ShellEnv close down error. (2024)

Upon trying out one of the new environments in metas own store (as in I'm not using side quest and never have)

It loaded in and executed the change. The screen went black and it seemed to fail to load .I then got an error that ShellEnv has an error loading and after a few seconds up comes app info or close app option.

Pressing either results in black screen frozen picture of dashboard in darkness/black k screen.

It then ENDLESSLY REPEATS.

I CANT EXIT. RESET doesn't work, power down doesn't work

A hard reset holding down power doesn't work. Someone suggested holding it for 60 seconds for a "proper power reset" this does t work. It powers off long before 60 seconds tho I held it for that and even longer.

It's still stuck in ENDLESS BLACK SCREEN LOOP as it tries again and again to install the obviously broken enviroment.

What is oculus/meta doing about this? At least remove the new enviroments so others don't Tey them.

I've see. Others complaining of this issue but it seems no answer was given by oculus tech team

• Labels:
• Meta Quest
• Meta Quest 2
• Meta Quest Pro
• Oculus Go
• Oculus Rift S

Hey anyone reading this with the same issue and especially if you DONT have access to a PC.

Here's how I fixed this without the need for factory reset!

Use your android phone (or tablet as I assume this would work)

Download the sidequest app and if your phone supports OTG USB you can plug your phone into your headset the same way you would use a PC.

Now I don't really understand HOW this worked. I simply looked through my files on my oculus 2 using sidequest looking for anything that had "ShellEnv" on it and basically I went through each folder (most appeared empty) until I found a folder with a long list of files , one of which had the word shellenv on it. I tried to click on the file but nothing happened . I was trying to load it , as instructed elsewhere to "swap out the current location file" in it for an older one. This refered to the theme I was using . I assumed I was going to be able to pick from a list or something.

Well nothing happened . I couldn't open the file, in fact I couldn't DO anything. So I tried turning the headset on .

Well to my utter suprise SOMETHING had been changed by, seemingly, the mere process of plugging in that phone with the sidequest app running on it.

For some reason my location as I turned the headset on wasn't a black screen it was the very first location you saw when you started the oculus. I was shocked as I didn't think I'd done anything . I changed the location to the space age one (white interior of what looks like a space station) as I knew this didn't have a problem working and I wanted to make sure I overwrote the location to one I was sure was OK. I didn't want to turn off and find somehow the headset reverted to the broken location that made the headset crash.

It has since been working fine!!

I don't intend to EVER play around with the location where I start my headset in. If this is the possible result. Had I not tried the phone app version of sidequest in a vain hope it might help I would have had to factory reset and lost all my saves and had to redownload everything.

Whatever caused this error APPEARS to be a very simple fix though I confess I don't know what happened . As far as I can tell all I did was look at my headset through an app using a link cable . I didn't execute any programs with it. I explored the names of some files ,pressed one with shellenv on it , which did nothing amd then exit thinking ahh well I guess I need a PC. Only to find it fixed.

I sincerely hope this helps anyone with a similar black screen error.

Sidequest for me now is a vital app I shall be keeping on my android phone.

Good luck with yours.

In response to MetaQuestSupport

Hi support people , thanks for reply but it's a little bit late? This was many months ago! and thankfully I did manage to find a solution, if you use the 'go to solution' link I did describe how I managed to fix the issue almost by accident using a third party app to look at the files, this seemed to refresh over the corrupted shell env file with the original ? At least I assume this is what happened. Anyway its all explained in my follow up posts. Thanks anyway, it's good that you got round to my request even if it was a little on the late side!

0Kudos

Hey anyone reading this with the same issue and especially if you DONT have access to a PC.

Here's how I fixed this without the need for factory reset!

Use your android phone (or tablet as I assume this would work)

Download the sidequest app and if your phone supports OTG USB you can plug your phone into your headset the same way you would use a PC.

Now I don't really understand HOW this worked. I simply looked through my files on my oculus 2 using sidequest looking for anything that had "ShellEnv" on it and basically I went through each folder (most appeared empty) until I found a folder with a long list of files , one of which had the word shellenv on it. I tried to click on the file but nothing happened . I was trying to load it , as instructed elsewhere to "swap out the current location file" in it for an older one. This refered to the theme I was using . I assumed I was going to be able to pick from a list or something.

Well nothing happened . I couldn't open the file, in fact I couldn't DO anything. So I tried turning the headset on .

Well to my utter suprise SOMETHING had been changed by, seemingly, the mere process of plugging in that phone with the sidequest app running on it.

