Comprehensive guide for "BLZBNTAGT00000BB8 / scan loop" for low bandwidth internet

[Archon-drakthul]

Hi, I had this problem during 2 phase of Dragonflight pre-patch. I have low bandwidth internet, so redownloading +80GB of data takes whole day(25hours), and 99% of the time it is not the problem anyway, not WTF folder, it is Cache almost everytime.
with this guide you will redownload like 500-1000MB

Guide:
Deleting Cache in WoW

1. in Battle.net app/program click on the cogwheel (located right from the play button) => Show in Explorer => now you are in your World of Warcraft folder through windows explorer
   1.b If you have your World of Warcraft folder in Program Files it is recommended to move it out of Program Files, because from Windows Vista Program Files is OS protected folder, and it restrict programs from editing files inside, so for example it doesn’t save the setting files properly (possible example: you turn off WoW, and your addon settings will not save), or it can restrict updating game data.
   You don’t need to reinstall WoW, you can grab World of Warcraft folder and move it for examples to C:\World of Warcraft or create folder “Games” and have it in C:\Games\World of Warcraft
2. Deleting Cache : in WoW folders there are folders like retail or classic click on them => and delete Cache folder(or the content of Cache folder)
   so in address bar looks like this
   World of Warcraft\_retail_\Cache
World of Warcraft\_classic_\Cache
3. deleting data cache: Go back to World of Warcraft folder => Click on “Data” Folder => delete folders “config” (located in World of Warcraft\Data)
   World of Warcraft\Data\config
4. deleting small data files which can be corrupted and aren’t big: Then click on data folder again(so you are in World of Warcraft\Data\data) => change explorer view into details so you will see file sizes => with Ctrl + Shift + 6 or in empty space in the folder right click with mouse =>view=>Details => scroll down and delete last Data files , which are in 1KB-10000KB(0.001-10MB) range

Example

How many Data files you have, depends on how many WoW version do you have installed (Retail, Classic, PTR, Classic PTR, BETA, Classic ERA)
for example in my folder:
Data.101 is 1KB,
Data.102 is 1KB,
Data.103 is 1033KB,
Data.104 is 1KB,
Data.105 is 10609KB
=> so I will delete Data.101 to Data.105
World of Warcraft\Data\data

5. Deleting *.idx files:
   5.a 2024.03.26 update: WARNING sometimes when their serveres are overloaded(for example new patch day), Battle.net app doesn’t download fully *.idx, only partially and tries to redownload everything, instead of deleting *.idx maybe move then out of folder, so you can return it if battle.net app doesn’t download new proper *.idx, or do it on days when servers are not overloaded.
   5.b In folder Data(World of Warcraft\Data\data) use shortcut CTRL+F and write *.idx and press enter to search for those files=> delete all found *.idx files (.idx files are like cache for “scan and repair” process)
   World of Warcraft\Data\data

---

Deleting cache/setting for Battle.net app/program

1. Now you delete/uninstall Battle.net app/program
2. open windows explorer (Winkey+E) and delete folders/all content of folders written below, copy paste the lines into address bar of windowns explorer :
   %programdata%\Battle.net
%programdata%\Blizzard Entertainment
%localappdata%\Battle.net
%localappdata%\Blizzard
%localappdata%\Blizzard Entertainment
%appdata%\Battle.net
%appdata%\Blizzard Entertainment
%temp%
   (%temp% doesn’t have anything with WoW, but can free space between 1-10GB, they are temporary files which Windows doesn’t delete)

Example

Copy %programdata%\Battle.net => paste into file explorer adress bar => delete all content in Battle.net Folder
=> Copy %programdata%\Blizzard Entertainment => paste into file explorer adress bar => delete all content in Blizzard Entertainment Folder
=> etc

3. install Battle.net=>Congratulation, you have now true clean Battle.net installation
4. “scan and repair” WoW of your choice from the cogwheel

---

EDIT 2024.03.26 : Removed indices folder as clearing cache
My folder indices have 27GB, my guess is, that indices files are hashes to check if the downloaded files are not corrupted, so deleting those files would not be helpful to redownload/fix corrupted data files.
When I did write this guide, indices wasn’t even 200MB, looks like after that flower wrist corrupted update files (first 3D bracer transmog), they started to using hash files to be sure they don’t push corrupted files in small updates.
Added about Program Files
Added warning about *.idx