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twhall
Inspiring
March 14, 2019
Solved

New Oculus account setup error OVR88948175

We run a VR lab at the University with 19 Oculus Rift and 4 HTC Vive stations, open to all faculty, staff, and students.  We require each user to sign into Windows with their own University account, and to create their own Oculus account.  Beginning in mid February, new Oculus users have hit a brick wall in their Oculus setup, with Oculus error OVR88948175.



Oculus is evidently trying to download something to "C:\Program Files\Oculus\Software", which requires admin privileges -- even though the Oculus software is already fully installed on the machine.  If a user clicks the "Change Location" button and navigates into their own folder space, it has no effect:



The pathname in the dialog doesn't change -- which is an obvious bug -- and there's no way past this error.  We've been discussing this with Oculus support, but their bottom line is:  "we aren't able to provide much support for this situation, since we recommend using an admin account with the software."  As my colleague put it to them, succinctly: "if the Oculus software only works for admins, it does not work for us."  We are not going to provide admin accounts to everyone on campus.

We have been using Oculus hardware and software since the DK1.  We've incorporated Oculus into our in-house VR software.  Our lab is a seed for VR on this campus, and departments across campus are looking to us for experience and advice in setting up their own labs.  Investment is set to grow exponentially.  This was never a problem until a few weeks ago, evidently related to some recent Oculus software update.  It affects only new users.  Old users already set up with non-admin accounts continue to work.

Unless we can find a way past this roadblock, we can no longer recommend Oculus for a large-scale University investment in VR.  There are many alternatives ...

Has anybody else hit this error?  Any known work-arounds?  Are we the only ones attempting to operate such a facility?

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    FamilyHaxAnswer
    New Participant
    January 25, 2020
    I'd like to say, the above works:
    REG ADD "HKU\.DEFAULT\Software\Oculus VR, LLC\Oculus\Libraries"

    BUT - you have to understand the caveats -- as it did NOT work for me, just running it from a command prompt.  The command above puts the info needed into the DEFAULT reg key.  When a user logs in for the first time, they'll get a copy, and it will work.  But, if you have logged in already -- then you need to add it to HKCU instead:

    REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Oculus VR, LLC\Oculus\Libraries"

    So, on new machines/builds, consider the HKU option above.  For current users, do the HKCU line.  Should fix -- worked for me.
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    61 replies

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    ThyBombZone
    New Participant
    January 10, 2021
    Adding "HKCU\Software\Oculus VR, LLC\" was sufficient for me.  Launching Oculus app created the rest.
      clochardm33
      New Participant
      November 22, 2022

      Perfect. Job done. Lifesaver.

      SlayStation13
      New Participant
      April 3, 2021

      This is still an issue - can somebody pls come up with a solution that doesn't involve messing with the registry?

      HR1S
      New Participant
      April 4, 2021

      What issue are you having with making the registry edit? 

      twhallAuthor
      Inspiring
      April 4, 2021

      This has been an Oculus installation bug for over 2 years, going back to March 2019.  It should not be necessary for users to mess with REGEDIT to install and run the Oculus software.

       

      Oculus tech support told us way back then: "we aren't able to provide much support for this situation, since we recommend using an admin account with the software."

       

      Which is ridiculous.  As one of my colleagues replied to them at the time: "if the Oculus software only works for admins, it does not work for us."  We are not going to provide admin accounts to everyone on campus.  Oculus offered zero useful advice.  Another of my colleagues figured out the initial REGEDIT fix.  Others here have refined it since then.

       

      Requiring an Admin account to install software is reasonable.  Requiring an Admin account to use the software is not.

       

      It ought to be easy for Oculus to fix their installation scripts to handle the registry entry.  It does not appear that they monitor these discussions.

       

      * * *

       

      In my reply to Lord_Artorias96 a few days ago, I missed the advice from astralmind11 a little higher up to use CMD (rather than REGEDIT) to modify the registry; my bad:

       

      * Type REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Oculus VR, LLC\Oculus\Libraries" into the command prompt

       

      As HR1S_ says, you'll probably need to open CMD as an Administrator for rights to modify the registry.

       

      As ThyBombZone says, REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Oculus VR, LLC\" was sufficient for him.

        Blongers
        New Participant
        April 30, 2021

        I'm also having this issue, Oculus support have been unable to help me so far. I'm not digging around in the registry to fix this.

          SlayStation13
          New Participant
          April 30, 2021

          My workaround was to reinstall the oculus software on each Windows account. The user under each account either remained logged in or was able to sign in without issues. It's a shame this still hasn't been addressed. And I keep finding out there's a lot more drama related to the oculus ecosystem which makes me glad I picked the steam version for most games. I like the device but the terrible support makes me regret not having spent more $$$ on a Valve Index.

           

          P.S. I had to write this twice cuz they made me sign in and didn't keep my post - while I was signed in ,..or at least it looked like it after following the notification from my email. Boooooo!

            twhallAuthor
            Inspiring
            April 30, 2021

            Oculus is not the only game in town, whatever its Facebook masters might think. There are a variety of headsets to use with Windows Mixed Reality. We've already added an OpenXR interface to our software, which opens the doors to lots of alternatives. I don't foresee our lab sticking forever with Oculus and all of its oppressive and glitchy account issues and unresponsive tech support. When our current batch of Rift S headsets are ready to retire, we're going to be looking at the wider market.

            I have also had the problem here of having to type a reply twice, because the website logged me off in the process of posting. I've learned to copy-paste from an offline text doc. ... In fact it just happened to me again: type in the whole reply, hit the (REPLY) button, and get sent back to the login page to start all over again. Schlock.

              Zap57
              New Participant
              July 17, 2021

              More than two years later, same error today !

               

              bendercunning
              New Participant
              August 28, 2021

              Yep still a problem

              Anonymous
              December 29, 2021

              Editing the registry worked for me.

               

              Thank you everybody.

              IhorVilkhovyi
              New Participant
              January 4, 2022

              The registry solution doesn't work for me. The command prompt says that the operation is completed successfully but the oculus client throws the same error. Maybe the issue is that I installed the library to not default location on another drive.

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