Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been out for quite a while now. The game has had a very successful first few months and the trajectory for the future looks promising as well. For Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward went back to the roots of what made the Call of Duty series so great in the first place.
There are no jetpacks or space battles in the game and all of the action takes place on the ground itself in a much more conventional setting.
Furthermore, the game also has relatively darker undertones as compared to previous series. All these changes combined with a robust multiplayer system have made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare the most successful Call of Duty game of this generation.
However, despite the game’s greatness, Infinity Ward has still not quite managed to iron out all of the bugs in it. For instance, when the new Crossbow update launched a couple of weeks ago, a lot of people just straight up lost their progress as access to the multiplayer mode was blocked due to a glitch with the update.
If you thought that the Crossbow update error was bad though, the new ‘Missing Multiplayer DLC‘ and ‘Missing Special Ops DLC‘ error messages will haunt you in your nightmares. The missing DLC errors have been plaguing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for around two weeks and there seems to be no solid fix around.
UP TO 90% OFF ON LATEST GAMES – VISIT CDKEYS TO ENJOY NEW SALE
The issue is not limited to one platform either as it has been reported by players on both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. If you have been affected by a similar error though, don’t worry. While there are no official solutions as of yet from Activision or Infinity Ward, there are a few things you can try to fix the issue.
1. Restore licenses to fix the ‘You do not own or are missing the Multiplayer DLC Pack’ issue in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has had a bunch of new additions to the game since its initial release. Some of these additions come in the form of add-ons, which are different from your usual update files. So, the error roots from your console not being able to recognize these add-ons. Usually, this doesn’t really affect other aspects of the game but for some reason, this error completely blocks you off from the game in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
How to fix crashes, low FPS, lag and freezing issues in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
The first thing you can try to do in order to resolve the issue of ‘Missing Multiplayer DLC’ and ‘Missing Special Ops DLC’ is restoring licenses for the add-ons that come with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The restoration process is relatively simple and is pretty similar for both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.
PlayStation 4:
If you’re faced with the ‘Missing Multiplayer DLC’ or ‘Missing Special Ops DLC’ error message on the PlayStation 4, you can try downloading the missing files. If the files are present but you’re still getting the ‘you do not own the DLC pack‘ error message, you can try restoring the licenses. In order to restore licenses to the Modern Warfare add-ons on the PlayStation 4, just follow these steps:
- Highlight Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on your PlayStation 4 Dashboard and press the options button on the controller.
- Scroll down a bit and select the Information option.
- Right next to the “Installed add-ons” option, select the View button.
- Once you’ve selected the view button, a list of add-ons will pop up. You need to make sure that all of the following add-ons are installed on your system and do not have a padlock symbol next to them. Here are the required add-ons:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Multiplayer Pack
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Campaign Pack 1
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Campaign Pack 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Spec Ops Pack
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Spec Ops Pack 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Survival Pack
- If any of the add-ons on the list above are missing from your list, you’ll have to download them manually.
- In order to download these add-ons manually, you need to navigate to the PSN Store and search for them individually.
- If the add-ons are present but have a padlock symbol next to them, you’re going to have to restore their licenses. In order to do that, navigate back to the dashboard and open up the Settings menu.
- Once you’re in the settings, scroll down to “Account Management” and select the “Restore Licenses” option inside.
- Select the Restore button to confirm the restoration process.
UP TO 90% OFF ON LATEST GAMES – VISIT CDKEYS TO ENJOY NEW SALE
Once all of the DLC packs and Add-ons have been installed and all of their licenses have been restored, you should not get any of the ‘Missing Multiplayer DLC’ or ‘Missing Special Ops DLC’ error messages anymore.
Best weapon loadouts, builds and classes for all playing styles in Modern Warfare
However, if the error still persists, don’t worry as there is yet another fix before you have to eventually resort to re-installing the game. Scroll down below for the second method which will hopefully solve your issue.
Xbox One:
If you cannot access the game on your Xbox One console because of the ‘Missing Multiplayer DLC’ or ‘Missing Special Ops DLC’ error message, you can try to download the missing DLC and add-ons to fix the issue. However, you cannot restore licenses on the Xbox One as you can on the PlayStation 4. So, if downloading the missing DLC doesn’t work, you’ll have to resort to the second fix.
- Press the Xbox Button on your controller and go to the “Games and Apps” screen.
- Under the Games tab, navigate over to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and press the Menu/Start button on your controller.
- Go into the “Manage game and add-ons” option and check the list to see if all of the following add-ons are currently installed on your Xbox One console:
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Multiplayer Pack
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Spec Ops Pack 1
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Campaign Pack 1
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Campaign Pack 2
- If you’re missing any of the above DLC packs for Modern Warfare, go into Xbox store and manually search for the missing add-on to download it.
Once all of the DLC packs and Add-ons are installed, you should be able to get back into the game without any error message. However, if you’re still getting a ‘Missing DLC Pack’ message, see the second method down below.
2. Creating new account to counter region mismatch
If restoring license didn’t work for you, rest assured this surely will. While you can play games of all regions on any account, the DLCs and add-ons are still tied to the region of the game and can only be purchased and downloaded using an account that matches the region of the game. However, since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has free add-ons in the game that don’t even require you to purchase and download them, sometimes a region discrepancy can cause issues with these add-ons.
Usually, these issues only arise if you have bought a physical copy of the game which belongs to a different region as compared to your PSN or Xbox Live account. Furthermore, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare also has an additional layer of Activision account which can also cause issues with region mismatch. This can result in the ‘Missing Multiplayer DLC’ or ‘Missing Special Ops DLC’ error message.
So, in order to fix the issue, you can follow these steps:
- Check the region of your game and your account. Usually, the region information is displayed at the back of the physical box that the game comes in. You can check the region of your account by either going into your Account information under settings or seeing which digital store your account is tied to.
- If there is a discrepancy between the region of the game and your account, you’ll have to create a new account with the same region as your game.
- To create a new account, just go to the log-in screen on your console and select the add user or sign in option. Under that, you can then choose to create a new account. Just follow the on-screen instructions and make sure to select the region of your game while you’re creating the new account.
- Once the console account has been created, you should also create an Activision account on the same region as your game, as a precautionary measure. You can create a new Activision account right here.
- Once both accounts are set up, sign in and try to launch the game using your new account. Chances are that the same error will pop up. However, this time around, you’ll actually be able to navigate to the PSN or Xbox store and download the missing DLC/Add-on.
- Once the missing files have been downloaded and installed, start your game. Hopefully, you will not get the error message this time around.
- You can now sign into your old account to get all of your progress back and play the game normally.
If neither of the two methods manage to solve the issue with missing multiplayer DLC, you might just have to resort to reinstalling the game. Sadly, you’re out of luck if even reinstalling the game doesn’t fix your problem.
Activision and Infinity Ward are aware of the ongoing issue though so we’ll probably get a patch that fixes the bug eventually.
UP TO 90% OFF ON LATEST GAMES – VISIT CDKEYS TO ENJOY NEW SALE