The issue of WoW not launching has been around for quite some time (starting from the Burning Crusade). There might be several reasons why your game is not launching belonging to different modules. Here in this article, we will go through the error and its fixes step by step.
What causes WoW to have Issues when Launching?
After our research and numerous user reports, we found out that there are several cases where the game fails to launch. Either you are stuck on the loading screen or the Blizzard launcher gets stuck indefinitely. Here are some of the causes of why this bizarre issue might happen on your computer: Before you move on with the solutions, make sure that you are logged in as an administrator and have an active internet connection on your computer. Furthermore, you should disable all proxies and VPNs before proceeding. We are assuming you are logged into your Official Battle.net account in the Blizzard Launcher.
Solution 1: Checking for Outdated Add-ons
Add-ons provide valuable interface additions to your game experience. Add-ons range from improvements in the interface of the game to valuable information being added to your user interface. Nowadays, you are not even chosen to raid if you don’t have some basic add-ons on your game. Because of the immense popularity of the addons in the game, there are cases where the add-ons are either outdated or corrupt. This fact is known to cause issues with the launching of the game. Hence we will navigate to the add-on directory of the game and disable all the add-ons manually before trying to launch the game again. For newer versions: For older versions:
Solution 2: Deleting Configuration Files
Like all other games, World of Warcraft also has configuration files on your computer. These files consist of the basic preferences you set for the launcher and your game settings. Whenever you launch the game, the client first fetches the preferences set from here and after loading the settings, it launches the game. However, if these config files are corrupt or unusable, the client will go into an error state and will not be able to launch. In this solution, we will manually delete the config files from your computer. When we launch the client, the config files will be automatically generated. Note: You should also delete the setting files from your user documents present on your computer.
Solution 3: Disabling Antivirus Software
Even though Antivirus software is meant to keep you safe, they can sometimes mistake some ‘good’ program and flag it as a malicious one. This phenomenon is called a false positive. It seems that several Antivirus software such as AVG, Avira etc. flag World of Warcraft wrongly and doesn’t let it run. Hence you should try disabling your Antivirus software. You can check out our article on How to turn your Antivirus off. After disabling your Antivirus, restart your computer and try launching WoW. If disabling the Antivirus doesn’t work, you can try uninstalling it and see if it does the trick for you.
Solution 4: Changing DNS Settings to Automatic
Domain Name Systems (DNS) are used by applications and games alike to connect to servers in order to establish a connection and start the data transfer. If the DNS server is not reachable by the client, the address will not be resolved and you will face issues. We noticed that there were several clients who after setting their DNS settings to automatic, were able to launch the game. They had previously set the settings to Google’s addresses. So there are two things you can do; either set the settings to automatic or change the address to google’s DNS. In this article, we will be changing the settings from Google’s DNS to automatic. to:
Solution 5: Running WoW Launching In Compatibility Mode
World of Warcraft launcher is applauded for being so flexible because it can be used to play on private servers as well as official servers. Because of the client being so flexible, it also induces other issues (just like a tradeoff). If you have recently updated Windows or copied the game files from another computer, chances are that the game is not optimized perfectly for your version of Windows. In this solution, we will navigate to the WoW launcher and change the compatibility settings and check if this makes any difference. You can select Windows 8/10 for the compatibility mode.
Solution 6: Clean Booting your Computer (for third-party apps)
If all the above solutions don’t work, we can try Clean Booting. This routine forces your computer to power on with a minimal set of drivers and programs. Only the essential ones are enabled. If the error doesn’t occur in this mode, you should enable the processes back on only with small chunks and check if the error returns. If it doesn’t, you can turn on another chunk and check. This way you will be able to diagnose which process is causing the problem.
Solution 7: Disabling Xbox DVR
Xbox DVR is a new feature introduced in Windows which allows users to record their gameplay and audio. Even though this is a nifty feature, it causes issues with several games including World of Warcraft. Below are the steps to disable Xbox DVR recording. If you have a newer version, refer to the second half of the solution to disable the recording from settings. If you are using a newer version of Windows, the Xbox application will not have this feature. Follow the listed steps instead.
Solution 8: Reinstalling World of Warcraft
If all the above methods don’t work out, it probably means that your game installation files are corrupt. This happens all the time and there is nothing to worry about. Installation files might get unusable if they are interrupted when updating or when you have deleted some. Make sure that you have all your credentials at hand as you will be asked to enter them. If you are using the game using the Blizzard client, then uninstall the game from there. If you are just using the game from the folder which you copied from somewhere else, delete that folder. Also, make sure that you delete all the temporary files stored against your profile. Now navigate to the Official Blizzard Download page and download the World of Warcraft client from it. After downloading the game, install it using an administrator. Restart your computer, launch the game and enter your credentials. Now check if the issue is solved.
Fix: WOW World of Warcraft High LatencyFix: World of Warcraft Error 132Fix: Error Code BLZ51903003 While Logging In To World of WarcraftHow to Fix “Error Code: 51900101” in World of Warcraft?
