In order to run Rockstar games through Steam, you need to install the Rockstar Games Launcher. But sometimes, launching your favorite games is not possible due to an error message that says: Unable to locate Rockstar Games Launcher, please verify game data.
Steam Can’t Locate the Rockstar Games Launcher
Fix 1 – Use the launcher from the Temp folder
When this error message appears on the screen, simply close the error pop-up window. Then go to C:/Users/UserName/AppData/Local/Temp and double-click on the Rockstar-Games-Launcher.exe.
Check if this quick workaround solved the problem for you.
Fix 2 – Verify the game data
As the error message suggests, one of the first things you should do is verify the game data. You can quickly do that on Steam by verifying the integrity of your games files.
Basically, by using this option, you will compare the game files installed on your computer with the files available on Steam’s servers. If the tool detects any problematic files, it will automatically repair or re-write them.
To verify your Rockstar game files on Steam:
- Launch Steam
- Locate Rockstar Games in your Library and right-click on it
- Select Properties
- Go to the Local Files tab
- Click on the button that says Verify Integrity Of Game Files
- Wait for the scan to complete.
Fix 3 – Disable all the launcher.exe processes
If the first two solutions did not work, you can close all the processed that have launcher.exe in their name in the Task Manager. This is because other programs’ launchers might interfere with the Rockstar Launcher.exe file.
Fix 4 – Disable startup programs
On the same note, other programs that automatically launch on startup could interfere or even block Rockstar’s launcher. To prevent or fix such issues, you need to prevent programs from launching on startup.
- Go to Search, type msconfig and open the System Configuration tool
- On the Services tab, select the Hide all Microsoft services option and
- Click Disable all
- Go to Startup and click Open Task Manager
- Select all the items you want to disable on startup and then click on Disable
- Close the Task Manager
- Restart your computer, launch Steam again and check if Rockstar’s launcher is fully functional now.
Fix 5 – Delete the Social Club folder
Some of your Rockstar folders could be corrupted and oftentimes, it’s the Social Club folder that’s misbehaving. To fix this problem:
- Open your Documents folder which should be located under C:\Users\UserName\Documents by default
- Locate and delete the Social Club folder from the Rockstar Games folder
- Go to C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games and C:\Program Files (x86)\Rockstar Games and delete the Social Club folder from these two locations as well
- Open your installation directory and delete GTA.exe, GTAVLancher.exe and run PlayGTAV.exe as administrator. These files may vary depending on the game you’re playing
- Check if the error is gone.
We hope something helps.