How to Fix WoW Classic Won’t Launch

Uh oh...

Image of WoW Classic characters.
Image via Blizzard Entertainment

If you’re trying to play World of Warcraft Classic and the freaking thing just won’t start, there are a few things you can try to solve the issue. Here’s how to fix your WoW Classic won’t launch problem.

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How to Fix WoW Classic Not Starting Up

If you’ve clicked “Play” and have been met with, well, nothing, don’t panic! There are a handful of reasons why this may be and a handful of methods you can try to hopefully fix it:

  • Restart Battle.net.
  • Restart your PC.
  • Make sure no other intensive programs are open on your PC: For example, if you’ve got Google Chrome or Adobe Photoshop open, close them; they’re RAM hoggers!
  • Update your graphics drivers: This can be done by visiting the website of your GPU manufacturer or by using NVIDIA Control Panel if you have an NVIDIA graphics card.
  • Do a Scan and Repair: To do this, click on the gear next to the Play button, then select “Scan and Repair.” This will scan your WoW Classic installation for any potential errors and, if found, replace any corrupted files.
  • Delete the Battle.net folder on your PC: You can find this under Local Disk C:\Program Data (if you’re using a different hard drive than C, change the letter to that). Right-click on the Battle.net folder and delete it.

If the above fails, you may need to completely uninstall Battle.net and WoW Classic. And if that still doesn’t fix the issue, your last resort will be opening up a support ticket with Blizzard. To do so, visit the World of Warcraft page on the Blizzard Entertainment official website.

If you’ve successfully got WoW Classic to launch, only to be met with more errors, it’s possible that the game’s servers are down. Here’s how to check the WoW Classic server status so you know what’s going on.

About the Author

Meg Bethany Koepp

Meg was Managing Editor at Prima Games until April 2024.