Discord Won't Open

Although Discord is a lightweight application with a strong reputation for compatibility with most devices, there are scenarios where the application may not open indefinitely. Almost all of them are non-serious and unrelated to potential security breaches or vulnerabilities. Experts recommend that users go through some of the more comfortable troubleshooting possibilities themselves before leaping to conclusions about the software's compatibility with their PC, phone or another device.

When dealing with an unresponsive application, after a crash particularly, check for its memory presence. Programs that close incorrectly can leave their memory processes still active in the background. Windows users can look from the Task Manager and end Discord manually by right-clicking and selecting 'End task.' Then, relaunch Discord as usual. The macOS environment has an equivalent tool for showing memory processes: the Activity Monitor.

Before re-opening Discord, users also may try running it with admin privileges. Right-click the shortcut and choose 'Run as administrator.' Note that since admin privileges come with inherent security risks for threatening software, users never should enable them with unknown programs whose safety they can't verify.

Corrupted session data also can be responsible for Discord's not opening. In some cases, users can clear the data by logging into Discord's Web application at discord.com. After doing so, log out of the Web version of Discord and relaunch the stand-alone program. Adjusting the system date and time to update automatically also corrects this issue for some users.

Since Discord's features require Internet connectivity, users also may need to look at their proxy and network settings. Proxy servers can interfere with some applications in LAN environments, and users may require disabling them. To do this, type 'Internet Options' into the taskbar's search field and change the window to the Connections tab. The LAN settings button brings up a second menu that includes a checkbox for proxy server usage; click it to remove the check or check it, as appropriate.

DNS settings also may interfere with Discord, although usually incompatible configurations cause other issues, such as a 'Discord No Route' Error. Users can set their DNS server settings themselves or perform a 'flush' that renews their default values. To flush them, enter the following three commands into the Command Prompt, one by one:

ipconfig /release

ipconfig/ flushdns

ipconfig /renew

To set them to preferred values, open the Control Panel and the Network & Internet section. From there, click Network and Sharing, the 'change adapter settings' link, and right-click the appropriate network adapter and go into its Properties. Right-click the Internet Protocol Version 4 entry and choose Properties again,

From the Control Panel, proceed to Network & Internet, Network and Sharing, 'change adapter settings' on the left, and, finally, Properties (after right-clicking on the adapter). On the Internet Protocol Version 4 entry, click the Properties button (this second 'Properties' isn't a right-click menu). The second field in the general section shows DNS server addresses. Users may want to input their values, such as 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1, for the central server and alternate. However, most users will experience no problems letting the DNS server settings obtain their values automatically, which is the default selection.

Lastly, always stay up-to-date with software like Discord and related driver updates. Falling behind can cause unpredictable behavior from associated programs and, worse, leave vulnerabilities open for threat actors' exploitation.