Strange failure to connect

Dear 343 Industries/Microsoft,

I am a Halo 5 player living in Hong Kong. I am writing to report a strange problem that I have been getting on Halo 5 recently.

The problem is that I cannot join any multiplayer games. Almost every time I try it loads normally, but after the “Deploying” countdown I am kicked back to the lobby menu (e.g. Warzone, Social or Ranked). Sometimes it gives me a warning, saying that there is a problem with the servers, but about 90% of the time I just go back with no warnings if I am alone. If I am with a friend/friends in a Fireteam, then he/they will enter the game while I am stuck in the screen that says “Waiting to join match in progress”. Only very rarely do I actually get to play a game, and usually after that one game it stops working and the problem resumes.

This problem started probably last weekend, although admittedly Halo 5 has not been as cooperative since the June Hotfix.

I have tried the network and multiplayer connection tests, and all say that there is no problem. I have also tried quitting and restarting the game, restarting my Xbox One, restarting my router and modem, signing out of my account and logging back in, but nothing seems to work. I can still play solo campaign, buy REQs with REQ points and see my stats, but matchmaking seems out of the question.

This problem happened once before, but it fixed itself after about 2 hours. This time is has not gone away in more than 24 hours

There are several things I have noticed that might serve as clues to what is going on.

  1. My other Xbox One game, Minecraft, works perfectly, so this should be a Halo 5 problem.

  2. I notice that every time I load Halo 5, and it says “Connecting to the lobby” (right after the first screen and just before the Daily Messages), the window that is supposed to say “Syncing data for Halo 5” does not pop up anymore. I have tried at least two dozen times, and only twice did it give that window, and in one of those instances, I was able to play.

  3. Every time I load Halo 5, my status does not refresh to say that I am in Halo 5. It will always say that I was last seen some time ago on the Xbox App or Minecraft, but never that I was last seen at Home. It is like Xbox Live does not register that I am online when I am on the Home screen or Halo 5.

  4. When it does not work, usually my friends menu in Halo 5 malfunctions. Either it says I have no friends, or it tells me that they are not online when the Xbox menu is telling me that they clearly are.

As this problem seems to be quite different from the latency issues, I have refrained from putting it in the other support forum.

This issue is really rather distressing, and I would appreciate your reply if at all possible. I would also appreciate information on this problem from any player who has experienced it. Thank you all for your kind attention.

AmuroRay97

Hong Kong

Yes I completely understand because this is happening to me as well only started a week ago or so and now it’s just ridiculous, and so frustrating. “Just fix it yeah”

me n my other frd are having the same problem. we both play in hong kong as well. the server kicks us out after the deploy countdown. even in custom

please take a look at the issue as the game is essentially unplayable right now

Update: I have had limited success in the Ranked games today, though I still sometimes lose connection. Warzone and Social playlists are still almost completely unplayable. Any game I start soon disconnects.

To SGTBOUNTYHUNTER and SadHaloTurtle, thanks for speaking up. Good to hear that I am not alone in having this problem. I had long thought that it was my machine/my software that was faulty or that I had done something wrong. If it is a server issue then I feel more comfortable in hoping that 343 might have an answer.

Another update: After 1 game of Heroic Firefight all playlists were down for me. It seems the severity of the problem will fluctuate.

Ok it got fixed for 2 days and now it’s back worse than before now my sound is all messed up and I have a strike through players microphone in game play and I can’t talk or hear my other team mates plus still lagging out at matchmaking as it counts down 3,2,1 then lagg out What is going on constant problem here. Can we get a response on this post please I’m sick of being so depressed about this game, it’s officially unplayable now.