POL-5312 Missing SE account optionsFollow

Last night I decided to reinstall and re-sub to FFXI after a long time away. I reinstalled via the Steam version of the game and everything seemed fine, but I was surprised when I was not prompted or offered to enter the information about my Square Enix account. I was able to log into POL but when I got in I received a POL-5312 error message ... something about being unable to access my friends list.

After doing some searching I confirmed that my memory was right and that you did have to tell POL your SE account login and tell it to use a one-time password or not. However, in my POL "Add Member" window, I have no options for anything related to the Square Enix account or one-time password. Just to be clear, the screens I am referring to are the ones on this page, under the "Updating Your Member List" section:

http://www.playonline.com/cis/us/about.html

See in the images where the window has a section "Enter your Square Enix ID if necessary"? I don't have that. My window has all the other options, but the POL ID and password settings are below the "Set password for extra security" section. It is almost like I have an older version of the POL viewer without these options, but it wont auto-patch to the latest version. I believe the version I have is 1.88.0 or something like that ( I am posting this from work right now).

Has anyone encountered this problem before? I tried to contact SE on the phone, but their support page shuffled me into emailing them without any options for calling or chatting that I saw, so I am waiting on them to get around to my case. I was hoping that maybe I could find a quick answer here amongst all you geniuses. :)

Thanks!

I had similar account problems when I used Steam. Got sick of it, and just installed from my 8 billion FFXI discs along with the Vista-/Windows 7-compatible POL from Squenix's site.

If you're using Vista or Windows 7, I'd strongly advise you to install the POL Viewer from here (links to playonline.com's download page, I promise it won't give you trojans then drain your entire bank account into my tax-free account in Switzerland, after which I will fly there, withdraw all of your money, and spend it on coke and hookers in the Netherlands...probably).

Helping someone while also providing a heavy-handed lesson about looking before you leap...through links...Someone should give me a cookie. Or a beer. Preferably beer. I'll take a Dundee Stout, please.

Edited, Nov 7th 2010 7:39am by firefeng

Have you run the updates to PlayOnline internally? Hit check files from the main menu.

Edited, Nov 7th 2010 10:32am by catwho

running into same issue. I Originally thought it was a vista thing. So eventually I got a torrent of the game...

After putting it on my laptop, XP, I have the same issue.