Nowadays everybody is quite familiar with communicating apps on the windows system. One amongst them is the Discord app which not only allows the users to communicate via text but also using voice chats. This is used mostly by the youngsters who are into gaming.
But recently, many discord users have experienced an unusual issue on their system while accessing the discord app. More precisely, when the users tried launching the discord app, the initial screen loads and then gets stuck with the checking for updates process for a long time and the discord app does not get launched at all.
The users then have to force close the app screen. There can be various reasons such as an unstable internet connection, proxy internet settings, corrupted discord cache folder, and so on.
Workaround – First, check if there is any problem with the internet connection on your system by restarting the router once and then reconnecting them. If you are using an ethernet cable connection, please unplug the cable and reconnect it. If not, then please contact your internet service provider and get a stable internet connection.
In this article, you can find several solutions explained below which can help you get a similar kind of issue resolved on your system.
Method 1 – Force Update the Local Group Policy using Command Prompt
When local group policy on any windows system is not updated, these types of issues tend to happen anytime. So let us begin with how to update the local group policy with the steps explained below.
Step 1: First of all, you need to open the Task Manager by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ESC keys altogether.
Step 2: Now click Run new task to open the create new task window as shown below.
Step 3: Type the following line given below in the window and make sure you have checked the Create this task with administrative privileges checkbox under the textbox.
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe --update
Step 4: At last, click OK to open the command prompt as admin.
Step 5: Once the command prompt window opens, execute the below-given line by typing and then pressing Enter key as shown below.
gpupdate /force
Step 6: After the local group policy is successfully updated, you can close the command prompt window.
Method 2 – Check Discord’s Compatibility mode
Sometimes, the system is not compatible with some applications if it is not set right. Therefore, we recommend our users try checking for the app’s compatibility mode as explained below.
Step 1: Go to the Discord app icon on the desktop (Press Windows + D).
Step 2: Right-click on the Discord app icon and click Properties from its context menu as shown below.
Step 3: Once the Properties window opens up, click the Compatibility tab.
Step 4: Next, you need to click the Run this program in compatibility mode for checkbox in order to enable it.
Step 5: Then, click the dropdown menu just below it to see all the options.
Step 6: Now select Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) from the list as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 7: After selecting, click Apply and OK to make the changes get reflected.
Step 8: Once done, you need to again open the Properties window of the Discord app as explained in Step 2.
Step 9: In the Shortcut tab of the Properties window, click Open File Location at the bottom as shown below.
Step 10: Now the Discord app folder opens on the system.
Step 11: Find the Update application in the folder and right-click on it.
Step 12: Then select Properties from its context menu as shown below.
Step 13: In the Properties window, go to the Compatibility tab and select the Run this program in compatibility mode for the checkbox.
Step 14: Then, make sure Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) is selected from the dropdown and then tap on Apply and OK.
Step 15: Close any properties window that is open.
Method 3 – Run Discord as an administrator
What happens is when you try to launch the Discord app, first it checks for any updates available. Then if there are any updates available, it tries to download and install them. The problem is it might need administrative privileges to install them or else it gets stuck over there forever.
So let us see if running the discord app as administrator works for us using the steps below.
Step 1: Try running the discord app as admin by pressing the Windows key and typing discord.
Step 2: Then, right-click on the Discord app from the search results as shown below.
Step 3: You need to select Run as administrator from the context menu to open the Discord app as admin.
Step 4: Now it will ask you to accept the User Access Control Prompt on the screen. So please click Yes to continue.
Step 5: Now it should work. Otherwise if for any reason the update screen does not open automatically then you might have to manually open the discord’s update app as explained below.
Step 6: Press the Windows and R keys together that opens the run command box.
Step 7: Type the below line in the run box and press Enter key.
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Discord
Step 8: This opens the Discord app folder where you can find the Update app as shown below.
Step 9: Now right-click on the Update and tap on Run as administrator from the context menu.
NOTE: Now again you might have to accept the UAC prompt on the screen by clicking Yes.
Now the update screen should appear which starts to update the Discord and then the app should get launched successfully.
Method 4 – Clear the Discord Cache Folder
Whenever there is some issue with any application, it may be because of its cache folder. It might have been corrupted or damaged due to some unknown reason. So we can try clearing the discord cache folder and see if this works!
Please follow the steps below in order to clear the discord cache folder.
Step 1: Press the Windows and R keys together to open the Run command box.
Step 2: Type C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\discord in the run box and tap on the Enter key.
Step 3: Now clear the folder that gets opened by selecting all the files by pressing CTRL + A keys.
Step 4: Now press the SHIFT + DELETE keys together on your keyboard and then hit Enter key to delete them permanently.
Step 5: After that close the folder and check if this solved the issue.
Method 5 – Check if the Discord Server is down
Sometimes, the problem is not with the Discord app but the Discord server which might be temporarily down due to some obvious reasons like maintenance, etc. If you want to verify whether the Discord server is down, then here are some steps mentioned below.
Step 1: Open any web browser app on your system like google chrome.
Step 2: Open a new tab and copy-paste the below-given link in the address bar and press the Enter key.
https://discordstatus.com/
Step 3: This webpage will display all the operational information about the Discord app.
Step 4: If the server is down, we suggest users wait for some time probably an hour or so and then try again.
Method 6 – Disable Real-time Protection via Windows Security
The default virus protection tool called windows security interferes with the discord app while launching. So let us disable it with the help of the steps below.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and type windows security. Then, hit the Enter key.
Step 2: This opens the Windows Security window on your system as shown below.
Step 3: You should click Virus & threat protection option on the left menu as shown below.
Step 4: Then, click Manage settings under the Virus & threat protection settings option on the right side of the window.
Step 5: Turn Off the Real-time protection toggle button by clicking on it.
NOTE: You might have to accept the UAC by clicking Yes to continue.
Step 6: Once done, close the Windows Security window.
Method 7 – Re-Install the Discord app on your system
Step 1: Press the Windows + R keys together to open the Run box and then type appwiz.cpl.
Step 2: After that hit the Enter key to open the Program and Features window.
Step 3: Look for the Discord app from the list and select it and then click Uninstall on top as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 4: This will uninstall the Discord app from your system completely.
Step 5: Now go to the Discord downloads page and click the Download for Windows button as shown below.
Step 6: This will starts downloading the Discord app and then click on the discord downloaded setup file and it will install the app fresh on your system.
Step 7: After it is done installing, please try to launch it if it was not launched automatically at first and see if this worked.