FMO Help Thread

[Andy H]

Hi Folks, 

Can you please put all questions or queries you have about FM Online in this thread and that will free up the main forum for Clan threads or game threads, 

Thanks

Here is a post by vara which I hope may help solve some of the problems people may be having when it comes to playing FM Online. Please give it a go. 

HOST
1. delete preferences and cache from C:\Users\*User*\AppData\Local\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2020 - you will need to turn on hidden files to see this.
2. load the save, go into online preferences and set server visibilty to 'Anyone'
3. set a server name, but leave password blank.
4. save your game and quit FM.
5. verify integrity of FM in steam. right click > properties > local files > verify integrity
6. load FM and your save

the main factor that I believe fixed it was resaving with new version preferences. whereas the save prior was still linked to the old version. it seems to purely be a visibility thing for your save on the updated lobby.

the beta has not been activated in FM preferences via steam

Note: deleting the preferences/cache will reset FM back to default skin, settings, preferred views etc. 

good luck, hope this works for you too.

Andy H

[giuseppepantaleo]

Hi, me and my buddy are 8 seasons into this online save and we never had major issues, besides minor issues like not being able to join each other and so on there was never any problems with the speed of the game (save)!  But since a few days we experiencing major lags when opening player profiles it takes up to a 1 minute! When playing the match on the weekend one of us is done with the match and the other match is in the 20th minute! Please help me and my desperate friend since we are really hanging on this save... we even tried to make a new one but were unable to join each other, we did that to see if maybe we are to many years in and the game got slower?

But it just feels since the problems about joining the online save came out those majors lags keep appearing and making the game unplayable 

[pancone]

I can invite but my friend doesn't see the server. Please help me!

[pancone]

On 23/09/2020 at 19:56, giuseppepantaleo said:

Hi, me and my buddy are 8 seasons into this online save and we never had major issues, besides minor issues like not being able to join each other and so on there was never any problems with the speed of the game (save)!  But since a few days we experiencing major lags when opening player profiles it takes up to a 1 minute! When playing the match on the weekend one of us is done with the match and the other match is in the 20th minute! Please help me and my desperate friend since we are really hanging on this save... we even tried to make a new one but were unable to join each other, we did that to see if maybe we are to many years in and the game got slower?

But it just feels since the problems about joining the online save came out those majors lags keep appearing and making the game unplayable 

Lags? Maybe you have installed facepack and logos. Without facepack and logos the game is much faster. Facepak and logos is only for strong devices.

[pancone]

Why we are forced to play online with Epic Games account? If i buyed game from other platform than Epic Games is normal to don't work the online game cause Epic account don't work for all people. Look in don't remember where i buyed Football Manager 2020 and i sayd to Epic Games support that i don't remember and they sad they can't help me to fix the game. We should should recive support from Epic Games to all epic and nonepic users for problems like this cause they forced us to log in with Epic Games account for online game. Another important thing we can remember: when we buyed the game we haven't been forced to play online with epic games account. Please Sega, let me play online withoult Epic Games account. Please!

Edited September 24, 2020 by pancone

[Hamza9276]

After some time (not determined), everyone is stuck on continue. There’s always one player that is unable to press continue or the game doesnt recognize he actually did click continue. The game freezes for everyone and we have to restart the whole game. Also, the online game after the crash can’t be restarted because it’s doesnt save. 

[pancone]

Please Sega, give me acces to online game without Epic Account! When i made Epic Account i forgot to accept EULA terms and conditions and my friend cannot see my server. Please remove that log in restrictions! I wanna play FM 20 online. I wanna play FM 20 online. Please, I wanna play FM 20 online. Can you help us?

