Home » How to Fix Destiny 2 Problem Reading Game Content Error
Gaming

How to Fix Destiny 2 Problem Reading Game Content Error

October 4, 2019
April 26, 2023
How to Fix Destiny 2 Problem Reading Game Content Error

The "Problem reading game content" error has been a common issue faced by PC players attempting to launch Destiny 2 on Steam. This error message can appear when Destiny 2 crashes during launch, and it can be quite frustrating for players who are eager to jump into the game.

verify integrity

How to Fix Problem Reading Game Content Error in Destiny 2

To address this error and get back to playing Destiny 2, it's essential to carefully follow the necessary steps. In the following methods, we will provide you with a detailed guide on how to fix the "Problem reading game content" error in Destiny 2.

Method #1

  • Firstly, launch the Destiny 2
  • When you get the error, leave it open so don't click the OK button.
  • Navigate to ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Destiny 2
  • Delete the steam_appid.txt file in the Destiny 2 folder.
  • If the steam_appid.txt file is not there, it should be in the x64 folder.
    ...\Steam\steamapps\common\Destiny 2\bin\x64

Method #2

  • Go to the folder where the game is installed.
  • Right-click on the destiny2.exe application
    Location: …\Steam\steamapps\common\Destiny 2
  • Tap the Properties
  • Tick the “Run this program as administrator” on the Compatibility tab.
  • Also, tick the “Disable full-screen optimizations“
  • Click on the OK
  • Run Steam as administrator.
  • Go to the Steam library
  • Right-click on Destiny 2, and go to Properties.
  • Go to the LOCAL FILES tab
  • Press the VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES button.
  • Finally, try to play Destiny 2

Method #3

  • Launch the Steam
  • In the top left corner, Click on the Steam
  • Go to the Settings
  • Click on the Download
  • Click on the "Clear Download Cache" button.
  • Click on the OK
clear download cache

Method #4

Make sure your antivirus software isn’t blocking Destiny 2 from launching. Add the "Destiny2.exe" application to whitelist in your Antivirus / Windows Security.

Method #5

You can try to changing the monitor's cable connection. I don't know why, but Jokuhrax's problem was solved in this way.

Issue has been fixed. Reading your posts (specifically the one to adjust NVIDIA control panel settings) prompted me to check out a few things and realize that I had been playing the game through a KVM switch that was using a USB to HDMI converter to get to the KVM switch. The game either does not like that converter or the device driver associated with graphics going out of the USB port. Once I switched back to using a DVI cable directly from the computer to the monitor, everything started working again.

Jokuhrax

Method #6

You should change the language on Steam.

  • Go to the Steam library.
  • Right-click on Destiny 2
  • Select Properties.
  • Go to the Language tab.
  • Select a different language. For example, if your default language is Polish, change it to English.
  • Click on the Close button.
  • Run the Destiny 2. Big thanks to Jump3r
destiny 2 language

Method #7

  • Exit the Steam.
  • Go to the folder where Destiny 2 is installed. (Steam Library > Right Click on Destiny 2 > Properties > LOCAL FILES > BROWSE LOCAL FILES)
  • Delete everything except the packages folder.
  • After the deletion is complete, run Steam and go to the Steam library
  • Right-click on Destiny 2, and click on the Properties.
  • Go to the LOCAL FILES tab
  • Press the VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES button.

Method #8

I found this, maybe it'll help. It's very similar to the seventh method.

i just fixed mine!!!
1) Head to C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Destiny 2 

2) move you destiny 2 exe into a new folder on your desktop (do not delete your destiny 2 exe)

3) delete everthing in your destiny 2 folder but the 3 folders (do not delete Bin, fonts, packages)

4) verify the files on steam while they are verifying immediately take your destiny exe and put i back into your C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Destiny 2 let the game verify.

5) start game

Spidersteve

Method #9

Uninstall and reinstall Steam. If possible, install it on a different Local Disk.

If the issue still exists do let me know in the comments below.

70 Comments

Click here to post a comment

  • Nothing metods work for me, i can start the game normally, but when i go to tower i receive this error, i dont know what i do 🙁

  • INSTALLING JAVA &
    DISABLING FULL-SCREEN OPTIMIZATIONS &
    DON'T SELECTING any place on the navigador before entry into the planet
    These things did the trick for me

  • o meu jogo não aparece a pasta fonts, acho que por isso nao esta funcionando, ja ate reinstalei o jogo e essa pasta nao aparece... deve ser por isso que nao esta funcionando

    • Mano, instala o java, desabilita as otimizações de tela cheia e também não seleciona nenhum lugar antes de entrar com a nave na parte do navegador, isso funcionou comigo. Agora só de vez em quando que meu jogo crasha ou dá esse erro, mas é pq tô jogando num notebook com iGPU e esse setup não é compatível com o jogo mesmo (se der o erro dnv é só esperar um tempo, ou insistir que tudo volta a funcionar, como mágica).

  • I found a fix that worked for me. The issue was that I had my monitor hooked up to my motherboard instead of my graphics card and it was causing the game to think I only had 128mb of Vram and then giving me the error that everyone is getting here before crashing. Once I switched my monitor to the video card input the game booted right up with now issues. Hope this helps

  • alright guys/gals I think I've finally found the fix! So after trying all of the above methods with some success it wasn't perfect. the best fix for me was changing the language. However I still crashed just not as often. So if your here I'm sure your frustrated. So the way I fixed mine was simply UPDATING JAVA to the newest update. so far I've played 2 days with no crashes. I was crashing left and right before I updated. Hopefully this helps!

  • I updated to the steam beta client when I had this error and that immediately fixed it, might be worth a try?

