Discord Overlay not Working? Show You 12 Ways to Fix It!

User Case: My Discord Overlay is not working!

"When I start the game, my Discord Overlay works for a while and then disappears, never to be seen again. All my settings are correct and everything works, but it only appears at startup and then Discord Overlay not showing again. Could you help me with this problem?"

First of all, let's learn what Discord is. It is a free web-based real-time calling software and digital distribution platform that targets gamers, educators and business people. It provides them with fast communication, such as video calling, voice chat and text chat. As Discord grew, it gradually moved to a live streaming platform, and has a game store and community platform, becoming the preferred tool for gamers to communicate and collaborate.

As mentioned in the user case above, when you encountered the Discord Overlay not working, it can cause a lot of trouble because it prevents users from talking to their friends. In this article, we will introduce the reasons and 12 ways to solve the problem. Hope your problem will be solved as soon as possible.

Reasons for Discord Overlay not Working

Discord Overlay feature allows users to easily communicate with their friends using text or voice calls while playing games, but once Discord Overlay doesn't work, it can be a troublesome problem. There are various reasons why Discord Overlay does not work, the most common ones are as follows.

• Overlay settings are not enabled: Overlay settings may only be automatically enabled for a small number of specific games, so you need to manually add the game to the list of Overlay settings to fix the problem.
• Overlay settings are moved out of the screen: Overlay settings can be manually moved around on the screen, so many people will accidentally move it out of the screen. You need to delete the OverlayStore or OverlayStoreV2 file in the javascript console to fix the problem.
• Hardware acceleration: If you are using hardware acceleration to achieve efficient performance for your game, this will also affect the Overlay settings and you need to turn off hardware acceleration.
• Display scaling: If you use scaling in your game to get better game clarity, it may hide Overlay settings. You just need to turn off scaling.
• Interference by anti-virus software: Anti-virus software may mark the Discord Overlay function as suspicious and prevent the Discord Overlay function from working properly. In this case, you need to add Discord software to anti-virus software whitelist or temporarily disable anti-virus software to fix the problem.

How to Fix Discord Overlay not Working

We have summarized 12 solutions for Discord Overlay not working problem through the analysis. Please follow the detailed steps of each solution below to fix the problem.

• Method 1: Enable Discord Overlay
• Method 2: Run Discord as administrator
• Method 3: Change Discord Overlay location
• Method 4: Turn off hardware acceleration
• Method 5: Close other applications running in the background
• Method 6: Re-adjust the screen display ratio
• Method 7: Enable Overlay hotkeys
• Method 8: Add Discord to the anti-virus whitelist, or temporarily disable real-time protection
• Method 9: Restart your computer
• Method 10: Update or reinstall Discord 
• Method 11: Use VPN software
• Method 12: Contact Discord technical support team

Method 1: Enable Discord Overlay

If you want to use the Discord Overlay feature, you need to turn it on manually. Here are the detailed steps to enable it.

Step 1. Launch Discord and sign in to your account.

Step 2. Click the gear icon in the bottom left corner to enter settings.

Step 3. Find the Game Overlay tab on the left side and click it, then turn on the switch of Enable in-game overlay option on the right side.

Step 4. Switch to the Activity Status tab and check if your game has added the Overlay feature.

Step 5. If you don't find your game in this list, click Add it to add the game.

Method 2: Run Discord as Administrator

Running Discord as administrator gives the program sufficient permissions to read and write. You can run the program by right-clicking on Discord and selecting Run as administrator.

If this method solves the problem of Discord Overlay not working, you can set up Discord to run as administrator permanently. Here are the detailed steps to run Discord as administrator permanently.

Step 1. Right-click Discord and select Properties.

Step 2. Under the Compatibility tab, tick the Run this program as an administrator option. Finally, click Apply then click OK.

Once the setup is complete, Discord will automatically run as administrator when you run it again.

Method 3: Change Discord Overlay Location

If you accidentally move the Discord Overlay setting out of the screen, you can try to change the Discord Overlay position to solve the problem. You can follow the steps below.

Step 1. Close the game and open Discord.

Step 2. Press Ctrl+Shift+I together to launch the javascript console, then click the Application option in the menu and double-click Local Storage to expand it.

Step 3. Click the entry https://discordapp.com, find the OverlayStore or OverlayStoreV2 file under the Key option, then right-click it and select Delete.

Step 4. Restart Discord and start your game again and you will be able to see the Overlay settings.

Method 4: Turn off Hardware Acceleration

Enabling hardware acceleration on Discord will also cause Discord Overlay not to work, you can try to turn off hardware acceleration to solve the problem.

Step 1. Launch Discord and click the gear icon in the bottom left corner to enter settings.