[vara]

7 hours ago, pancone said:

Please Sega, give me acces to online game without Epic Account! When i made Epic Account i forgot to accept EULA terms and conditions and my friend cannot see my server. Please remove that log in restrictions! I wanna play FM 20 online. I wanna play FM 20 online. Please, I wanna play FM 20 online. Can you help us?

i dont have an epic account and it has does not affect my online save at all.

what process are you doing when hosting? 

i would suggest you do the following:

-load your online game
-go to online preferences, set it to visible by anyone. then save your game with a new name.
-restart FM
-load your online game that you saved with the new file name.

this is the processed used to get it working prior to the latest hotfix. since hotfix no issues have been found at all, however i still did the above sequence as a precaution.

[Slatan]

Me and my friend haven't been able to play fm for weeks now because he cant find my server. We've also tried EVERYTHING suggested. PLEASE fix.

Edited September 28, 2020 by Slatan

[Slatan]

Any updates on this?

[pancone]

I know, i know, i know. My Epic Games account is faulty. When i created the Epic Games Account i copied a part from code and i recived error on my faulty account. The faulty account can be removed in 14 days. After 14 days i will create an healthy Epic Games account with the same e-mail address and log in. The big problem is that we need to reinstall Windows 10 cause we can't log out from old Epic Games account in preferences. This is it.

Edited September 30, 2020 by pancone

[Slatan]

On 30/09/2020 at 17:19, Slatan said:

Any updates on this?

So shall I just give up? 

[Kvelend]

Hey Guys, new to the forum here.

I've been playing with some guys from work and there's one who's always the host, he always creates the leagues himself and the only time one of us created one, he refused to play.

Then I've noticed that he always gets the players he wants for lower fees, he's always signing the best wonderkids/regens, his team are always motivated, his regular players develop to be stars despite being regular when I scout them and is basically stomping everyone else.

I started noticing some of this stuff only when I purchased the editor for myself and attempted regular careers, and noticed the impact of knowing the hidden values and editing those.

So.. my question is: Can he utilize the Editor to do all this stuff on an Online Career? Can he bring anyone he wants just by selecting "move to my team" or see/edit the potential ability, etc?

Thanks!

[Andy H]

Sounds like he’s playing with an edited database and changed things around to gain an advantage over everyone else. I could be wrong though. Then when you said when someone else creates a game he refuses to play just adds to my suspicion. 

[Kvelend]

hace 6 horas, Andy H dijo:

Sounds like he’s playing with an edited database and changed things around to gain an advantage over everyone else. I could be wrong though. Then when you said when someone else creates a game he refuses to play just adds to my suspicion. 

Thanks a lot! I'll try to see if I can discover what he's doing..

I think that he edited the amount of money he had available too. That's the main reason why I thought he was using the editors.

It's really stupid IMHO honestly, you're playing with friends, just enjoy playing, don't cheat!

[ormishen]

Are the servers down or something?

Trying to play a game online but cannot find my friends game or any. He checked and he cannot see any online games either. 

 

Edit: So I managed to solve this and for anyone experiencing the same problem, what I did was both me and my friend who I'm playing FM with went into the preferences in Steam and changed our download region to another (the same). After which we  were able to play. So I'm thinking maybe the Swedish server (where we live) was down and switching to UK made it possible to play an online game. 

Edited October 23, 2020 by ormishen

[Dakeyvine]

Can anyone tell me the ways that ME mods interact while playing online? I'm planning on starting an online game with one other friend, but I can't play the game without the recent realistic ME mod because I'm just too frustrated with the base ME. If we both install the mod and play online will it work out fine, is it just the "host" game that needs to install it, or will it not work at all?   

[stabwest]

On 07/10/2020 at 23:58, Kvelend said:

Hey Guys, new to the forum here.

I've been playing with some guys from work and there's one who's always the host, he always creates the leagues himself and the only time one of us created one, he refused to play.

Then I've noticed that he always gets the players he wants for lower fees, he's always signing the best wonderkids/regens, his team are always motivated, his regular players develop to be stars despite being regular when I scout them and is basically stomping everyone else.

I started noticing some of this stuff only when I purchased the editor for myself and attempted regular careers, and noticed the impact of knowing the hidden values and editing those.