For some reason my location as I turned the headset on wasn't a black screen it was the very first location you saw when you started the oculus. I was shocked as I didn't think I'd done anything . I changed the location to the space age one (white interior of what looks like a space station) as I knew this didn't have a problem working and I wanted to make sure I overwrote the location to one I was sure was OK. I didn't want to turn off and find somehow the headset reverted to the broken location that made the headset crash.

It has since been working fine!!

I don't intend to EVER play around with the location where I start my headset in. If this is the possible result. Had I not tried the phone app version of sidequest in a vain hope it might help I would have had to factory reset and lost all my saves and had to redownload everything.

Whatever caused this error APPEARS to be a very simple fix though I confess I don't know what happened . As far as I can tell all I did was look at my headset through an app using a link cable . I didn't execute any programs with it. I explored the names of some files ,pressed one with shellenv on it , which did nothing amd then exit thinking ahh well I guess I need a PC. Only to find it fixed.

I sincerely hope this helps anyone with a similar black screen error.

Sidequest for me now is a vital app I shall be keeping on my android phone.

Good luck with yours.

In response to hazed100

0Kudos

In response to Zonic_Highsky

Hey there, @Zonic_Highsky! We noticed you are having issues with receiving the following error message: "ShellEnv close down error." We understand how much this can impede your gaming experience; to help us get to the bottom of this, click here. This will take you to our amazing support team, and we will try everything we can to resolve this issue for you.

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

0Kudos

In response to Zonic_Highsky

Zonic_Highsky have you tried using a phone as a PC?

I know sidequest is usually used on a PC and you plug your oculus 2 into it via USB but you can also do it via your phone if it supports OTG USB (on the go I think it means)

I had the shellenv problem , nothing I could do would allow me to access the headset in a normal way. It just kept blacking out amd reseting constantly.

In desperation I ended up downloading sidequest on my phone and then using it I plugged in the oculus 2. You shouldn't need to access the headset in any way as everything is then done via sidequest on the phone.

As I explained I didn't feel like I actually did anything. I searched through the files on the headset and eventually found a file with shellenv on it. I couldn't execute it or seemingly do anything with it and I sort of gave up thinking I'd failed. The thing is when I put the headset back on it had reset the enviroment to the original setting and although it glitched a little graphically it seemed to completely end the shellenv error.

I hope this helps you. I can't quite understand what you meant by accept the prompt? Does this refer to something on sidequest software? I was thinking if you were using PC perhaps you can try my way. Use your phone instead. Whatever it is that fixes this error I think the mere act of plugging in the headset and looking at the files seem to be a fix. I can't remember having to "accept a prompt" of any kind so maybe this is a way around your problem. Good luck

0Kudos

0Kudos

In response to MetaQuestSupport

0Kudos

0Kudos

In response to SerenityLake

Hello there, @SerenityLake! Thank you for letting us know about this error you are seeing on your headset. We know how troublesome it is to have to deal with this instead of being able to experience the fun world of VR, and we would be happy to look into this further with our support team! Please follow this link here and select which issue best describes what you are facing. After that, you can choose how you wish to be contacted, and our amazing team will be happy to look into this with you!

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

0Kudos

Hey there @hazed100! We heard that your headset is stuck in an endless black screen loop after recently downloading a new environment in the Meta store. We know how important it is to have your headset functioning properly and we want to help get everything back up and running for you. Let's work together to fix this!

When looking into things, we see that there are a couple other steps to try:

1. Remove any unsupported third-party accessories that may affect boot (such as external battery packs, accessories that plug into the USB-C port, etc.)
2. Hard Reboot the headset
   1. Hold down the power button and volume down button for 30 seconds until you hear the boot up sound
   2. If the boot up sound is not heard:
      1. Hold thepowerandvolume (-) button down simultaneously until the boot screen loads on your headset
      2. Use thevolume buttonson your headset to highlightBoot Deviceand press thepower button
      3. Use thevolume buttonson your headset to highlightYesand press thepower button

If these steps don't work, we'll need to do a factory reset. Normally, we would recommend to enable Cloud Backup, but it sounds like you may not be able to due to this error preventing you from using the headset. If you already had it enabled, you can see which of your apps are backed up to the cloud here. Once reviewed, you can do the factory reset. When it is finished, you'll be able to login and reinstall any apps that you would like to keep.

We hope these steps help you get everything back to normal. Please let us know if this works for you or not. We're more than happy to keep working with you on this.

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

0Kudos