Forum Discussion

netkot's avatar
netkot
Explorer
1 year ago
Solved

Meta Quest Link - RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe filebomb

RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe creates literally tens of thousands, sometimes millions of files like fba_XXXXX.json in the root of the C: drive

It gets to the point where computers start to slow down and disk space runs out.
I don't think this kind of program behavior is acceptable.
Please take action.

Thank you.

===========================
PS.

Ok, I found a solution on one forum, at least a temporary one.
You need to rename the RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe file
It is possible that the running OVRservice will not allow you to do this, so you need to stop it first.
 
Here is a bat file that will do all this for you:
1. Stop the OVRservice
2. Rename RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe
3. Delete all created json files
4. Start OVRservice again

 

net stop OVRservice
ren "C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-remote-desktop\RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe" "RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe.old"
del c:\fba*.json /q
net start OVRservice

 

Meta Quest 3
  • netkot's avatar
    netkot
    1 year ago
    Ok, I found a solution on one forum, at least a temporary one.
    You need to rename the RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe file
    It is possible that the running OVRservice will not allow you to do this, so you need to stop it first.
     
    Here is a bat file that will do all this for you:
    1. Stop the OVRservice
    2. Rename RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe
    3. Delete all created json files
    4. Start OVRservice again

     

    net stop OVRservice
ren "C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-remote-desktop\RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe" "RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe.old"
del c:\fba*.json /q
net start OVRservice

     

10 Replies

  • sas.karoly's avatar
    sas.karoly
    Explorer
    1 year ago

    1.2 Million files / 1.7 GB here, Windows took minutes longer to boot, File explorer was almost unable to cope with this file amount. This is a scandal, shame on you Meta, releasing such an untested s***, practically deployed a Trojan virus. I had to remove all Oculus SW to stop this nonsense.

    • perkypercy's avatar
      perkypercy
      Honored Guest
      1 year ago

      i have 360,000 files added to c:\ it's taken ages to select and delete them. I have not even used the oculus app for 6 months... absolute crapware

  • netkot's avatar
    netkot
    Explorer
    1 year ago
    Ok, I found a solution on one forum, at least a temporary one.
    You need to rename the RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe file
    It is possible that the running OVRservice will not allow you to do this, so you need to stop it first.
     
    Here is a bat file that will do all this for you:
    1. Stop the OVRservice
    2. Rename RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe
    3. Delete all created json files
    4. Start OVRservice again

     

    net stop OVRservice
ren "C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-remote-desktop\RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe" "RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe.old"
del c:\fba*.json /q
net start OVRservice

     

    • Player2VRmedia.ro's avatar
      Player2VRmedia.ro
      Explorer
      1 year ago

      Same issue here, but with Quest 2. It manifests slightly differently, in the sense that the files are placed in a different folder, but unless I rename the **bleep** executable, I can't seem to prevent it from running ALL THE TIME and from continuously writing "random" log files to the main drive. 

      Apparently, the remote app is trying to connect to graph.facebook.com, it fails and it writes a log entry. Very "malware" like behavior and since I find reports from early 2023 about this issue and now it's almost two years later, I can only conclude this is "a feature rather than a bug", otherwise, a company the size of Meta should be able to quickly fix this issue and allow users to decide for themselves if they want this **** running in the background ALL THE TIME or not. There are no options in the app to prevent the Meta app from running at startup and it doesn't even show as running at startup since it runs as a service so most users would be clueless regarding the issue. 

      • validanswer's avatar
        validanswer
        Honored Guest
        1 year ago

        Funny you mention it's "malware" like behavior - I only discovered this service when scanning through my network connections and local IP bandwidth usage looking for malware. "RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe" was fairly constantly uploading about 612B/s. I haven't played my Quest 2 in months. Ridiculous there are no options to change the startup behavior. I would like to know if there is a way to opt out of the collection of this data.

  • Verociity's avatar
    Verociity
    Protege
    11 months ago

    I found a permanent solution, uninstalling the Meta PC app solved the problem. Airlink has been broken for over a year so it's no loss, I'll continue to use VirtualDestop which has always worked perfectly for years, and as this update nearly bricked my PC I won't be going back to the Meta app.

  • CptCoach's avatar
    CptCoach
    Honored Guest
    10 months ago

    This is horrendous... it just almost bricked my PC. I had multiple weird crashes and behaviour from my Computer lately. Found this data since I borrowed a VR from a friend to test it... I did not like going the "facebook mile" to be able to use this, but well, I did to set everything up.

    Last time I checked I was confused about the 200.000 files, deleted them and took ages.... Today, my PC crashed and would not start up. I figured something was wrong with my system SSD. There was 1.2 million files of this and my C partition was reacting slow af. What the actual f***, meta? 

    This is horrendous. If my SSD is now broken, I will report it to the Verbraucherschutzbehörde in germany. 

    • Verociity's avatar
      Verociity
      Protege
      10 months ago

      I wouldn't be surprised if some PCs were actually bricked or damaged from this. Some people who are less tech savvy probably can't boot their PC and may never know what the cause is. I would never have guessed it was the Meta PC app that caused this. As if the V74 update bricking Quest headsets wasn't bad enough, now even their PC software is just as dangerous.

  • 007x007's avatar
    007x007
    Adventurer
    10 months ago

    I will only add that the meta quest link will update itself (when an update is available) if we postpone the update for 4 hours 2-3 times. After the update, you have to rename the RemoteDesktopCompanion.exe file (I delete it), because the update restores it.. we have no way to stop the auto-update.

  • Verociity's avatar
    Verociity
    Protege
    10 months ago

    Delete it, use VD or Steamlink, no reason to use Airlink anymore especially after this.