How To Fix ‘Join Failed Because You Are on a Different Version’ Error in Modern Warfare 3 (MW3)

Since the release of the first season of Modern Warfare 3, errors have occasionally been popping up. A recent one affects players trying to join friends’ lobbies, which relates directly to the most recent update.

So, if you’re getting the ‘Join Failed Because You Are on a Different Version’ error, here’s what you can do about it.

Modern Warfare 3 ‘Join Failed Because You Are on a Different Version’ Error Fix

As you can likely tell from the message you get when this Modern Warfare 3 error occurs, there’s some sort of break in your game’s current version. You can see your game’s current version in the bottom right to check this. If you’ve gotten the most recent update, your game should read 1.040.000. In the event your version doesn’t actually match up, you’ll need to force the update through on your platform manually, which shouldn’t be too difficult.

If your version does match, you’ll just need to close the game completely and restart your PC/console to let the game right itself.

How to Manually Update Modern Warfare 3

Fortunately, every platform gives a method to check if there is an unapplied update, so this shouldn’t take too long.

Battle.net

On the game’s page, click the gear icon and click Check for Updates. This is definitely much easier than the Steam method and should get everything sorted. If nothing pops up, completely close Battle.net and try it again.

Steam

While in your Steam library, right-click on Modern Warfare 3 and click properties. In this window, go to Installed Files and press Verify Integrity of Game Files. It will now check your game files against what is on the servers and should apply the update while doing so.

PlayStation

Highlight Modern Warfare 3 and press the Options button to bring up the actions list. Check for Update is near the top, and that is the one you’ll want to choose. This should immediately bring up a new screen that will take you right into your Downloads/Uploads menu.

Xbox

Highlight Modern Warfare 3 and press the Menu (three lines) button. In this list, select the Manage Game and Add-ons option. In this screen, go to the Updates section, and you should find the patch you need.

This should get you all sorted and fix the Join Failed Because You Are on a Different Version error in MW3. If you continue to run into this error or something similar, tell us in the comments so we can look into it.