Posting a solution as well.
As with many indies, I use my main PC dual purpose. Unreal Engine launcher was crashing, and this is close to the tail of the log file:
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:993][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: AppId is: Jackal
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:993][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: FAppInstallRequestConfig:
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .SourcePath:
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .DestinationPath: F:\Epic\Dauntless
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .SourceProjectName:
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .OverrideEngineAssociation:
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .DestinationProjectName:
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .bIsExecutable: true
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .bIsApplication: true
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .bIsEngine: false
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .bRequiresAuthExchangeCode: true
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .bIsCodeProject: false
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .bDownloadLatest: false
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .bOverwriteExisting: false
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .bCreateShortcut: true
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: .MainAppName: Jackal
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: Found 0 DLC to INSTALL
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: Found 0 DLC to UNINSTALL
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: Found 1 DLC to UPDATE
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: Found DLC Jackal to UPDATE
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: Add UPDATE action for app Jackal
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: Add UPDATE action for DLC Jackal
[2019.08.24-15.20.46:994][242]LogCommunityPortalAppManager: RequestAppInstall: Creating and queueing task in patcher app id Jackal
I performed the following steps to get Epic Launcher back where I could actually use it for any purpose again:
Windows+X then A to launch Powershell in Administrative mode
From powershell, typed cmd (find syntax is easier)
From the elevated command prompt:
cd C:\programdata\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\data\Manifests
find /i “Jackal”
---------- C6A52207457131BD7888F6A249542B5D.ITEM
“AppName”: “Jackal”,
“http://epicgames-download1.akamaized.net/Builds/Org/o-krlzxj88qrtb69fredeuaf887bl5az/Jackal/default”,
“http://download.epicgames.com/Builds/Org/o-krlzxj88qrtb69fredeuaf887bl5az/Jackal/default”,
“http://download2.epicgames.com/Builds/Org/o-krlzxj88qrtb69fredeuaf887bl5az/Jackal/default”,
“http://download3.epicgames.com/Builds/Org/o-krlzxj88qrtb69fredeuaf887bl5az/Jackal/default”,
“http://download4.epicgames.com/Builds/Org/o-krlzxj88qrtb69fredeuaf887bl5az/Jackal/default”
“CatalogNamespace”: “jackal”,
“FullAppName”: “Jackal: Live”,
“MainGameAppName”: “Jackal”,
mkdir temp
move C6A52207457131BD7888F6A249542B5D.item temp
That is - the launcher was failing because of something in the above app, and when it was failing, I couldn’t get into the launcher to start anything or fix anything. And so I just move the manifest for the app causing the problem out of the way.
Hoping this combined with the crash reports I sent might let someone at Epic improve this.