Okay, let’s talk about this freaking “2021 error” in Final Fantasy XIV. Man, this thing was a pain in my butt for weeks. I just wanted to hop on, do some raids, chill with my friends, but no, this error kept kicking me out. It was driving me crazy!
So, I started digging around, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. The error message pops up when you’re stuck on that data center travel. You know, when you try to visit another data center to play with other people, it happened to me when I tried to go from Chaos to Light on EU. I tried everything I could think of!
- First, I rebooted my modem, thinking maybe it was just a hiccup with my internet. Nope, still got the error.
- Then I tried using my phone as a hotspot, thinking maybe it was my home Wi-Fi acting up. Still no luck.
- I even went through my antivirus settings, making sure nothing was blocking the game. The error was still there, mocking me.
I started looking up solutions online. Some people talked about checking your internet connection, which I already did. Some suggested updating Windows. I checked, and there weren’t any updates. I even rolled back a recent Windows update, just in case. No dice.
Then I saw some people talking about reinstalling the game. I was hesitant because it’s a huge download, but I was desperate. So, I uninstalled the whole thing. This is important: I also deleted the “Final Fantasy XIV” folder in my “My Documents” and “My Games” folder. Then, I redownloaded it from my Steam library and reinstalled it. Fingers crossed, I launched the game. Still the same freaking error!
I was about to give up when I remembered something about DirectX. In the game launcher, there’s a little cogwheel icon in the top right corner. I clicked on it, and there it was, the option to turn off DirectX 11. I turned it off, so the game would run on DirectX 9 instead.
I also found another tip in the game’s settings. In the main menu, I selected “System,” then “Character Configuration.” From there, I clicked on “Log Window Settings” and went to the “General” tab. I don’t know what I expected to find there, but I just checked all the boxes because I was feeling lost at this point.
And guess what? It finally worked! I could finally travel between data centers without getting that stupid error. I don’t know exactly which of these steps fixed it, maybe it was turning off DirectX 11, maybe it was the reinstall, or maybe it was checking those boxes in the log settings. Honestly, I think it was a combination of everything.
It was a frustrating experience, but I’m glad I finally figured it out. So, if you’re ever stuck with the “2021 error” in FFXIV, hopefully, my story can help you. Don’t give up! Just try all these steps, and maybe you’ll get lucky like I did.
