What causes error 4004, 5003, and 5006 in Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker?

Huge queues for Endwalker, the latest expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, have caused frustration for many players. But even more frustrating than this is when players are hit by unusual error codes, such as errors 4004, 5003, and 5006. These errors will kick you out of the queue and send your waiting time skyrocketing.

But what causes these error codes. Errors 5006, 5003, and 4004 are all caused by similar issues. The result from the server timing out your connection after long waiting periods. Essentially, the server will kick you from the queue if it thinks your wait is overly long.

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Normally, this is a security and anti-congestion measure. In times where there aren’t huge queues, these time-out measures prevent malicious access or those struggling to connect due to their own connection issues from clogging up queues. However, during Endwalker’s sometimes hours-long queues, these measures have turned against legitimate connections.

In a post explaining the issues, game Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida described how Square Enix had taken measures to increase the session time for each user during their queue. But with queues far longer than expected, some were still getting kicked with these errors.

There currently isn’t a fix for this issue. Square Enix is in the process of raising the threshold before people are kicked for long wait times. But other than being patient and waiting to get into the game, there’s little you can do to prevent this error for now.

If you're still struggling with login errors in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, check out our guide on What causes error 2002 in Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker?