This is minor, but I’ve had it since 4.2. Every time I load up the launcher it says “Project files not associated” and asks me if I want to associate them now. Every time I say “Fix Now” I get an “Error” dialog box that says “Couldn’t update file associations”. With both 4.2 and 4.3 I’ve done a fresh install (not the github version, just the regular one you download and install) and the error doesn’t seem to go away.
Hey Architekt -
If you would go into your Unreal Engine directory, typically in Program Files\Unreal Engine, and go to Unreal Engine\Launcher\Engine\Binaries\Win64\ and launch the UnrealVersionSelector.exe file. Answer “Yes” to the question asked and then see if you still receive the version errors again.
Let me know -
Eric Ketchum
I just tried and I got another error dialog saying “Couldn’t update file associations.”
Hey Architekt -
Did you move the engine from its original install location at any time? My suggestion at this point would be to uninstall the engine and re-install from your account page.
Thank You
Eric Ketchum
A full uninstall and fresh reinstall fixed the problem. Thanks!
Ok here’s a step by step guide with pictures on how to re-associate your .uproject files in Windows:
- Open the Epic Launcher and click on the Down Arrow to the right of the Launch button for the engine version you want to use. Choose the “Create Shortcut” option. This will place a shortcut to the Editor on your desktop.
- Right click on the Editor Shortcut and choose “Properties” this will open the Shortcut tab and show you the installation directory of the Editor on your system. Mine was “C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.18\Engine\Binaries\Win64\UE4Editor.exe” but this will vary depending on where you chose to install the editor.
- Open the Start Menu and search for “File Type” without the quotes in the search bar and select the “Change the file type associated with a file extension” option. In windows 10 this is called “Change the default app for each type of file”.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the list until you get the the file extensions that start with the letter U and you’ll see the .uproject file type. Select this and hit the “Change Program” button in the top right corner. In windows 10 this process is more complex if windows hasn’t detected that Unreal Engine can open .uproject files so I refer you to this link: How to Change File Associations in Windows 10 | Digital Trends
- Once you click on the “Change Program” button a new window will pop up with suggested programs. Ignore these and hit the “Browse” button in the bottom right corner. This will open a small File Explorer where you need to navigate to the directory that we discovered with our Editor shortcut. Again, in my case this was “C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.18\Engine\Binaries\Win64” You can copy and paste the directory to speed things up, just don’t include the “UE4Editor.exe” part. Find UE4 Editor in the list and select it and hit the “Open” button.
- Once this is done you will be taken back to the Open With window and you’ll see an icon for “Unreal Engine” in the list. Hit the OK button on this window and you’re done. Close the File association window and double click on your .uproject file. It will now open in the editor.
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For anyone else who might get this after reinstalling windows and UE4.
Copy “UnrealVersionSelector.exe” from your directory :
…\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Engine\Binaries\Win64
Paste that into …\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_.**\Engine\Binaries\Win64 where (UE_.** = version of UE4 you need to have your uproject launch from)
Launch UnrealVersionSelector.exe
That should give “Registration Successful”.
That’s it!
Go back into the Launcher and Launch your project.
Thanks man it worked now thank you very much
Thanks @AdamF
I had the same problem. Fixed it right up.
UE 5.2, Win 10, 22H2
TLDR: If on Windows and lacking Admin status within your system, try giving the user account admin status and then clicking the “fix unassociated files“ button in the launcher.
I had this issue for a long time. I’m talking years. I tried to address it many times. I would click the “fix” button to remedy the issue when opening the launcher, it would appear to work only for nothing to change. I attempted to manually address the lack of association following the advice from multiple threads and forum posts. (This one included, I’ll post a couple below) The issue persisted across fresh installs and even new devices. Nothing seemed to work. I eventually gave up and got around it using the launcher. This was on a work device, and I couldn’t justify spending more time on something that I could get around with just a few extra clicks. I eventually came across a bug that all but required me to fix the problem at its root instead of finding workarounds. (I needed to generate new Visual Studio files) So I reached out to our IT department. They also tried several times to address the lack of association with reg-edit and attempted a few things from the terminal that didn’t change much. The thing that finally did it was granting my user account administrator status and clicking the “fix” button that appeared when opening the launcher. (We went back and then removed the admin status after.) They had been giving me a credential to troubleshoot, but something about the relationship between user settings and the fix unreal applies to the problem required my account to be an admin for it to actually take effect. Our conclusion was that whenever I was “running as administrator,” the changes would affect the admin user I had credentials for, not my user account. So the change would appear to take place, but not actually affect anything. I hope this might help anyone in a similar situation.
Here are other places where people dealt with a similar problem:
https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/13gn4bu/i_cant_open_uproject_files/