Missing steam_api.dll issues preventing Creation Kit from running.

[ChaosZen]

I did search and ask first at Steam, as well as follow the long chain of support links to it's dead end stating only "No support available", first, but thought I'd ask here if anybody else has had similar issues or know of any fixes which do not involved going to download sites such as download.com, or free-dll.com, etc, with long reputations of offering only virus installers.  

 

I spent yesterday backing up my Skyrim and Mod Manager files, and reinstalling a fresh clean vanilla Skyrim, and then testing it out. Everything there worked fine. I reinstalled my Mod Manager, did all of the configs and installation of the basics, LOOT, Bodyslide, FNIS, TES5Edit, NifScope, etc. They all work fine. Then I tried to open Skyrim Creation Kit to export some vanilla versions of armors that I had worked on updates and replacer models for and it was no longer in my list of files on Steam. So I reinstalled it.

 

When I tried to run it, at first it said it required an update but refused to complete the update. After some troubleshooting, I found it was because of admin permissions being required to install parts of the update. So I closed Steam, and then restarted it using "Run as Admin". The update completed, but would not run. It would not even give any indication of the "run" button responding, no window not even for a split second, no taskbar icon or anything, and nothing showing up in Task Manager. 

 

After more searching, I tried completely rebooting to see if that would help, but still no luck. So instead of launching from the Steam client, I searched for the CK executable and tried running that, and an error popped up saying "Missing Steam_api.dll". 
 
Things I've already tried and still no luck:

• Uninstalling (Delete local content) of CK, and reinstall
• "Validate files" option in Steam Client.
• Running CK executable as Admin.
• Restarting Steam Client (multiple times, in between different steps or attempts).
• Restarting computer, in between each attempt.

 

Any more ideas, anybody?

 

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[yatol]

 

I spent yesterday backing up my Skyrim and Mod Manager files

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then you have that dll in your backup

 

[ChaosZen]

 

 

I spent yesterday backing up my Skyrim and Mod Manager files

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then you have that dll in your backup.

 

 

 

I could not find it in any of my backups, but it seems to have resolved itself. I think that perhaps Steam eventually re-installed it as a followup auto-update, about an hour after I stopped trying to fix it. 

 

I think the reason that it was not in my backups is likely the same reason I did not notice that it wasn't available or wasn't working until yesterday. I've done two "backup and fresh install of local content" since I last used CK, and deleted the older backups, keeping only the two most recent. This, in addition to not knowing that Keeping CK "installed" while deleting "Skyrim" local content, also removes parts of CK that are stored inside the Skyrim folder, which do not get reinstalled when Skyrim is reinstalled. Thinking that would be no big deal since I should also be able to reinstall CK, did not account for authentication issues during a required CK update. (The headaches of having overly-secure M.2 NVMe "hard drives" that require multiple executables, even those ran as background tasks, to all have Admin privs in order to work with any other files.)

 

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