Okay, so check it, I was trying to jump into Sea of Thieves last night, ready to plunder some virtual booty, right? But BAM! Hit with the dreaded “signing on for adventure” infinite loading screen. You know, the one that just spins and spins and spins like a broken record. Super frustrating, especially when you’re hyped to play with your crew.
First thing I did, like any sane person, was Google it. Saw a bunch of people saying it could be server issues. Makes sense, SoT servers are kinda notorious for being a bit wonky sometimes. I checked the Sea of Thieves server status page (though I’m not putting a link here, just google it yourself). Everything looked green, but you know how that goes – sometimes the official status doesn’t tell the whole story.
So, next, I tried the basic stuff. You gotta cover all your bases, right?
- Restarted the game: Classic. Didn’t work.
- Restarted my PC: Still nothing.
- Checked my internet connection: Everything was running smoothly. Speed tests were good, no packet loss.
Alright, time to dig a little deeper. I remembered reading something about Xbox Live having issues with authentication sometimes. So, I went to the Xbox website and checked the Xbox Live status. Low and behold, there was a small blip reported with signing in. Hmmm.
While waiting for that to potentially resolve itself (Xbox Live usually fixes these things pretty quickly), I decided to try some of the more common fixes I’d seen mentioned online. This is where it got a bit more involved:
I tried clearing the Sea of Thieves cache on my PC. I went into the Windows settings, found the “Apps” section, located Sea of Thieves, and clicked “Advanced options.” Then, I hit the “Reset” button. Note, there are two buttons here – one says “repair” and the other says “reset.” I went for reset, cause, I’m a mad lad.
After the reset, I relaunched the game… Still stuck on “signing on for adventure.” Ugh.
Okay, time for the nuclear option. I remembered reading about some people having luck reinstalling the game. It’s a pain, I know, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So, I uninstalled Sea of Thieves through the Windows settings again.
While the game was uninstalling (which felt like forever), I decided to clean up any leftover files. I went into my “Program Files” and “AppData” folders and searched for anything related to Sea of Thieves. Deleted anything I found. Just to be sure, you know?
Finally, the game was uninstalled. I restarted my PC one more time, just for good measure. Then, I reinstalled Sea of Thieves through the Microsoft Store. The download took a while, obviously, but I kept myself busy watching some YouTube videos.
Once the game was reinstalled, I held my breath and launched it. AND… it worked! I was finally able to get past the “signing on for adventure” screen and jump into the game. Hallelujah!
The Breakdown:
So, what fixed it? Honestly, it’s hard to say for sure. It could have been the Xbox Live issue resolving itself while I was reinstalling. Or, it could have been the clean reinstall that did the trick. Either way, the combination of checking the server status, clearing the cache, and ultimately reinstalling the game seemed to do the trick.
If you’re stuck on that loading screen, I’d recommend going through the same steps. Start with the easy stuff (restarting the game and PC) and then work your way up to the more drastic measures (clearing the cache and reinstalling). Hopefully, this helps you get back to sailing the seas and looting some treasure!
