Home › Step 7

When something does not work

Step seven of seven. Most problems in this category are one of six, and each has an ordered set of checks that costs nothing to run. Work down the list rather than across it, and change one thing at a time so you know which change worked.

The activation email never arrived

This is the most common sign-up failure, and it is usually delivery rather than registration.

1. Check the spam, junk and promotions folders, and search the mailbox for the publisher’s name rather than scrolling.
2. Confirm the address was typed correctly. A transposed character produces exactly this symptom, and the account will need to be created again or the address corrected through support.
3. Wait ten minutes before requesting a new message. Requesting several in quick succession can invalidate the earlier links, so that even the message that arrives no longer works.
4. If the address is a school or workplace one, try a personal address instead. Managed mail systems discard external mail more often than people expect.
5. Contact the publisher’s support with the account name and the approximate registration time. Do not send your password; nobody legitimate will ask for it.

The install stalls, or fails part-way

1. Check free space, and free more than the installer asks for. A drive with almost nothing left produces failures that look like corruption.
2. Download from the publisher’s own site or the official app store. A partial or altered file from elsewhere fails in ways no amount of retrying will fix.
3. Pause other large downloads and let the installer have the connection.
4. If security software is blocking it, allow the installer explicitly rather than disabling protection altogether.
5. Remove a failed install completely before trying again, rather than installing over the top of it.
6. On a phone or tablet, check the operating system version against the store listing’s minimum. An unsupported version is the usual explanation for an install that will not begin at all.

The login fails

Separate the three possibilities before doing anything: the credentials are wrong, the account is not activated, or the service is unavailable. The error message often distinguishes them, and the publisher’s status page or social channel settles the third.

• Retype the password rather than relying on autofill, which may be holding an old value.
• Check the keyboard language and caps lock, and check for a trailing space pasted in from elsewhere.
• Use the password reset, which also confirms whether the account exists under that address.
• If multi-factor authentication is enabled, check the device clock is correct. A clock several minutes out will reject every code generated.
• If the account was working yesterday and the password no longer does, treat it as a possible compromise and read the section further down this page immediately.

The game runs, but badly

A purchase did not arrive

1. Wait a few minutes and restart the game. Delivery of in-game items is sometimes queued.
2. Find the receipt. A charge with no receipt and a receipt with no charge are different problems.
3. Contact whoever took the payment: the app store if it went through a store account, the publisher if it was paid directly. Going to the wrong one first costs days.
4. Keep every message. A written record is what makes a dispute resolvable.
5. If the matter is not resolved, the consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law still apply to digital purchases. The ACCC explains the remedies and the complaint route on its consumer rights and guarantees pages, and each state and territory has a fair trading or consumer affairs office that handles individual disputes.
6. Avoid reversing the payment through your bank as a first move. It can result in the account being closed, and it makes the direct route harder.

The account has been compromised

Signs include a password that no longer works, items or currency missing, or an email confirming a change nobody made. Speed matters more than diagnosis here.

1. Reset the password on the email account first. It is the key to everything else.
2. Reset the game account password, and turn on multi-factor authentication if it is available.
3. Sign out of all sessions if the publisher offers that control.
4. Contact the publisher’s support and ask them to record the incident, with dates and what changed.
5. Change the password anywhere else it was reused, which is the step people skip and regret.
6. If a card is involved, notify the card issuer.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes guidance on securing and recovering accounts, and Scamwatch is where scams can be reported and current ones read about. Where the incident involves abusive behaviour towards a young person rather than account theft, the eSafety Commissioner is the relevant Australian body.

What to have ready before contacting support

• The account name or registered email address, and never the password.
• The device, operating system version and, for a desktop, the graphics hardware.
• The exact wording of any error message, or a screenshot of it.
• When it started, and what changed immediately beforehand.
• Which steps you have already tried, so nobody repeats them.
• The receipt or transaction identifier, where money is involved.