Step 2. Find and click the Advanced option in the left menu, then turn off the switch for Hardware Acceleration on the right.

Step 3. Click Okay to confirm the changes.

After turning off hardware acceleration, start your game again and you will be able to see the Overlay settings.

Method 5: Close Other Applications Running in the Background

If your computer has too many programs running in the background, or if some of them are taking up a lot of running memory, they may also interfere with Discord and prevent the Overlay settings in the game from working properly. Please follow these steps to close unnecessary programs in the background.

Step 1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager.

Step 2. Under the Processes tab, select the program you want to end, and then click the End task button in the lower right corner.

Tip:

Be sure not to end any Windows and Microsoft-related processes, ending them will cause them to become unusable and you may lose the data that has not been saved.

For programs that don't need to run you can use this method to end them, then restart Discord and confirm if the problem has been solved.

Method 6: Re-adjust the Screen Display Ratio

If you adjust the display ratio of the screen to more than 100%, which is one of the reasons why you can't see the Overlay settings. You need to adjust the display ratio of the screen back to 100% again to solve the problem. Here are the detailed steps.

Step 1. Press Win+I together to open System Settings, then select System.

Step 2. Select Display in the left menu, then click the drop-down menu under the Change the size of text, apps, and other items option on the right, and select 100% (Recommended).

After the screen's display ratio is adjusted, please run the game again to see if the problem is solved.

Method 7: Enable Overlay Hotkeys

You can try to activate a new hotkey to solve the problem of Discord Overlay not working, and here are the steps.

Step 1. Open Discord and click the gear icon in the bottom left corner to enter settings.

Step 2. Find the Game Overlay tab on the left side and click on it, then configure your hotkeys under the TOGGLE OVERLAY LOCK option on the right side.

Once the hotkey configuration is complete, please restart the game to check if the Discord Overlay not working issue is fixed.

Method 8: Add Discord to the Anti-virus Whitelist, or Temporarily Disable Real-time Protection

Anti-virus software or Windows Firewall will mark Discord Overlay as suspicious and does not allow it to run. Therefore, to resolve Discord Overlay not working, you need to add Discord to the anti-virus whitelist or temporarily disable the anti-virus software. Please follow the graphic tutorial below.

Add Discord to the Anti-virus Software Whitelist

Step 1. Press the Win+I key together to open System Settings, and then select Update & Security.

Step 2. Select Windows Security in the left menu, and then select Virus & threat protection on the right.

Step 3. Select Manage settings.

Step 4. Under the Exclusions tab, click on Add or remove exclusions.

Step 5. Click Add an exclusion and select Folder, then add Discord's installation folder and save it.

Then, please reopen Discord and restart the game to see if the problem is solved.

Temporarily Disable Real-time Protection

Step 1. Press the Win+I to open the settings, then click Update & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection. Select Manage settings in the new pop-up window.

Step 2. Turn off the real-time protection button.

.

Reopen Discord and restart the game to see if the problem is solved.

Method 9: Restart Your Computer

Restarting your computer can solve the temporary failure of Discord Overlay not working, we recommend you to try it. If this method didn't work, please try the next one.

Please click the Start menu and click the Shutdown icon that is the power button. After clicking, it will show "Power", and you can see Restart, Shutdown, Sleep options. Select Restart to reboot your computer.

After you restart your computer, please reopen Discord and restart the game to see if the problem is solved.

Method 10: Update or Reinstall Discord 

If you are using an older version of Discord, you can update Discord to fix the problem of Overlay settings disappearing from the screen. By default, Discord will automatically update to the latest version as soon as your computer is connected to the network.

If after updating Discord you still have the problem, perhaps you can try to reinstall Discord to fix it. You can follow the detailed steps below to reinstall Discord.

Step 1. Press Win+R to open the Run window, then type control and press Enter.

Step 2. Click Uninstall a program under the Programs tab.

Step 3. Find Discord, right-click it and select Uninstall.

Step 4. After uninstalling, restart your computer, then please download and install the latest version of Discord again from the official website.

After the installation is complete, please reopen Discord and restart the game to see if the problem is solved.

Method 11: Use VPN Software

Using a VPN in the computer can solve many voice connection problems, so you can use a VPN to solve the problem of Discord voice chat overlay not working. And Discord is only available for VPN solutions with UDP (User Datagram Protocol).

Method 12: Contact Discord Technical Support Team

In addition to the above 11 methods, you can give your feedback to Discord technical support team by sending them accurate information about your problem and they will reply to you as soon as possible.

Summary

If you encountered the problem that Discord Overlay not working, this article shares 12 methods to solve it. You can choose them according to your own needs.

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