How To Fix FiveM “Your session has expired. Please relaunch FiveM.” — Step-By-Step 2025 Guide

Why This Error Happens

FiveM throws the “Your session has expired” banner when its launcher loses the short-lived entitlement token that proves you still own a legal copy of GTA V and that your PC clock, network route, and locally cached files all line up. The launcher checks (1) the DigitalEntitlements files in %LOCALAPPDATA%\DigitalEntitlements\, (2) the Social Club login cookie, (3) the Five M cache, and (4) the time-limited JSON Web Token it gets from Rockstar’s back-end. If any of these bits go missing or look stale, the handshake fails and the client politely kicks you back to desktop. Community threads from just a few weeks ago confirm that a corrupted cache or an out-of-sync DigitalEntitlements folder is still the most common culprit.

Before You Dive In

1. Restart FiveM once.
2. Reboot the PC (a warm restart flushes TPM-stored tokens).
3. Check server status in Discord; sometimes the server itself is rejecting stale tokens.

If the error remains, walk through the steps below in order. They are arranged from “five-minute quick fix” to “clean reinstall,” so you rarely need to finish the list.

Step 1 — Clear Every Cache File the Right Way

Open Run (Win + R) and paste:

%localappdata%\FiveM\FiveM.app\data or Just go to fivem file location 

Delete these folders (they are recreated automatically):

• cache
• server-cache
• server-cache-priv
• game-storage
• nui-storage

Next, back out one level, locate caches.xml, and delete it too. Launch FiveM again. A fresh cache rebuilds entitlement signatures and, nine times out of ten, the session error disappears. The official Cfx.re Client-Issues page still lists clearing cache or just the XML file as its first recommendation for mysterious login problems.

Read-more: learn the details in docs.fivem.net.

Step 2 — Reset the Entire Windows Network Stack (CMD)

A stubborn “session expired” is often a DNS or Winsock glitch, so open Command Prompt (Admin) and run the full suite below in the listed order. Each command ends with Enter; that mean click enter when you paste the command in cmd (start from the first command).

ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /registerdns
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
netsh int ipv4 reset
netsh int ipv6 reset
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
net start wuauserv
net start bits

When finished, reboot. You just gave Windows an all-new Winsock catalog, a fresh DNS cache, and a clean IP lease — fixes that FiveM players use daily to nuke timeout-related errors such as CURL 28 and, yes, “session expired.”

Step 3 — Delete the DigitalEntitlements Folder

If Step 1 and Step 2 miss, the next likely cause is a corrupted entitlement file. Close FiveM, then:

1. Run (Win + R) → C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\DigitalEntitlements
2. Delete everything inside (usually two or three tiny files).
3. Start FiveM; it will silently pull fresh entitlements from Rockstar.

Step 4 — Re-Authenticate Social Club and Sync Your Clock

1. In Windows, open Settings → Time & Language → Date & Time, toggle Set time automatically off, then on.
2. Pick Time zone: UTC +03:00 Riyadh (or your actual zone).
3. or with cmd → w32tm /resync to force a manual sync.

4. Change the Region To your Actual Region

FiveM uses the underlying Windows clock to decide whether the cached ROS token has lapsed. A drift of even a few minutes sometimes trips the session timer. docs.fivem.net

You May Like: Best Nvidia Control Panel And Nvidia App Settings For Ultimate Performance 2025

Step 5 — Verify GTA V and Re-Install FiveM Only If Needed

Open Steam/Epic:

• Right-click GTA V → Properties → Installed Files → Verify.
• Let the client redownload or repair anything missing.

Step 6 — Whitelist FiveM in Your Firewall or Antivirus

FiveM spawns one GTA process plus separate FiveM_GTAProcess.exe helpers. Some aggressive security suites sandbox those exes, blocking the token callout. Create exclusions for:

• FiveM.exe
• FiveM_GTAProcess.exe
• The entire %localappdata%\FiveM folder

Step 7 — Update GPU Drivers and Windows

The Cfx.re docs still note that certain very recent NVIDIA drivers cause hangs that masquerade as authentication errors; rolling back to an earlier branch or installing the newest stable release often helps. Also visit Settings → Windows Update → Check for updates. Miscellaneous Store or .NET patches surprisingly fix launch hiccups, because FiveM embeds Chromium (CEF) and depends on modern OS DLLs.

Bonus Triage: Is It the Server, Not You?

Sometimes the FiveM server you love just pushed a bad script that invalidates client tokens. Test by joining the official FiveM.net testing server or any high-population public lobby. If you load in fine elsewhere, send the affected server admin your logs (%localappdata%\FiveM\FiveM.app\logs) before wasting another afternoon on local troubleshooting.

You May Like: %100 FIX FOR GTA V – Error “Unable to Launch Game, please try reinstalling the game“.

Real-World Walk-Through

Picture this: it’s Thursday night, patches dropped while you were at work, you boot up, and Five M slaps you with session expired right as your friends are already doing heists. You restart the game; nothing. You restart Windows; still nothing. A tiny voice reminds you of that DigitalEntitlements trick you bookmarked months ago, but before hunting folders you clear the cache because, well, it takes two clicks and you might get lucky. The client rebuilds its database, stalls for a heartbeat, then throws the expired banner again. Annoyance grows, so you pop open an elevated Command Prompt, paste the full block of ipconfig and netsh commands, watch lines of green text crawl past, reboot, try again — still no joy. Fine, you dive into %LOCALAPPDATA%, nuke every entitlement file, relaunch, re-enter your Social Club password, and boom: you’re in, textures streaming, friends shouting “finally” in Discord. Total fix time: maybe fifteen minutes. The moral? Work sequentially, don’t skip the easy stuff, and always finish with a time-sync because Windows loves drifting when the CMOS battery is old.

Final Checks & Ongoing Maintenance

• Keep FiveM updated — the installer auto-patches at launch, so let it finish.
• Clean cache monthly — it prevents most token mismatches.
• Run the network-reset commands after any ISP outage — stale DNS is sneaky.
• Use the same Social Club account everywhere — swapping accounts on the same PC is a known way to corrupt entitlements.
• Monitor driver releases — if NVIDIA rolls out a game-ready build that tanks Five M for half of Reddit, wait a day before installing.

Wrapping Up

The “Your session has expired” banner looks scary, yet ninety-percent of the time you can squash it by clearing cache, resetting the Windows network stack, or deleting the tiny entitlement files that hold Rockstar’s proof-of-ownership. Follow the steps in order, verify the game only after exhausting the quicker fixes, and you should be back on-server long before the next checkpoint. Bookmark this guide for the next big Five M update — tokens will expire again, but now you know exactly what to do.