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Having Oculus Rift Setup issues? The ultimate guide.

LZoltowski
Champion

Heya, so after a few years on this forum and helping what must be a hundred people now with their issues I have compiled a few checklists and tips on how to get your Oculus Rift installed and working. This list is by no means exhaustive but might help.



 



Pre-Installation checklist:



Disable Antivirus/Anti Malware



Although not every antivirus program will block the setup, many like BullGuard and MalwareBytes are very sensitive to any system changes, remember, this is not like installing a game. The app needs to create services, a special windows user, firewall rules, permissions etc to function properly.


Bullguard is also known to block the setup’s ability to connect to Oculus servers. Unless you know how to properly configure inbound/outbound rules and other settings, disable or uninstall the antivirus during the main setup. I know it's a pain but it accounts for 90% of setup issues. Some users have reported that only by completely uninstalling Bullguard the setup will complete.

Also to note BullGuard is known to prevent the proper operation of the Oculus App after setup, it can prevent games from installing, even if added to the exceptions list.

If you don’t have antivirus installed you are probably using windows built in Defender, disable that temporarily during setup (including protected folders)




Make sure you have at least 60GB free on the system drive and that the drive is NOT a dynamic drive



Although after installation the Oculus App measures at roughly 11GB, it needs the extra space to complete setup procedures, such as uncompressing of files. So even though 14 is recommeneded by the setup, let's be on the safe side.



If you wish to install to a drive other than the setup drive please follow these instructions
https://support.oculus.com/1142129705828091/

Note: As with most software setups on windows, installing to a drive other than C will still result in some data being installed on C, esp in either Document and AppData folder.



Unplug any non-essential USB devices during setup



The Rift can draw quite a bit of power over USB, to avoid any issues with no image during setup unplug any USB devices that are not necessary, basically keep everything to a minimum. See some troubleshooting tips below. 




Make sure you are running as clean session of windows as possible



Some people experience issues during setup while windows is running background applications such as:



  • Motherboard Utilities eg Asus AI
  • GPU tweakers
  • Any CPU/GPU monitoring apps (these are also known to cause micro stutters while in VR)
  • SSD Utilities such as Samsung magician
  • Any third party windows explorer shells
  • Third party utilities like keyboard app etc
  • If you have Windows User Policies set up make sure there aren't any restrictions for the current user
Basically absolute minimum (a sort of Windows Safe mode but not, actual Windows Safe mode will not work)








 



Make sure you are up to date!



Make sure you have all the updates installed such as:










Some ISP’s cache the setup files



Some ISP’s are known to cache the setup files the software is trying to download, this can cause the “chunks” to become corrupted and prevent the setup from completing. I have seen this in New Zeland and Australia, in such a case using a VPN and connecting to a country next to you solves the issue.



 



Do not run the setup file by forcing it AS ADMIN, this will cause issues



 

Common workarounds:



What if nothing works and I cannot get Setup to start the “Setting up your Rift” portion?



Several users have found out that their Windows User profile is the culprit, as an experiment, it is a good idea to create a new admin windows user, make sure it is a LOCAL user, not one associated with your Microsoft cloud login and try and run the setup from there.




I have followed ALL the checklists but the setup gets stuck at the end
If you REALLLLLLLLLLY did all the checklists and still no go, you may try this method several users have found to work
https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/69245/oculus-software-sorry-we-encountered-an-error...




What if my Rift is not being recognised or I am not seeing an image (but I get sound) during setup:



Try moving the USB connections around, for example, move the sensors to USB 2.0 ports and leave the Rift in USB 3.0 .. you might not have enough power coming in through your USB ports.


Try plugging the rift via a DisplayPort using a dongle.


Unplug any secondary monitors you have.


Make sure you are not running any screen streamers or remote desktop software in the background

Try a downgraded version of the GPU drivers such as: 
https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverresults.aspx/127667/en-us



 



For Laptops: Many laptops are incompatible with the rift, this is because the HDMI port is wired to the Intel CPU, and not to the GPU and/or not enough power is being delivered through the USB ports.



