Galaxy can't seem to install PoE.
It keeps failing reporting a possible connection error but doesn't say anything about how to fix it and it doesn't provide enough detail to make it clear what the problem really is.

It then tries to retry or fix things which fails.
And then it repeats the repair/retry attempt which fails.
And it keeps doing this.

I downloading the offline installer now, but I shouldn't have to do this.

Galaxy seems to have downloaded everything however. And possibly just can't figure out where to put the files or worse makes a newbie error like "keeps a lock on a downloaded file and then the installation fails because it cannot move the file it has locked"
Regardless I find what seems to be a complete working distribution of the game in the download folder. It is unpacked and has the PoE executable in it. I can even run the game from this download directory if I double click the executable.
BUT I can't actually start the game from with in galaxy. And since it's not fully installed I can't tell what might be broken.

Over here you may report issues with Galaxy (it's the third radio button thingy). When GOG staff needs more information to properly assess the issue, they'll let you know.

I HAVE THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM ON A NEW WINDOWS 10 SYSTEM RUNNING ON A DELL INSPIRION 15 5000 SERIES WITH AN I-5 PROCESSOR. HOWEVER, THE PROGRAM WON'T RUN ANYTHING BUT THE INTRO LOGO SPLASHES THEN IT CRASHES.

Same issues spent two solid days to download this game as a birthday present and get stuck in a fatal loop where it says there is a bad connection error. Connection is fine though and offers no further info about error. No number, no website, no help offered.

WHY SPEND THE TIME TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL @$%# VERSION JUST TO HAVE TO INSTALL ANOTHER FULL VERSION PATCH??!! ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS TORTUROUS REASON FOR TREATING CUSTOMERS SOOOO BADLY. IT MAKES NO SENSE, UNLESS THE PEOPLE THAT PROGRAM THE GAME DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO INSTALL THE DARN THING. IT IS A LITTLE FRUSTRATING SITTING ON THIS SIDE OF THE FENCE!

15 GB DOWNLOAD OF NOTHING BUT USELESS CODE AND DEFLATED AMBITION TO WAIT ANY LONGER. NOW I TRY TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS OF GETTING MY MONEY BACK. I HAVE SO MANY THINGS BETTER TO DO THAN DEAL WITH THIS CRAP GOG!

Thanks for any helpful suggestions offered.

*Clears throat...* OMFG! THAT'S HILLARIOUS!
INSTEAD OF BLAMING THE DEVs, WHY... *Ahem! I'll stop shouting now...*

Instead of blaming the devs, why don't you just uninstall buggy Galaxy and learn to install the game manually yourself.

Did I strike a nerve...sorry my nerves are tied in a knot because of this 3 day process! So I renounce my 'LOW BLOW' to the game devs...that was not my intention. However, now that I have your attention any tips on installing the game myself. Here's my solution and please let me know how far off kilter I am:
1) uninstall game through GOG....but save files
2) reinstall v. 3.0 (7.1 GB) [day 1 of download]
3) then apply three patches (~0.5 GB) [1/2 day of downloads and errors]
3) then apply full updated v.3.02 patch of the fully downloaded version (7.1 GB) [1/2 day of griping and research; another day of download for this patch - for day 3]
4) then play game and live happily ever after......not buying online games any more!

(but wait...you buy in the store for $40-$60 and install then wait for the updates to download again...I wish I could say it was only the installers fault ...however this goes beyond the devs and installer to the reason why games are not properly product tested before they go to market and end up using the end user to test products. This fulfills the need to go to market as fast as possible. So your right about it not being the fault of those that make the games) I know I should just find something better to do with my time rather than writing useless garbage on forums that will never be read anyway...BUT IF YOU DID->THANK YOU FOR READING IT!! You have to know where I am coming from!??

You just lost it.

I know where you're coming from. You just wasted time and bandwidth on garbage because the service offered by this site isn't functioning properly and the advice given to you is to get over it.

Galaxy is offered as way to bypass the (admittedly rarely) ludicrous manual install requirements, such as with this game, particularly with this game with all its patches and more patches just for the expansion content, and no older patches so you have to re-download everything all over again periodically if you don't get each patch along the way as it's released.

Galaxy is supposed to be a way to circumvent that. To always be sure your game is up to date. I wasted something upwards of 10GB of the 50GB/month I get. It's not a trivial thing.

I had the same problem. It downloaded the game just fine but it started doing that on patch 2.03 and kept saying there was a connection error. I finally just had to download the patche's manually and install them but now Galaxy is perpetually stuck trying to install and update it to patch 2.03 even though the game is at 3.02 or whatever the latest version is at. So I doubt I'll ever be able to use Galaxy to keep this game updated in the future since it's still stuck at 2.03. Every time I start galaxy it starts trying to download that patch even though it really already has it and then it says installation failed and starts all over again. If I want to download anything else with Galaxy then I always have to abort the POE one because it will keep whatever I'm trying to download or install in a constant queue since it can't seem to realize that POE is already updated. I'm going to send them the info in a bit and let them know about the problem.

I had a similar problem and was able to fix it. See my posting in the forum thread titled 18446744 TB Error. I'm not able to post links for some reason.

So go to gog.com then append /forum/pillars_of_eternity/18446744_tb_error/page1 to the end of the url.

That's pretty funny that i lost it...yeah I lost IT and LOST ALL RESPECT FOR PEOPLE THAT THINK THEIR ... [eh hem]

OK maybe IT was lost, hypothetically speaking. However, this was an attempt to find IT! You were certainly no help in finding IT...THEREFORE my conclusion is that you had NEVER found...old CHAP!! Cheers!! Good luck with that...[Hysterical laughing...chuckle...big grin....~~]

What's the easiest way to get a refund...since I never found IT after losing all ambition??

I can verify this. Galaxy goes through the entire download process, some 14 GB or so, then the installation fails with a "connection" error of some kind. All of the downloaded data remains in the downloads folder, but (at least for me) it is unusable and cannot be run. My bandwidth is not unlimited, and I really don't want to try this again only to have it fail again. Can we get some help with this issue, or at least an official acknowledgement?

Galaxy still fails to install the game. Any help from GOG here?

Well GOG certainly won't help you here - contact support if that's what you want.

If you have limited bandwidth, you may want to avoid galaxy for this game : even after you install it, it will try to download the entire 14 GB again every time there is a patch.
It's one of the 2 games I own that has this behaviour on galaxy (the other one being Dreamfall Chapters, another huge download. Sigh)

Have you tried downloading the installer instead ? (using either the direct DL link or Galaxy as a downloader)