How to fix MW3 ‘App Not Released’ Steam error

One possible cause of the MW3 “App not released” error is that Steam does not have the proper permissions to run the game. To fix this, you need to close out Steam completely and run it as an administrator. Here are the steps to do this:

1. Right-click on the Steam desktop icon and select “Run as administrator”.
2. Go to your Steam library and right-click on Modern Warfare 3.
3. Select “Properties” and then go to the “DLC” tab.
4. Uncheck the box next to “MW3 Free Trial” and click “Close”.
5. Exit Steam again by clicking on the “Steam” menu in the top-left corner and selecting “Exit”.

The download cache stores temporary data related to your game downloads, and it sometimes gets corrupted, eventually leading to various errors, including the "App not released" message. To fix this issue, you need to clear the download cache in Steam on Windows:

1. Open the Steam client and click on the “Steam” menu in the top-left corner.
2. Select “Settings” and then go to the “Downloads” tab in the left sidebar.
3. Click on the “Clear Download Cache” button in the right panel and confirm your choice.
4. Steam may ask you to log in again. So enter your credentials and click “Login.”
5. Launch the game and see if the error is fixed.