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Most people use Discord to communicate with their friends and other people, but the discord sometimes keeps breaking down. If you are annoyed with the discord keeps crashing problem, then you will be interested in this article.
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Discord is a platform for players to chat with friends, and improve the gaming experience. However, several users have reported that Discord keeps crashing unexpectedly. In fact, users may encounter Discord randomly crashing during games or on startup.
It is difficult for users to discover the root of the problem as it appears without any warning or error message. Fortunately, here are some proven methods that you can use to fix Discord crashes issue.
Quick answer: if Discord keeps crashing, start by turning off hardware acceleration, clearing Discord’s cache folders and updating both Discord and your graphics driver. If it still crashes, turn off compatibility mode and overlays, then do a clean reinstall. I’ve put the fixes below in the order I’d try them.
Why Discord Keeps Crashing
Discord’s desktop app is built on Electron, the same browser engine technology behind many desktop apps, so it behaves a bit like a web browser. That means the usual crash triggers are:
- Hardware acceleration clashing with your graphics card or driver
- Corrupted cache files after an update
- An outdated Discord build or graphics driver
- Overlays from Discord, Steam, NVIDIA or other apps competing for the same game window
- Compatibility mode settings left on from an older version of Windows
- An unsupported operating system: Discord has ended support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, so the app may misbehave there
Disable hardware acceleration
Discord’s hardware acceleration feature allows GPUs to present all graphics and text to improve your experience. However, it is true that a conflict that closes on startup can occur with this feature enabled.
So, you can try to disable it to fix the problem.
- Open the Discord client and click the gear icon (User Settings) next to your username.
- Scroll down the left menu to Advanced.
- Turn off the toggle next to Hardware Acceleration and click Okay when Discord asks to restart.
In older versions this switch lived under Appearance, which is why many guides still point there.
Reset Voice Settings
Older versions of this guide suggested switching the audio subsystem to Legacy mode. Discord has since removed that option, so it won’t appear in current builds. If Discord crashes when you join a voice channel or use your microphone, resetting voice settings is the closest fix:
- Open User Settings and click Voice & Video.
- Scroll to the bottom and click Reset Voice Settings, then confirm.
- Rejoin a voice channel and pick your input and output devices again.
Disable compatibility mode
If Discord keeps crashing, compatibility mode may be responsible. It can be left switched on from an older Windows version or an earlier troubleshooting attempt, so try turning it off.
- Close Discord client completely.
- Right-click on the Discord desktop icon and choose Properties.
- Switch to Compatibility tab and uncheck Run this program in compatibility mode for the option.
- Click “Apply” and “OK” to save your change.
After that, you can restart the application and see if the Discord crashing issue is resolved.
Delete cache
If some Discord files or caches get corrupted, the client might crash as well. In this case, you can go to wipe Discord’s cache and some related files to fix the problem. This process won’t lead to any further problem, as it will be recreated the next time you start Discord.
- Close Discord and press Windows + E to open File Explorer.
- Type
%AppData%\discordinto the address bar and hit Enter.
- In the discord folder, delete the Cache, Code Cache and GPUCache folders. Leave the other files alone.
Now exit File Explorer and restart Discord. This time you should be able to use Discord without any problems.
Update Discord and Your Graphics Driver
Discord updates itself when it starts, but you can force a check by pressing Ctrl + R inside the app to reload it. Graphics drivers are just as important, since most crash reports point to the GPU. I’d download the latest driver directly from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel, or install it through Windows Update, then restart your PC.
Turn Off Discord and Third-Party Overlays
If Discord only crashes while you’re in a game, an overlay is a likely culprit. Turn off the in-game overlay in Discord’s Game Overlay settings, and try disabling other overlays such as Steam, GeForce Experience or the NVIDIA app, or Xbox Game Bar, one at a time.
Reinstall Discord
If all of the above methods failed to fix your Broken Discord issue, you might need to reinstall Discord, and it’s easy to use as well.
- Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box.
- Enter appwiz.cpl and click OK to open Programs and Features window.
- Choose Discord and click the Uninstall button to remove this program.
- Enter
%AppData%in the Run dialog box and hit Enter. Right-click the discord folder and choose Delete. Repeat with%LocalAppData%to remove the second Discord folder.
- Go to Discord official website to download and install the latest version according to the instructions provided.
Once done, run the new installer and check whether the problem is gone.
Try Discord in Your Browser While You Troubleshoot
Need to stay in touch while you fix the app? Open Discord in Chrome, Edge or Firefox and sign in. The web version uses your browser’s engine, so it often keeps working when the desktop app won’t start. If you’re tidying up your account at the same time, here’s how to leave a Discord server you no longer use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Discord crash only when I stream or share my screen?
Screen sharing leans heavily on your GPU. Turning off hardware acceleration and updating your graphics driver fixes this in most cases.
Will deleting Discord’s cache log me out or delete messages?
No. Messages are stored on Discord’s servers. Clearing the cache folders only removes temporary files, which Discord rebuilds the next time it opens. At most, you may need to sign in again.
For more fixes like this, browse our technology guides.
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