So.. my question is: Can he utilize the Editor to do all this stuff on an Online Career? Can he bring anyone he wants just by selecting "move to my team" or see/edit the potential ability, etc?

Thanks!

in a nutshell YES.

[Caning the Days]

Bug report in here or the general one? Has anyone noticed issues with the wrong scores occasionally happening after the match ends? Or the fact that you can't watch other human matches? Or see live tables? Or the scores appear really weird? Lots really! Still, it's fun as ever

[Andy H]

On 13/12/2020 at 21:53, Caning the Days said:

Bug report in here or the general one? Has anyone noticed issues with the wrong scores occasionally happening after the match ends? Or the fact that you can't watch other human matches? Or see live tables? Or the scores appear really weird? Lots really! Still, it's fun as ever

I would post that in the bugs forum. 

[madnathan1]

my mate recently baught the game and when he tried to look for an online save he cannot find and and cant even use the option to change from searching for any to a specific friend is there any way to fix this?

[FreshMilk14]

Hi, I am currently experiencing a problem where it won’t let me join my friends online game. I can find the server, enter the password but it comes up with a ‘joining online game’ loading screen and doesn’t go further than that.

any help?

thanks 

[w1dcrd]

I am unable to find any games when looking at the join online games tab, nor can my friends find any games that I host. I tried the fix listed in the OP with no success. I have whitelisted FM21 and Steam in my firewall, and have even tried running this with my firewall turned off but still have had the same issues. For reference, I had none of these issues playing FM20.

I submitted a support ticket to SEGA like the forum suggests, but the response to my support ticket directed me back here!

[Caning the Days]

On 25/12/2020 at 18:54, madnathan1 said:

my mate recently baught the game and when he tried to look for an online save he cannot find and and cant even use the option to change from searching for any to a specific friend is there any way to fix this?

Tell your friend to update steam and the game. It sounds like that is the problem. Not sure if not

[FreshMilk14]

On 28/12/2020 at 17:36, w1dcrd said:

I am unable to find any games when looking at the join online games tab, nor can my friends find any games that I host. I tried the fix listed in the OP with no success. I have whitelisted FM21 and Steam in my firewall, and have even tried running this with my firewall turned off but still have had the same issues. For reference, I had none of these issues playing FM20.

I submitted a support ticket to SEGA like the forum suggests, but the response to my support ticket directed me back here!

Having the exact same problem! 

[Gary_Shooter]

Im having the same issue as FreshMilk14, when trying to join a friends game it just stays at "joining online game".  Have tried the steps with deleting cache and preferences, verifying game files and reinstalling but none of these work. My friend also tried to host the game but issue remains.  These are brands new laptops, Win10, with steam and FM freshly installed on them.  We also had the issue with the screen not displaying correctly but were able to fix that by running in windows mode.

Is there a fix for this issue with the online games?

Logged a ticket with SEGA but was directed to this forum

[ehessy]

Is there anyway to change to change league settings after starting an online save? I forgot to make all the matches on the same day when starting the league, so no all the matches are on different times.

[Andy H]

On 13/01/2021 at 22:30, ehessy said:

Is there anyway to change to change league settings after starting an online save? I forgot to make all the matches on the same day when starting the league, so no all the matches are on different times.

I think you’d need to start the game again and make sure that option is ticked. 

[LiamMoffat99]

Hello

I am having problems changing the host/admin of my league. I don't play the game that much and I am looking to give all permissions to my brother and remove me from the server/game. How do I go about doing that?

thanks

[Jgrav_87]

My friend and I had a good comp going on fm20 but this issue arose a few months ago and it has continued into fm21. Every time we start a game in our network game, whether against each other or the ai, he gets booted from the game and my steam disconnects me. Steam reckon it’s not their issue and the sega helpdesk sent me here. Please help as I really want to get back into playing online but it’s become impossible 

[The Manager 2021]

Hello guys, im having the same issue than Gary_Shooter. My friends can't join my online save neither me can join any online game at all, the screen stays at the message "joining online game". I already tried deleting the Preferences and the Cache files but it didnt work. Does anyone know how to fix it? Thanks for your help!

