Modern Warfare 2 “Failed to update Playlist” error: How to fix, possible reasons, and more

Fixing the “Failed to update Playlist” error in Modern Warfare 2 (image via Modern Warfare 2)
Fixing the “Failed to update Playlist” error in Modern Warfare 2 (image via Modern Warfare 2)

Modern Warfare 2's developers have fixed many performance issues in the game since its official release. However, there are still a fair number of bugs and errors that many players in the community encounter every now and then.

While a great number of them are pretty easy to deal with, there are a few that are a tad bit annoying to solve in the shooter.

One such bug is the “Failed to update Playlist” error, which does not allow players to view all the available game modes in the title. When it occurs, it force-closes the game entirely.

According to some community members, this error usually occurs when there are a few things wrong with the game files in the installation directory.

There is currently no permanent fix to the problem apart from a few temporary workarounds. Therefore, today’s guide goes over some of the things you can do to deal with the “Failed to update Playlist” error in Modern Warfare 2.


Removing files from the Main folder and 2 other things you can try to fix the “Failed to update Playlist” error in Modern Warfare 2

1) Repairing the game files

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To be able to repair the Modern Warfare 2 game files, you must make your way to the Steam or battle.net launcher and select the game in the respective applications.

You can then select Properties in Steam or the Cog icon in Battle.net to bring up the additional features of the game. You will find an option that says “Verify File Integrity” or “Scan and Fix” files.

Upon clicking on it, the application will run a process that will go through all the files that are currently present in the installation directory. Upon finding corrupted or missing files, the process will automatically download new ones.

This method is much more likely to fix the “Failed to update Playlist” error in Modern Warfare 2.


2) Remove files from the Main folder

If repairing the game files does not work, you might need to delete some of the contents in the “Main” folder of the Modern Warfare 2 installation directory. To do this, you should make your way to the Local Files section of the game and search for the folder called “Main.”

Here, you must find and delete the following files:

  • data0.dcache
  • Data1.dcache
  • toc0.dcache
  • toc1.dcache

After deleting them, you can restart the shooter once again and check if the “Failed to update Playlist” error has been resolved.

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3) Re-installing the game

If the methods above do not work, you can consider re-installing the game. While this may seem like one of the more drastic methods to solve the issue, many in the community have found it to be one of the better fixes for the error.

Hence, you can look to uninstall the game from the respective launchers and then re-install it. This will more than likely solve most of the issues that the shooter is currently facing.

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