  • None of this has worked for me. I have tried every single fix various times in the past few months. I have also posted on the help forums and not ONE person has replied. This is beyond ridiculous, I can’t believe the amount of money I have wasted on this broken game with no support.

  • i still have issues with mine everytime i go into earth it freezes and i see a black screen with the error of not able to read game files i need help ive tried all of these methods

  • I still have issues when I try to do a strike or go to a planet to patrol or whatever it crashes bu t when I play crimson days and go to the tower it’s fine what do I do

  • What worked for me is changing language on Steam.
    I would get error while starting in polish so i changed language to english and it started without any problems after that i changed language to polish again and it needed to download some more files and now it's starting in polish without problem.

    • my first language is english then i change it to german, work like what you say but when i change it again to english there no auto download and the pop up start to showup again, how can i download it manually or wheres the language file location so i can just delete it and then verify.

  • For me it worked that way :
    I've uninstalled the game+Steam (backup your other games if you planning to do that) Then i installed steam in other than the default path ( now for me is C:\\Steam) Since im running this game on a pc with integrated graphics i believed it has to be memory handling issue. Ive changed my default screen resolution from 1920x1080 to 1280x720,did that in destiny settings with everything at low and turned off also on borderless windowed mode. Did put a tick on the properties of destiny2.exe to run as Admin and disable full screen optimization. Then ive installed Razor Cortex app from the official Razor website so it would prevent unnecessary things to run while gaming. Now im 3+ hours in playing without this stupid error popin up (thanks the Gaming Jesus for it)

  • Hello, my game gives me error when I am doing patrol, some mission or activity, when I go anywhere (Not counting the pvp, for some reason in the pvp games it does not give me error) It always asks me to verify the integrity of the files , but nothing has solved my mistake and it is quite frustrating to not be able to do anything
    My PC has 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 630, Intel Core i5-74000 and Windows 10
    My PC can take the game, I use cross save
    Help! Thank you!

  • This is what worked for me after I've tried everything above.
    Uninstall, installed the game to a different drive. After the instalation finished, went to Steam, clear the downloads cache.
    Relogged to Steam, started the game, went to the moon, everything ok.

    Hope it helps

  • Having the same issue followed all steps, nothing seems to work.

    Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
    System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

    System Model: Z270X-DESIGNARE
    Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz (8 CPUs), ~4.2GHz
    Memory: 16384MB RAM
    DirectX Version: DirectX 12

    Card name: Radeon RX 580 Series

    Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor

    • Same.

      At first, it still launches, but crashes every once in awhile with problem reading game content error (usually shortly after entering a new map while trying to pull up character gear or ride the vehicle).

      After doing all the above and restarting the computer, it just crashes straight from launch with the problem reading game content error.

  • None of the methods work for me (including 3 reinstalls). I don’t get the message at the launch of the game. I get it after I load into an area and move around for about 1 min. The game progressively gets slower, freezes and then gives me error after an extended time of being frozen.

      • First of all - thank you for your efforts to help people resolve problems. I'm a fan of your contributions to the community.

        I tried disabling full-screen optimizations and it did not help.

        OS: Windows 10 Home

        System (mother board) info:
        Manufacturer: Gigabyte Tech
        Model: Z170XP-SLI
        Type: x64-based PC

        Processor: Intel Core [email protected] GHz, 4 Cores, 8 Logical Processors

        Installed Physical Memory: 32.0 GB RAM

        Graphics:
        NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
        Adapter RAM: 1GB

      • Issue has been fixed. Reading your posts (specifically the one to adjust NVIDIA control panel settings) prompted me to check out a few things and realize that I had been playing the game through a KVM switch that was using a USB to HDMI converter to get to the KVM switch. The game either does not like that converter or the device driver associated with graphics going out of the USB port. Once I switched back to using a DVI cable directly from the computer to the monitor, everything started working again.

        Thank you again for all you helpful posts. They were easy to read and I've now got better FPS than what I had before (in addition to you prompting the line of thinking that uncovered and resolved this issue).

  • I'm not having the error now, but my Quests, Character, Destination, etc. Interface won't load now though and when I return to orbit it freezes the game.

      • **PC Info:**
        Computer - HP HP Laptop 17-bs0xx

        OS - Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-Bit)
        System Bit - x64-based PC

        **RAM:**
        Name - Physical Memory
        Manufacturer - Kingston
        Size - 8.0 GB
        Clock Speed - 2133 MHz

        Total RAM - 8.0 GB (1 Slots)

        **CPU:**
        Name - Intel® Core™ i3-7100U CPU @ 2.40GHz
        Type - CentralProcessor
        Cores - 2
        Clock Speed - 2.40 Ghz

        **GPU:**
        Name - Intel(R) HD Graphics 620
        Refresh Rate - 60 FPS
        AdapterRAM - 1.0 GB

        ^ Here

        • Follow these steps
          Right-click on the Windows desktop
          Click on the Graphics Properties
          Click on the 3D
          Set "Application Optimal Mode" to Enable
          Set "Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing" to Turn Off
          Set "Conservative Morphological Anti-Aliasing" to "Override Application Settings"
          Set "General Settings" to Performance

          Also, go to the Power settings on the main Intel HD Graphics Control Panel
          Go to the "Plugged In" tab
          Set the "Graphics Power Plans" to Maximum Performance

          Play the game with your laptop plugged in

          You should also check out this guide
          https://www.ghostarrow.com/increase-performance-fps-in-destiny-2

          I hope it helps

  • After much reinstalling, steam_appid.txt finally appeared (uninstall game, clear cache, reinstall). I deleted it, started the game, it started loading and it crashed again du to integrity of files.

  • I tried all of them, nothing works. It just gradually gets worse - I have to reinstall game, then it works fine for a few hours, after that error keeps popping up. While checking files integrity helps, it eventually gets to the point when I'm unable to launch it at all.