Known possible workarounds are:










Getting more help:

If you have tried all the above and are still unable to install please contact Official Oculus support:



https://support.oculus.com/



It may be a good idea to collect your logs and attach them to your ticket.
Here is how to do it:
https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/33792/how-to-get-logs-for-bug-reports-for-consumer-...

If you have any more to add please do so bellow and ill compile them in.

Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black
ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) 

Be kind to one another 🙂
45 REPLIES 45

Frostyest85
Honored Guest

tjwestie said:

8uh8af50c3hg.png


Same issue :neutral:

wonderings
Honored Guest
Did a clean install today after not using my Rift for a while. I loaded the software on my second drive with no problems... after researching how. Somehow it knows my account when opening for the first time. Not sure if it is connected with the serial # of my Rift and controllers or if there is something else in my computer that was not deleted or removed when I uninstalled it. Anyways The Oculus app (running in Windows 10 Home all updated) wanted to do an update. I said ok. I got a message saying "Sorry, we're having trouble updating Oculus. Please make sure you have at least 12 GB of disk space free, or visit Oculus Support to get help."

I have 20 gigs free on the main drive over over 100 gigs free on the 2nd drive where the application is installed. I have no way of trying to update again, I uninstalled Oculus and installed again, same thing had my info there already as well as my headset and all that connected. How do I get this update to work? There is a blue bar across the top that I cannot get rid of. Why does this software not have an option to run or check for updates manually???

Also none of my games or applications that I have purchased are there despite it showing me logged in. I see the games through he website but not in the app. This software is seriously frustrating and wish Oculus would get the basic stuff sorted out before doing anything else. 

SauSack
Protege
...same here!
Had to update BigScreen - that didn´t work because of the oculus software, so I tried to de- and reinstall the main software..... Uninstall went through - guess what did not work?! Yes! Can´t install the software anymore.....
Very annoying!

SauSack
Protege
Same answer here:

Ok - my fault!

Tiny little helper called
"Windows Firewall Controll" does have a security feature to prevent
other software setting firewall rules! That´s what happend in my case -
and conflicted with the oculus setup and with bigscreens setup too!
So, with this option disabled everything runs flawless!

Thanks for the guys at oculus support for helping me out!!

Regards

rednekcowboy77
Adventurer


Did a clean install today after not using my Rift for a while. I loaded the software on my second drive with no problems... after researching how. Somehow it knows my account when opening for the first time. Not sure if it is connected with the serial # of my Rift and controllers or if there is something else in my computer that was not deleted or removed when I uninstalled it. Anyways The Oculus app (running in Windows 10 Home all updated) wanted to do an update. I said ok. I got a message saying "Sorry, we're having trouble updating Oculus. Please make sure you have at least 12 GB of disk space free, or visit Oculus Support to get help."

I have 20 gigs free on the main drive over over 100 gigs free on the 2nd drive where the application is installed. I have no way of trying to update again, I uninstalled Oculus and installed again, same thing had my info there already as well as my headset and all that connected. How do I get this update to work? There is a blue bar across the top that I cannot get rid of. Why does this software not have an option to run or check for updates manually???

Also none of my games or applications that I have purchased are there despite it showing me logged in. I see the games through he website but not in the app. This software is seriously frustrating and wish Oculus would get the basic stuff sorted out before doing anything else. 


This is a common issue.  For whatever reason, you cannot install the software on a dynamic disc.  There is a work around to create a vhd in oder to do so but that is absolutely ridiculous and is just setting yourself up to fail unless you have a spanned drive made up entirely of ssds.

Otherwise you are stuck installing on C: which is where it works best.  Even if you do get it to install on a different drive, it will have weird bugs and glitches.

Hard to believe that in this day and age of cheap storage that a company would design a software that blocks allowing you to install on any other drive than C:

sraura
Heroic Explorer
Well if we're talking about rift cv1, I just installed one to some other drive than C on windows 7 and it works fine. Obviously needed to do the installation through command prompt with the necessary attributes (one that defines installation drive and one that skips the malfunctioning windows update check ).

