: The most frequent cause is that the user has not formally agreed to the Steam Workshop Terms of Service. The game hangs because it lacks the permission to sync, even if you have no mods. Hidden "Desync" Subscriptions
On a good day, validation takes 5–10 seconds. You barely notice it before jumping into lobbies or the ranked queue. aoe2 validating subscriptions
Believe it or not, sometimes it isn't you. When Microsoft’s authentication servers go down for maintenance (usually Tuesdays) or suffer a spike in traffic, every AOE2 player worldwide gets stuck on this screen. : The most frequent cause is that the
Right-click the game in Steam, select Properties , and add -nomods to the Launch Options to disable mod syncing entirely. You barely notice it before jumping into lobbies
If nothing else, it’s the most authentic AoE2 excuse since "Sorry, my cat stepped on my power strip."
: Simple restarts of the game or your PC can sometimes clear temporary server-sync issues. Advanced Troubleshooting