How to fix "Unable to Join Party.(3)" issue in Cold War

As much as people were excited that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has finally been released worldwide; errors in multiplayer modes are simply ruining experiences. Fans have taken to social media reporting about the error ‘Unable To Join Party.(3)’ or ‘This Lobby Is Not Joinable’ or ‘ Failed To Join Party’ which pops out as soon as players using different consoles or platforms try to band together in a lobby.

There are two ways to this error; first, you will not be able to see your friends online even if they actually are. Secondly, you won’t be able to join each other’s lobby even if you can send requests to each other.

This isn’t a new error at all, players complained about it right when the Beta was launched. Now, the problem has gone to increase exponentially with the global launch. Look at this poor soul on Reddit and the reactions on the player’s post.

Crossplay Party Joining Issues from blackopscoldwar

And another one with a thorough rant.

Crossplay Party Issues from blackopscoldwar

Why Is It Happening?

Well, the general feeling in the Call of Duty community is that the error occurs when people are trying to go cross-platform or cross-console; in most cases, if not all. Look at this post in the Support forums at Activision.

Or these comments on Reddit.

Crossplay Party Joining Issues from blackopscoldwar

Players have started tweeting about it too when there is a clear lack of support.

While there is a clear lack of communication on this error from Activision and Treyarch, players understand that Day 1 of a worldwide release brings an enormous burden on servers and does take some time to resolve.

4 Fixes to try:

In absence of support from the developers, fans have turned to each other in search of fixes and tips. Some might work for you while others won’t, one can’t be sure with so many variables involved. Let us take a look at those, one by one:

1. Restart The System

First off, try restarting the game. If that doesn’t work, restart the system. If the problem persists, ask your friends to do the same as well. While this is not a sure-shot way to resolve this issue, it has helped many players and is one method to absolutely try.

Related: Does Cold War have SBMM?

2. Deleting From The Friend List

Many players in the community swear by this method of resolving the issue. The error might have been caused by players being logged into two platforms at one time. Let’s imagine you are using solely a Blizzard account and your friend is logged into their Blizzard and Activision account.

Go to the players’ list on ‘Social’ and delete the friend; reference the below image for guidance.

You can go the other way round as well. If the friend is not logged into his/her Activision account and you are unable to join a singular lobby, ask them to log into their Activision account and give it a try after that. If this doesn’t work, try deleting your friends from every account and adding them again.

3. Check The Settings

Go to the ‘settings’ tab in your game. Be sure to check if the ‘Crossplay’ feature is enabled. Also, do remember to check that the ‘NAT Type’ is selected as ‘Open’; this needs to be the same for both you and the people who want to join you in a lobby.

While these are all the ‘fixes’ that are available online, there is no permanent solution to this until the Support at Activision and Treyarch comes through. With the number of players facing this problem, we can be sure that a singular fix is not far away.

4. Avoid Backward Compatibility

After scouring numerous reports on the web, it is quite clear that the issue occurs when users are trying to crossplay with older console generations in most cases. In case you have an Xbox One user or PS4 user trying to join in, then it might be the reason for the error.

The current solution that seems to be working for most players in such cases is to let the player with the older generation console create and invite everybody else to the lobby. Players with Series X, PS5, and PC should be able to join the lobby fairly easily then.

You might have to force close the app and restart your game for these changes to take effect. It seems that while newer generations are backward compatible, older generations still need to be updated to be compatible with this AAA title. It could also be a bug on Activision’s end but we have no word from the developer so far.

Either way, if you have someone on your team using an older console then try to use this trick instead. It should help you all crossplay co-op with each other for now.

We hope you were able to play multiplayer with your friends through either one of these fixes. If you face any issues or have any more questions for us, use the comments section below to reach out to us.

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Screengrab via: YouTube/TroubleChute