League of Legends Patching Failed? Error 004 Fixed

Naturally, every League of Legends player is always looking forward to the next updates to the game. After all, updates are what ensure the game stays fresh, especially for old players. However, what do players do when, instead of their update downloading, they get faced with an error that states the game’s patching failed?

If you get Error 004 in League of Legends while installing an update, then there are a couple of things you can try to fix it. These things include simply restarting the client, running the client as administrator, ensuring there is enough space on your hard drive, deleting the LoL configuration files, and finally uninstalling and reinstalling the game.

If you see error 004 in LoL then don’t panic because we’re about to go through every fix for it right here and right now.

Method #1: Run the Client as Administrator

The first thing you should do if you get error 004 in LoL is to restart the client. The second thing is to run the client as administrator to ensure the client has the required permissions to install new patch updates. Unfortunately, because Riot can’t change its client, these type of issues are fairly common. Well, since running the game as administrator requires you to restart the client anyways, we just fused the two methods into one convenient one.

So, how do you run the client as administrator? Well, the most convenient way will be by simply identifying the LoL widget from your desktop, right clicking it, and clicking the ‘run as administrator’ option.

However, if the widget is not on the desktop, then you can:

1. Click the Windows icon at the bottom right of the screen
2. In the search bar, search for League of Legends
3. Highlight the client and you should see the option to run as administrator on the right side.

Hopefully, as soon as you run the client as administrator, you’ll be able to install the new patches without any issues.

Method #2: Ensure There’s Enough Space on Your Hard Drive

If restarting the client and running it as administrator doesn’t work, then the next thing you should do is ensure your hard drive actually has the space required to install the patches or updates.

After all, Some League of Legends patches are so large, they require a lot of space on your hard disk. Therefore, if your system is cluttered with junk files, the patch will not successfully install and the game won’t launch. 

To clear up space on your hard drive, you should begin by pressing Windows + E to open the file explorer. From here, click on ‘this PC’, and ensure the hard drive has at least 20% free space left. If it doesn’t, consider uninstalling some apps you don’t use or deleting files you don’t require anymore.

When you have cleared up enough space on your hard drive, all that’s left to do is to launch the LoL client once more, and hopefully, the patches or updates will install with no problem.

Method #3: Delete LoL Configuration Files

One very common reason for error 004 popping up in League of Legends is that the configuration files might be corrupted. This can happen because of several reasons, but the most common one is that the device shut down randomly. Therefore, this is especially common in places with load shedding or frequent power outages. Additionally, this can also be a result of system crashes.

To delete your LoL configuration files, you have to:

1. Press Windows + E to open windows explorer.
2. Type ‘Riot Games’ in the search box and open the folder.
3. Double click the League of Legends folder and open the Config folder.
4. Locate the game.cfg file and delete it.
5. Go back to the League of Legends folder and locate RADS > projects > league-client > releases.
6. In the Releases folder, find the latest version of the league client and delete it. 

With this done, all that’s left to do is to restart the LoL client and see if that fixes the issue.

Method #4: Uninstall and Reinstall the Game

Finally, if you tried every method mentioned above but the error just doesn’t want to go away, then there’s only one thing left to do. You will have to uninstall League of Legends and then install it again as it’s very likely that there’s a software issue causing this error.

Before uninstalling, however, ensure that you remember the log in details to the account you use. There’s nothing worse than losing your entire account because you forgot the username or password, right?

When you’re ready to uninstall the game, simply:

1. Click the Windows icon on the bottom right of the screen
2. Click on settings
3. Go to ‘Apps’
4. Look for the League of Legends .exe file. Interact with it and click ‘uninstall’.
5. From here, simply follow the on screen instructions to uninstall the game

With the game uninstalled, simply download the latest version of the game and reinstall the game.