[Nicholas Vincent]

Having the same issue as Lurker. I can play single mode perfectly, but when I try to join my friend's online game, it is stuck on "joining online game" and eventually doesn't let me in. I tried doing everything such as clearing files, validating game, but nothing will work. I even uninstalled the game and installed. My internet is fine because I can play other multiplayer games fine. Anything would help. Thanks!

 

[Andy H]

Whoever the host is get them to send invites to you when you are not in the online lobby screen and there seems to be an issue for some users. 

[DC11CAM]

On 11/02/2021 at 18:00, Jgrav_87 said:

My friend and I had a good comp going on fm20 but this issue arose a few months ago and it has continued into fm21. Every time we start a game in our network game, whether against each other or the ai, he gets booted from the game and my steam disconnects me. Steam reckon it’s not their issue and the sega helpdesk sent me here. Please help as I really want to get back into playing online but it’s become impossible 

Exact same issue. So frustrating. Always happens when the user kicks off the game. Anyone any idea how to fix?

[Ipswixh]

I have been playing a save for a while now we are about 10 seasons in. The issue is my friends always disconnect from my game. It will happen multiple times a session and sometimes we need to restart the game. It has nothing to do with our internets. Is there any solution to this?

[kaareblinkenberg]

Hi.

I have been playing multiplayer online with a friend for years and until recently with no problems in FM19 and earlier versions. Then we bought FM21 and now we can not play multiplayer online except in the lowest quality without my friend getting constantly disconnected (on match day). Is there anything we can do?

We don't mind it going slower but getting disconnected on match day (when we both play) kind of ruins the game (computer takes control of my friends team in the match).

We both have new computers and stable fast wifi, so it should be possible to play with higher quality (indicated in game by the "stars").

[vara]

11 hours ago, kaareblinkenberg said:

Hi.

I have been playing multiplayer online with a friend for years and until recently with no problems in FM19 and earlier versions. Then we bought FM21 and now we can not play multiplayer online except in the lowest quality without my friend getting constantly disconnected (on match day). Is there anything we can do?

We don't mind it going slower but getting disconnected on match day (when we both play) kind of ruins the game (computer takes control of my friends team in the match).

We both have new computers and stable fast wifi, so it should be possible to play with higher quality (indicated in game by the "stars").

Has your friend tried hosting?

That is an odd one, if there is no history of internet drop outs then the only thing i can suggest is to 'verify integrity of game files'. 
Right click FM21 in Steam library > properties > local files > verify

Perhaps test with just a single nation/league loaded, completely rule out game performance and don't have any custom databases loaded.

Outside all that, i can only suggest raising a bug report 

[LuckiestGuyOnDiscord]

I’m having this exact same issue, I’ve looked around and tried everything but no supposed fix has worked 

[catJAM]

Hi, I'm having a trouble with crashes in online career with my friend. The one who's not host is having game crashed sometimes either when he presses continue or when he is on holiday and host skips time. We both tried hosting but the game is crashing only on client side. The game doesn't crash in matches. We both tried all steps adviced in case of crashes, but it doesn't help at all. Sega's support linked me here with my problem, so here I am at least to understand the nature of these crashes. Also the frequency of crashes may be absolutely random: we had both hours of stable gameplay and constant crashes each gameweek.

[Taunton]

Hi. I am going on a trip with a friend. There is no internet connection. Can we play multiplayer in a lan?

[jlewis]

I'm playing fm22 and can't play an online game with my friends. I've deleted cache and preference folders and validated the game on steam but it still isn't working. The save loads just fine but whenever one of my friends tries to join it takes a couple minutes and then says can't connect to server. I even made a new save after all of this with no password and visible to everyone but it still doesn't let anyone join, please help us fix this. Thanks.

