Failed to open descriptor file error

Is there still no real solution for this problem?
I had this problem with two different projects and couldn’t find a solution at all. Sometime renaming works sometimes it does not. This does not make any sense to me at all.

If you’re experiencing this issue, feel free to submit a new AnswerHub thread in and we’ll look at your separately. This was one of those bugs that happened and a few things seemed to be the cause.

hey did any one find a solution to the problem because im experciencing the same issue works on my own desktop for development but wont work for shipping on anyones computer

Yes, Yes they did.

Add a C++ class to your project

See btengelh response below back in Jan for more info.

Please up vote the answer that does not involve renaming files (btengelh posted it below).

“Add a C++ class to your project”

This completely fixes the issue and does not require any rename of files.

I have the same promblem on android
I solved it:
1,install apk use the .bat
2.uninstall it use the .bat
3.play on android
solved

Hey guys !

I’m encountering the same issue so I followed your steps but sorry if I’m noob with it but how do I “refresh the VS project files” of my project ?

All step acted exactly as you said before but I am a bit confused about this last one ^^'.

Thx for your help guys you are awesome !

plz i have problem that my game keep tel me that (failed to opendescriptor file ‘…/…/…/TekkenGame/TekkenGame.uproject’) plz what should i do

Mine project works with removing that win64-shipping, but when uploading to steam it doesn’t work comes error couldn’t start game-win64-shipping.exe create process 2 returned. How can i get it to work in steam

Where can find that answer? I am trying to add my game to steam, but need game-win64-Shipping.exe which aren’t working. If remove win64-shipping then it works

my project was already a c++ project. rebuilding project in visual studio fixed it for me.

Just a heads up for anyone who is transferring files to another computer and getting this error on the second one.

If you use a file sharing server (like , , etc) it is possible that the service will use weird compression (splitting things into different zip files, etc) and this could result in the same issue.

ALWAYS compress your project folder BEFORE uploading it so that the services are forced to treat it all as one file. I just had this issue occur for me via , and figured it was worthwhile to share with the community, as I actually went through everyone’s past solutions to no avail, but this could save a few people a lot of time. :slight_smile:

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I was also facing the same issue. This article helped me resolve the issue.

https://waptechs.com/how-to-fix-failed-to-open-descriptor-file-error/

Hope it helps.

I was able to resolve this problem by creating a new empty project with the same name, and using the Editors migration tool to move my project files into the new project. The new project needs to be created in a separate location to avoid a naming conflict, but once you are up and running again you can move it after you delete the old project (just make sure you compress your files first! See Churlz_Barkely’s post above).

To keep any input mappings and project modifications you can just export your project settings from your old project (see the buttons at the top of the Editor in the Project Settings tab) and import them into the new project. None of the suggestions above worked for me, but this seems like a pretty clean solution and I am now able to launch and package my game on Android and Windows without any errors :slight_smile:

I got this error launching to my android. I just deleted binaries, saved, intermediate, and derived data cache folders (I guess you don’t have to delete them all to fix it but), uninstalled the game in my android, restarted my android, restarted unreal, and it worked again

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Flabbergasted by this. I’ve been packaging my project without any issues for the past year or so, and today I got the dreaded “Failed to Open Descriptor File Error”. It’s a mostly C++ project. I’ve tried the various renaming shenanigans, to no avail. I’m now trying voodoo, ie. rebuilding everything, editor included, hoping in a succesfull build… but really, it makes no sense!

I’ll let you know how it goes…

Solved by:
*Rebuilding the whole editor in Visual Studio [VS]
*Deleting Intermediate/Binaries/DerivedDataCache folders
*Re-generating VS Project Files
*Loading the solution in VS
*Building and launching the project from VS
*Packaging specifying “Full Rebuild”

The whole process took about 5 hours. I’m pretty sure that some of the steps above are useless, and that there’s a more efficient way to do this. Can somebody from EPIC chime in and let the community know what this is really about, and what’s the proper, hopefully quicker way to re-establish a properly working packaging environment?

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Enough of us are having this issue that it should be addressed. I’m wasting so many hours on this.

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TLDR; Transferring the game in zip file does in fact solve a problem with 3rd party filesharing services and external hard drives (at least my external SSD). Just zip the loose game files before transferring no matter how you’re transferring.

I want to iterate on this because this ultimately led me to my solution.

I spent the better part of a day trying to solve this “descriptor file error”. I was successfully testing an unzipped shipment built game on another pc by transferring it over the network through a shared folder. That worked just fine. However, when I started transferring it using a new external hard I got, I started getting this error. It uses some new USB 3.0 technology. It ends up transferring the .pak file in like 2 seconds for a 3gb file, which is shockingly fast. My only conclusion is that it is doing some type of multi threaded transfer such that a cloud sharing service would use, and not assembling it correctly. Tested transferring the game files over in a zip file and it works just fine like that.

How do you delete binaries, saved, intermediate, and derived data cache folders?