Quixel Bridge Failed to restart background service

[Jimbohalo10]

@Gary10G

.\node-bifrost.exe

Hi @Gary10G,
The main problem is that node-bifrost.exe is viewed by many AntiVirus products as a Rogue Program.

In my AVG, I had to put it on the Do Not Disturb list.
ANY update to the node-bifrost.exe must be updated on the Firewall setting including as described above the BullGuard, others include ZoneAlarm, AVG Internet Firewall, McAffee Windows Firewall WinSock blocker. The AntiVirus may still block the program
I wrote the following answer I cannot put the original Quixel Questions as to its confidential

1. Yes node-bifrost.exe is in the location stated. In my case AVG free was blocking it.
2. I have put this node-bifrost.exe on the “Do Not Disturb list”.
3. C:\users\owner\source\repos\ue50ea\engine\plugins\bridge\thirdparty\win\node-bifrost.exe
4. When I open this I get a Windows Console Windows.
5. Task Manager says its Node.js: Server-side JavaScript running

The other thing is that node-bifrost.exe is now has an entry in the Windows 10

Windows Defender Firewall → Allowed Applications

C:\users\owner\source\repos\ue50ea\engine\plugins\bridge\thirdparty\win\node-bifrost.exe

The Public box is now ticked

Hope this helps

[Gary10G]

Hi Jimbohalo10,

My situation turns out to be a little different, and thankfully, it has been solved. Yippee!

Several days before the 2021.0.3 upgrade, I had gone to preferences and changed the location of the Megascans Library to a different drive from where it was originally located within my UE5 project folder. When I did a drag and drop of Megascan assets from within UE5 the assets went directly into my project content folder. They did not go into the new location. When I updated Bridge to 2021.0.3 I think the two library locations were both “listening to 5017” simultaneously, and that created the conflict, which made Bridge continually stop and start the background process. So it became impossible to use Bridge.

Solution: I went back into Bridge preferences and changed my Library path back to my original project path. Now everything works perfectly! Before the upgrade, I would drag in the assets, but they did not come in as nanite enabled. Now they are coming in as nanite enabled so everything is working properly and it’s a pleasure to use.

I hope this will help to solve the problem of “background process stopped” for others as well.

[Skoddskar]

I’m on Win 7 64bit, this fix may not work if you’re on a different version of windows, but this fixed the issue for me:

I was able to fix this issue by following "aefx0r"s above advice, adding the environment variable in windows, and then I also had to manually run node-bifrost.exe, and keep it running in the background as long as I’m using Quixel Bridge.

In case like you don’t know how to add the environment variable like I didn’t, just follow these steps to save yourself from figuring it out on your own.

• Open your start menu and right click “computer”

• Select Properties

• Select “Advanced System Settings” from the left side menu

• Click “Environment Variables” at the bottom of the “Advanced” tab

• Under “System Variables” click “New…”

• Set Variable name: NODE_SKIP_PLATFORM_CHECK

• Set Variable value: 1

• Click OK. Close all computer properties menus. Restart Unreal Engine if open

Now locate your Unreal engine install location, default:

C:\Program Files\Epic Games\VersionNumber
or
C:\Program Files\Unreal\VersionNumber

from here locate \Engine\Plugins\Bridge\ThirdParty\Win

You should find node-bifrost.exe here. Run the exe and allow private network access.

Now Quixel Bridge should be working properly as long as you keep node-bifrost.exe running!

To make your life easier, I suggest making a shortcut for node-bifrost.exe on your desktop or preferred location, so that you can easily locate and run it whenever you want to use Quixel Bridge.

Hope this helps! Stay creating.

[Afrayedknot1337]

Hi all,

I had the same issue, but for me the solution was different.

It turns out that I moved my “Documents” folder away from the Windows default.

So the system was trying to create a folder called: “C:\Users\MyName\Documents\Megascans Library”

But because the Documents folder did not exist, it was failing. I created a Documents folder there, and now it works.

[anonymous_user_049138451 (anonymous_user_04913845)]

Anyone found any solution?

[chenyudong123]

hi, i move the document folder too. but i do not know how to creat a document folder ,can you help me?

[anonymous_user_0b58ee5d]

On my mac M1, the quixel bridge doesn’t start. When I click a button of the built-in plugin, the UE5 crashes. Do you know any solution for that? Thanks

[Jimbohalo10]

Hi @anonymous_user_0b58ee5d,
I don’t know if this applied to a Mac but there is a new plugin in the Windows EA2 binary version. I have taken this as source code and built it into UE5.
Quixel Bridge 21.0.4 Update to Unreal 5.0 EA2 Epic Launcher Binary version

[anonymous_user_0b58ee5d]

Hi, thank you for a new binary. I will try it out. Meanwhile, I have solved the issue thanks to the guys in Quixel Forum.

E5.0.0EA crashes because there are 2 plugins that are not enabled by default

• Web Authentication Plugin
• Web Browser

After all, there was also an issue during the drop of metahuman on the scene. It was necessary to disable Hair simulation in the metahuman hair component.

Right now, I have an issue with the low quality of metahuman visualization on my Mac M1. And I can’t find the solution. It looks like it is LOD5-6 and not even near to what it should be like in Metahuman Online Creator. Do you know any solution for this? Thanks.

Here are details
https://help.quixel.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4405489594769-UE5-crash-when-I-click-into-quixe-bridge?page=1#community_comment_4410295617809

[Rickideee]

Thanks Afrayedknot1337.

[tonoco-87]

I had the same problem and the guy from support told me how to fix it !!!

Here is the mail:

The first steps didn’t do it for me, as I had no button for Updating.
What DID work, was the last bit of advice: I reset the Library path under the plugin’s preferences. I think Bridge was trying to reach an unexisting library or something.

Thanks to Ian, the support guy

[FerorHidesInBush]

This worked for me:

Go to LocalC\Users\PCName\AppData\Roaming

Find ‘Bridge-Bitfrost’

Move it to some back up folder just in case, but get it out of there.

Problem stopped working for me.

[3th3r]

@Afrayedknot1337

Megascans Library

OMG !

How can this be possible ?
They didn’t use win variable to locate the default destination folder ?

[Famekrafts.com]

This worked for me too. It is not restarting so often now. I moved the folder out of roaming.

I believe we should not open a lot of assets together, say searching for " town" gives thousands of assets, which makes bridge lag or restart. Even download speed becomes very slow.

Search for individual assets - like palm_tree or coconut etc and it loads and downloads fast as well

[GeekToBe]

That works for me too, thanks !

[RigelOrionBeta]

Thank you. After an hour of fiddling about this worked.

[Famekrafts.com]

It kind of works temporarily. As you restart unreal, it creates a new folder in roaming again, so have to remove that folder from there every time.

What I have done is downloaded almost all the assets and add them to the project. For the next project, I will just migrate whatever I need to the new project.

It just takes a lot of disk space, so be sure you have a lot of space if you follow this technique.

[mr_leaf]

thanks Afrayedknot1337. This solved my issue!

[Reiki_Warrior]

That was great. Thanks for that. Moving the Quixel file location worked well.
Trouble now is C Drive is 250Gb with Quixel files on it
& my 3Tb Quixel drive is E: Drive…

[TracylWu]

omg it’s work Tankyou