[bwfc0907]

Can you help me to understand when and why the timer kicks in.

What does browsing cover for the timing

If you select the Wednesday/Saturday games does this hold the game until all online players are ready to play the game so they are played exactly at the same time?

 

[vara]

17 hours ago, bwfc0907 said:

Can you help me to understand when and why the timer kicks in.

What does browsing cover for the timing

If you select the Wednesday/Saturday games does this hold the game until all online players are ready to play the game so they are played exactly at the same time?

 

browser timer resets after every process. if eg. 2min, everyone will have 2min for general actions before the server force continues everyone.
I dont use any of the other timer options, other than browse, for my network saves.

'Must Action' emails, like squad registrations will override timers. the only way to force players on these types of events is to put them on holiday.

Wed/Sat will force all fixtures/schedules to be on those days only, so all matches are simultaneous. Even when scheduling friendlies, only wed/sat dates will be available to select.

[jlewis]

On 12/04/2022 at 15:47, jlewis said:

I'm playing fm22 and can't play an online game with my friends. I've deleted cache and preference folders and validated the game on steam but it still isn't working. The save loads just fine but whenever one of my friends tries to join it takes a couple minutes and then says can't connect to server. I even made a new save after all of this with no password and visible to everyone but it still doesn't let anyone join, please help us fix this. Thanks.

I’ve had this question up for over a week and nobody has responded to me!

[vara]

1 hour ago, jlewis said:

I’ve had this question up for over a week and nobody has responded to me!

Hi mate

seen a few people with similar issues of late. nothing stands out as an issue though, i've never had this problem you've got and i play more network FM than solo.

is your friend also on steam? can he join you via friends list?

both players have decent internet speeds? not just DL but UL too?

does 'Manager Chat' register player joining? it doubles as a log

happy to help you test if you like, send me a PM

 

everything else you've tried would have been among the suggestions. aside from fresh install.

[jlewis]

Just tried again, nothing even comes up on the manager chat section. We’re on the same network and both using steam on windows. Every time one of my friends tries to join it just says “unable to connect to server”. My friend has tried to create the game instead but it comes up with the same message when I try to join.

[jlewis]

On 20/04/2022 at 11:46, vara said:

Hi mate

seen a few people with similar issues of late. nothing stands out as an issue though, i've never had this problem you've got and i play more network FM than solo.

is your friend also on steam? can he join you via friends list?

both players have decent internet speeds? not just DL but UL too?

does 'Manager Chat' register player joining? it doubles as a log

happy to help you test if you like, send me a PM

 

everything else you've tried would have been among the suggestions. aside from fresh install.

Just tried again, nothing even comes up on the manager chat section. We’re on the same network and both using steam on windows. Every time one of my friends tries to join it just says “unable to connect to server”. My friend has tried to create the game instead but it comes up with the same message when I try to join.

[RonDicko]

I am playing on Game Pass and a friend on Steam. I cant see his game when I go to join an online game and vice versa. The games are open for anyone to join. We are both on the PC version and are logged into Epic games.

Isn't crossplay between game pass and steam possible? If so, what am i doing wrong...

[Who_Are_They]

Friends and I recently decided to return to an online career mode on FM21 on Steam, but couldn’t do so as while the host was able to load the save, it wasn’t appearing for anyone else.  

We never had any issues before and would appreciate some input of a workaround/fix as we were several seasons in.

[vara]

On 06/09/2022 at 19:35, Who_Are_They said:

Friends and I recently decided to return to an online career mode on FM21 on Steam, but couldn’t do so as while the host was able to load the save, it wasn’t appearing for anyone else.  

We never had any issues before and would appreciate some input of a workaround/fix as we were several seasons in.

being FM21 i guess check versions are the same, as well as online preferences being as wanted.

get the host to invite the other from the game status screen, this should invite thru steam

try a fresh save, simply to rule out any save corruption since you last played