For defining install drive:
OculusSetup.exe /drive:D
or
OculusSetup.exe /drive=D

For the KB2670838 and KB3033929 warning:
OculusSetup.exe /bypassHotfixCheck

For both:
OculusSetup.exe /bypassHotfixCheck /drive=D

On another computer I have windows 10 and Rift S installation on D-drive. Apps/games are installed to G-drive... No problems what so ever. Only thing what is installed to C-drive is "Oculus VR Runtime Drivers". That folder is like 146 KB.

And no - I have not made any junctions for this purpose, but obviously could junction certain Oculus subfolders from C:\Users\UserName\AppData subfolders to another drive without problem.

sraura
Heroic Explorer
If running to any weird installation issues which fail without any apparent reason, there is couple things you should check (windows7, windows10;
- Press left windows key + pause/break button
- Go to advanced system settings
- On advanced-tab go to performance->settings
- On advanced-tab there check that there is enough virtual memory available - change setting if needed.
- After this go back to previous window (system properties) and back to advanced-tab
- On bottom of advanced-tab go to environment variables
- Make sure that paths listed there are correct. On system variables there are some oculus related paths and paths to system temp/tmp folder. On user variables (for current user) there should be paths to user temp/tmp folder. Specially those temp folders can cause some installers to fail (with no apparent reason) if they are not listed or path is not valid. Fails can also occur if temp folders do not have enough free space. These variables can also sometimes vanish without warning when user deletes certain user accounts from windows or does some other major changes to the system/hardware.

This should be very rare issue, but something one may never find unless he knows what to look for.

knighthonor
Honored Guest
https://imgur.com/6NUfkUf ;
stuck here. cant set up the headset. the shortcut gives error that it may be still installing. task manager method leads to black box with logo loading in the picture. Cant get it to open. it seems to pop up and quicky close to that black box in the picture. whats a fix to this?

andrewdevries
Honored Guest
Ocula Rift Setup fails on my Windows 10 machine. If I open the C:\Oculas-DownloadCache Folder I see a Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Update 3.exe redistribution file. If I double click and run this install I see that it fails with a "newer version" is installed error. So its simple to test if your having this same error.  If you are getting this error then this is what I did to fix it.   I opened Control Panel, Programs and uninstall Visual C++ 2017 X86 and x64 then reinstalled the 2015 version in Oculas-DownloadCache this time with out the newer version error I can then install the oculas Application.  Also be sure to visit the Microsoft website to then also get the latest version of the Visual C++ 2017 or 2019 dlls as some other application you have installed probably your Nvidia drivers are dependent on them. 

Anonymous
Not applicable

I have a homebuilt custom computer. I have a Intel Core I7-4790k processor on a ASROCK Z97 Extreme4/3.1 motherboard. I am running Windows 10 home x64 on a Samsung E 250GB 859 EVO SSD. I have a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB that I house games on. Oculus was installed on another drive that is not an SSD, that the operating system uses to put windows default storage on.  I had no problems until I switched the ASUS Strix GTX970OC to a GEFORCE AORUS 2080 TI. At that point the display port was listed as not working. In order to troubleshoot it I uninstalled Oculus home and then my troubles began. Long story short, in my last attempt to install Oculus home, I turned off Norton Anti-virus, Malwarebytes, and any other programs that (to my knowledge) could be interfering. I made sure all the drivers were up to date, and that windows 10 had it's patches. I turned of GeForce experience. I unplugged the internet and went into safemode. I went to the User/Appdata folders and deleted anything that said oculus. Then I went to each drive and searched for Oculus, I deleted anything that came up except for Oculusinstall. I had downloaded the recommended registry scanner program and searched the directory for Oculus. I deleted everything that came up except for the things I couldn't delete where about 130 of them. I restarted the machine and plugged in my network cable as it rebooted.

I searched the Users/app data again, checked the program files directory again, checked each of the drives again (there were no oculus files to be found) I then hit Window+R and entered,  E:\Oculus\OculusSetup /drive=E, which starts the setup process for me. It downloaded the setup files and errored telling me to restart the computer and contact support.

Here is my error log.

Can anyone help?