[2021] [SOLVED] Stellaris crashes when I try to create/edit an Empire (modded and unmodded)

Are you sure you do not have Avast installed? because we've only see this caused by that AV app , not just Windows Defender.  

DXDIAG is a program you run from a command prompt or the Windows start menu 'run' dialog box (or 'search programs' in Windows 7 or later). After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach system.log , error.log .


And please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.  

You have McAfee VirusScan installed, although disabled. If you are not using it I suggest you uninstall it completely with the free Revo Uninstaller utility.

That said, that's not one of the AV apps we know to cause this issue, so that's unusual!

You mention OneDrive , is your Windows User Documents folder on there? or in the default place on C: ?

In that dxdiag we see at least three unrelated crashes in stellaris.exe , frankly not sure what to make of that!  

I think the game is having trouble finding the standard documents folder.

In Windows Explorer Right click on Documents, just below This PC. Go to Properties, location. Does that say oneDrive or c:\users\.... or elsewhere?

If OneDrive, did you want your documents stored in MS's servers? If not it's probably best to undo that.  

Spaceception said: c:\users\admin\onedrive. So all of the above?

Is it exactly that? Because I'm not sure that looks right ...

Please the attached file userdir.txt in the Steam folder where stellaris.exe is. It tells the game to write the user files right there, not under Documents. Then run stellaris.exe directly from Windows Explorer, can you create an empire then?  

Your settings and empires are still in your Documents folder. If you move them to under the Steam/stellaris/ folder, you'll have access to them again.  

The mod registry is an old file no longer used. I just like to clear it out if it is still left there. The sqlite file does that job now.

To get the launcher to use that same folder, you need to edit launcher-settings.json file there. Change the gameDataPath line to point to the Steam folder where stellaris.exe is.  

Don’t use the variable name. You need to put in the full file path exactly as displayed in Windows Explorer, starting with C:/ etc.  

No, it would be:
"D:/Steam Library/steamapps/common/Stellaris"
if that is where stellaris.exe is.