League of Legends is currently one of the most played online battle arena games in the market. The game was developed and published by Riot Games, and was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS in October, 2009. The game was met with positive reception upon release with players praising the game’s design of team based gameplay and variety of champions which they can control. League of Legends follows a free-to-play model and generates revenue through microtransactions. The game’s player base grew massively over the last decade, reaching the mark of 100 million players per month in 2016. The developers frequently roll out updates to improve the game and fix any existing issues. However, some patches in League of Legends seem to do the exact opposite, resulting in errors such as Error Code 004.

Error Code 004 occurs when a player is attempting to update League of Legends. The error is accompanied by the following message – “Patching failed and we’re not sure why. Please restart the client to try patching again. (Error code 004)”. A lot of League of Legends players have come across this error. However, this can be fixed easily if you follow the steps below.
Restart the game
The first thing you should do is directly follow the solution which is stated in the error message. It asks you to restart your League of Legends client.
- Close the error message.
- Exit League of Legends.
- Start the game again.
- Update the game.
Use the Hextech Repair Tool
The Hextech Repair Tool is a software with which you can repatch or reinstall League of Legends, as well as change certain Firewall and DNS settings which can help you resolve Error Code 004.
- Download the Hextech Repair Tool from their official website.
- Run the Hextech Repair Tool as an Administrator. You can do that by simply right-clicking on the icon and selecting “Run as administrator” option from the menu.
- Once the Hextech Repair Tool opens up, you will find several settings related to League of Legends. Select the checkbox beside “Force Repatch” option and click on the “Start” button located at the bottom-mid of the software.
- Once the repatching completes, restart your computer and start League of Legends.
Note: You can also select the “Reinstall” option instead of “Force Repatch” incase repatching the game does not work.
The above solutions have worked for many players. Error Code 004 in League of Legends is simply a result of a patch not being installed properly and it can be solved easily if you follow the steps above. Assuming that there is nothing wrong with your Firewall or DNS settings, you should be good to go.
Cover Image Credits: Variety