Discord Overlay Not Working? Here’s How to Fix It!

Discord Overlay Not Working: If you are a gamer and you like to enjoy fun filed gaming sessions sitting at your own computer but still being connected with your friends, you must have encountered with a very popular app called Discord. The discord allows you to communicate while playing games and helps you organize your chats, voice connections, and other cool features.

Many users face the issue of Discord overlay not working while they are playing some games. However unfortunate this is, there a fix to everything and this problem is no exceptional case.

10 Ways to Fix Discord Overlay Not Working

There a number of possible reasons why you are facing the Discord overlay not working issue and, in this article, we will take a deeper look into each of them with guidelines to how to resolve the issues. First of all, if the Discord app won’t open then try this fix.

Method #1 Reboot Your System

However silly this seems, this is known to be a magical fix for many problems and, you never know, might even fix the issue!

Just close all running games, applications and discord app and shut down the machine. Fire it up again, keeping the fingers crossed, and see if this fixed the Discord overlay not working.

If You are Facing: Fix Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device

Method #2 Check If The Option Is Enabled

To use the Discord Overlay in any game, you have to enable it in the Discord app settings first. To do just that,

1. Open the Discord app. You can use the shortcut on the Desktop, if it exists, or browse the start menu for icon and start the Discord app.
2. Go to the user settings, a button for which is located on the bottom left on the Discord windows of the app for desktop.

   

3. Choose Overlay from the left navigation pane.
4. Make sure that the Enable In-game overlay option is selected.

   

5. Save the settings and reopen the Game. Use the hotkey dedicated to enabling the overlay in a game. You can find the hotkey that has been assigned, just by looking alongside the Enable In-game overlay option in Discord app’s user settings and in Overlay submenu. The default hotkey in the latest version of discord for enabling the in-game overlay is Shift+`.

See Also: 7 Ways to Fix Discord Voice not Working

Method #3 Enable or Change the Hotkey

One of the reasons why you might be facing Discord overlay not working can be that the overlay enables hotkey has not been assigned or may be conflicting with some other hotkey in Discord app or the game itself. Hence you might consider changing it to something else or enabling it altogether if it has not been assigned previously.

1. Open the Discord app from its icon in the start menu Desktop. If you can’t find the icon for it, you can also launch the Desktop app by navigating to C drive, Program Files, Discord and then finding the executable file and running it.

   

2. Go to the user settings. It can be accessed by clicking on the gear like symbol on the right side of your user name on the bottom left side of the Discord app window.

   

3. Go to overlay submenu. In the pane that opens, you can find the hotkey just alongside enable in-game overlay option. Assign a new hotkey (A hotkey is a key or a combination of keys having a special function) to enable the in-game screen overlay.

   

4. Save the settings and reopen your game.
5. Use the newly assigned hotkey to see if you see the Discord overlay while playing the game.

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Method #4 Change The Overlay Position

One of the things wrong with your settings is probably the overlay position. With different games running at different resolutions with windowed and full-screen variations, it is highly possible that you may have mistakenly dragged the overlay outside the running window of the game, and even if it is enabled and you are using the correct hotkey without overlap with any other hotkeys that are enabled, you are still not seeing it while playing the game.

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To reset the overlay to default,

1. Open the discord app by double-clicking its icon on the Desktop or the start menu or the App folder in system drive’s programs files folder.

   

2. Now press the key combination Ctrl + Shift + i. This will open a window alongside the Discord app window.
3. In the newly opened side window, Click on the >> button on the top right corner of the window. In the dropdown list that expands, select Application.
4. The JavaScript settings window that appears, expand the option Local Storage.
5. On the list on the right half of the windows that appears now, look for OverlayStore or something like that. Select that option and press the Delete key to delete it.
6. Close the app and the game. Restart.

See if this resolved the issue of Discord overlay not working.

Method #5 Run the Discord App As An Administrator

The Discord overlay, not working problem can also be because the operating system is not providing enough privileges to the Discord app to create and display an in-game overlay. You can fix this issue by following the steps we have listed below, temporarily or permanently.

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1. Right click on the Discord app icon in the Desktop or Start menu to open the context menu. You can also find the original executable file of the Discord app in C drive, inside the Discord folder located inside the Program files folder.

   

2. Click on Run as administrator… option in the context menu. Then select the Yes button in the dialogue box that appears asking if you want to allow the Discord app to make changes to the system.
3. You can also make the system to run the app every time with administrator privileges by changing the properties of the executable. Just go to properties by opening the context menu by right-clicking in the discord icon or executable. Under the Compatibility tab of the opened window, Check the box for Run this program as an administrator option. Now Apply and close the window.

   

4. Reopen the discord app, the game and use the hotkey while playing the game to see if now you have got rid of the issue Discord overlay not working.

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Method #6 Check if Firewall or Antivirus is Blocking the Overlay

Many firewall applications or anti-virus programs are known to recognize the Discord in-game overlay process as a misbehaving process, and they deny required privileges or straight out kill the process every time you try to enable it.

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So, open your antivirus program or firewall settings. Just see if you find anything related to Discord in blocked applications or services list and if you find something, unblock it or add it to exceptions.

You can also try if the Discord overlay works by temporarily disabling the antivirus programs or firewalls and then checking if this solved the problem.

Do This Instantly: Temporarily Disable Avast Antivirus

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Method #7. Reinstall or Update the Discord App

Our last resort now is to do a fresh install of the latest Discord stable version after completely uninstalling the existing Discord application from the system. Here is a quick overlook of what you are going to do:

1. Open control panel in your Windows Operating System. Navigate to apps and features.

   

2. In the list of installed apps, click on Discord. Now the uninstall button shall appear. Click on it and go through the uninstallation process requesting full uninstallation.uninstall discord
3. Permanently delete the Discord app directory in C drive’s program files folder. This will delete all the leftover files and settings, enabling us to do a clean install the next time.delete discord
4. Now go the official discord site and grab the latest version of the stable installer suitable for your version of the operating system.
5. Reboot the system and install the Discord through the downloaded installer. Wait till it finishes the installation.
6. Once again reboot the system and open discord. enable in game overlay
7. Check the hotkey for enabling the in-game overlay.
8. Now run the game and while you are playing it, use the hotkey you just checked and see if you can get an overlay. It will be, by default, on the top left portion of the game window in the latest version of Discord.
9. It is under recommendation that you turn off any firewall or antivirus programs before installing a well-known and certified (downloaded from the official site) copy of any software that requires some special permissions.

Conclusion

After reading this article and following our guide, we hope that your issue of Discord overlay not working has been successfully solved. Happy Gaming!

Garvit Sinha

Gravit Sinha is the founder of ValidEdge. Ever since he was a kid, he has been a problem fixer and that passion is what inspired him to start and grow this website! 🙂