confused:

Maybe that's it?

MrRockliffe · 6 Nov 2021 at 16:50

Scam said:
Hmn, no joy with any of that. I noticed that those Program Files folders seem to be Read Only though. That shouldn't be the case should it? Maybe that's it?

I don’t think they should - doesn’t sound right to me

JJimmyJ · 6 Nov 2021 at 17:14

I've had this happen, but it was a good few months ago. I think it's best to move the games (as advised above). Then actually delete the dodgy origin folder. Start to install one of the games in the location you want and it should recreate the origin game folder, stop the game install, move game folder files back and it should pick them back up

loftie · 9 Nov 2021 at 00:05

loftie said:
I don't recall having that issue with Origin before though, so YMMV.

Loaded origin today for the first time in ages, and it pops up. :mad:

Edit: It looks like any folder that both Origin and EA Desktop make are created Read Only. I assume the issue is that Origin forgets this and ****s itself. The 4 games I've on Origin still seem to work so *shrugs*. I created a new folder for installs, I wonder how long this one will last!

Scam · 9 Nov 2021 at 09:43

Yeah, well changing the folders and subfolders to read/write didn't help either so I guess I'll try the same, and move my existing installs :confused:

loftie · 9 Nov 2021 at 14:52

Scam said:
Yeah, well changing the folders and subfolders to read/write didn't help either so I guess I'll try the same, and move my existing installs

The games I have already installed continue to work. They've not had any patches though, so not sure how it'd handle that. IMHO, make a new folder for games but try leaving the installed ones alone. It didn't care/complain once I'd selected the new folder for any new installs.

I originally had my Origin games inside a folder in my Origin folder, i.e. G:\Programs\Origin\Games, mainly because I wanted them all in one place. I didn't like me creating a new folder inside my Origins folder, i.e. G:\Programs\Origin\Games2, it still complained it was read only. So I moved it outside to G:\Programs\Origin Games. This worked fine. The games already in the original G:\Programs\Origin\Games remained there (it does say it won't move them) and I could still run them. But as I said, they've not had any patches, probably because they're so old, so not sure how it will handle that. If they do throw up a Read Only error, you can run Origin in admin mode and it should get around the issue. This actually seems to solve the error to begin with, but you''d need to run it as admin mode every time, which I wouldn't do.

FoxEye · 9 Nov 2021 at 23:20

Scam said:
Ok, I'm not a regular gamer beyond RDR2 and CSGO at the moment (lockdown brought me back into the fold last year!), but I nabbed a few free games via Origin and have had it installed for probably 6-7 months now.

Bizarrely as of last week it keeps coming up with this error (per subject) and I don't know what to do. It seems to let me re-choose my game install folder which is my secondary gaming SSD here G:\Program Files\Origin (not the same as windows). I never had any problems with this when I first got setup, I've had BF1, BFV, Star Wars Battlefront II installed for a while (regrettably not played yet).

Any ideas? I'm loathe to change the folder and/or download them again as I'm only on a 78Mbps line.

Cheers.

Not Origin but... the Epic Store doesn't work if the account you're logged into isn't an administrator account. Could that be your issue? Probably not as most people run admin accounts and let UAC do its thing. But you might be one of the 0.1% of people who made a limited account as well as an admin account

Ricimer · 10 Nov 2021 at 17:49

Scam said:
Ok, I'm not a regular gamer beyond RDR2 and CSGO at the moment (lockdown brought me back into the fold last year!), but I nabbed a few free games via Origin and have had it installed for probably 6-7 months now.

Bizarrely as of last week it keeps coming up with this error (per subject) and I don't know what to do. It seems to let me re-choose my game install folder which is my secondary gaming SSD here G:\Program Files\Origin (not the same as windows). I never had any problems with this when I first got setup, I've had BF1, BFV, Star Wars Battlefront II installed for a while (regrettably not played yet).

Any ideas? I'm loathe to change the folder and/or download them again as I'm only on a 78Mbps line.

Cheers.

I've had the same issue the last few weeks (probably since the last Origin client update on 20th October).

I have resolved it today by adding modify/write permissions for the PCNAME\Users group to the Games folder. I run as an administrator, so it should not be an issue. My theory is that Origin is now not requesting an elevated access token when starting, so it is denied access to the folder, but fails to present a UAC prompt.