How to Fix ‘VAC unable to verify’ in CS:GO (2023)?

When logging into CS:GO, many players encounter the ‘VAC unable to verify’ error. Fortunately, this error tells the player where the problem occurred: in the VAC anti-cheater system.

What could go wrong when checking your game session with the anti-cheat? In fact, many things: firewall blocked connection to the game server, some game files are corrupted, bugs in the Steam client, VAC conflicts with the running software on the user’s PC and so on.

Fixing the ‘VAC unable to verify’ Error in CS:GO

So, if you are facing the ‘VAC unable to verify’ error when starting Counter Strike Global Offensive, try the following steps.

• Restart your computer and run Steam as Administrator. If you have been familiar with the Steam client for a long time, you should know that it can sometimes start to work extremely unstable or with a lot of errors and bugs. For example, it can at some point stop launching games from the user’s library, which can be successfully fixed by relaunching the client.
• Check the integrity of the game’s files. Perhaps the ‘VAC unable to verify’ error was caused by some corrupted game files. It is sufficient to check their integrity through the Steam client.
• Disable any conflicting software. According to the company Valve, there is a certain software that can conflict with the work of the anticheat VAC and Steam servers. CCleaner, Powershell, Sandboxie and the like – disable such software.
• Disable the Windows Firewall. Another reason why this error may occur is that the Windows firewall has blocked the network connection between the player and the game servers. It is extremely easy to check by disabling the firewall. If the error disappeared, the culprit is indeed the firewall. In that case, you need to look at the list of firewall rules for Steam and the game you want, change them or even create/re-create them so that they are no longer blocked.

Usually the above steps help to get rid of the ‘VAC unable to verify’ error. Did it work for you? Please share your successes in the comments!

Authordman