WoW Forever: How to Fix the Game Not Launching

When World of Warcraft: Forever will not launch, start by checking that the Battle.net app’s Game Version menu says WoW: Forever, then restart your PC, run Battle.net as an administrator and use Scan and Repair, which is the order Blizzard’s troubleshooting steps follow. If the game warns that “your computer is out of date” or closes as soon as it opens, update your graphics drivers and Windows, and check your graphics card against the GPU cutoff Blizzard set for Forever.

“Not launching” covers several different problems, and the fix depends on which one you have. Below is how to tell them apart, the fix for each, and which of our other guides goes deeper. Everything is checked against Blizzard’s support and launch posts as of November 7, three days after launch.

Which Problem Do You Have?

Step 1: When Play Does Nothing

1. Pick the right version. In the Battle.net app, select World of Warcraft, then open the Game Version menu above the Play button and choose WoW: Forever. Modern WoW and the Classic versions sit in the same menu, and Play starts whichever one is selected.
2. Let it update. If the button says Update instead of Play, let it finish before you try again: an out-of-date install will not connect.
3. Restart your PC. It is the first step in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft Technical Troubleshooting article, and it frees anything still holding the game files.
4. Fully exit and restart Battle.net as an administrator. Right-click the Battle.net icon in the Windows system tray, choose Exit, then right-click the shortcut and choose Run as administrator.
5. Scan and Repair. With WoW: Forever selected, click the gear icon next to Play, choose Scan and Repair, then Begin Scan.
6. Launch from Battle.net, not the game folder. Forever lives in its own World of Warcraft\_forever_ folder; starting the .exe from there skips the app’s updates and repairs.

Step 2: “Your Computer Is Out of Date”

This alert sits next to the Enter World button at character select, with “Click here for more info” under it. It is the game’s warning that something on your PC is older than it wants, most often the graphics driver. If the game still loads and plays, it is a warning, not a block, but it is worth clearing:

1. Update your graphics driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel directly, then restart.
2. Run Windows Update until it finds nothing new. Battle.net’s installer error names Windows 10 as Forever’s minimum operating system, so an older Windows will not install it at all.
3. Check your graphics card. Blizzard’s GPU requirements post sets an architecture floor: AMD Graphics Core Next 1, NVIDIA Maxwell or Intel Skylake graphics, or newer. Cards older than that, such as the GeForce GTX 760, 770 and 780, are not supported however fast they are, and no driver update fixes that. Even supported cards near the floor, such as the GTX 750 Ti, sit “well below the minimum requirements for the game,” so turn everything down. Our GPU requirements story lists the cut-off cards.
4. On a laptop, use the dedicated graphics. In the NVIDIA or AMD control panel, or Windows’ Graphics settings, set Forever to the high-performance GPU, so it does not start on the weaker built-in chip.

Forever runs on Windows and Mac. On a Mac, update macOS and let Battle.net finish any game update; Blizzard’s development notes list Mac-specific display fixes among its changes.

Step 3: When It Crashes After Loading

1. Turn off your addons. Blizzard’s WoW Forever info post reminds players to keep addons updated, “especially true during launch as addon creators might be making updates.” At character select, click AddOns, untick everything and log in. If the crashes stop, turn them back on a few at a time.
2. Reset your interface. Blizzard’s Resetting your User Interface steps: close the game and rename the Cache, Interface and WTF folders inside _forever_ so the game builds fresh ones.
3. Lower the heavy settings. Forever’s new lighting options are the most demanding part of the game. Our best graphics settings guide lists which ones to cut first.
4. Check the known issues and hotfixes. Some crashes are Blizzard’s to fix. Its known issues list of November 5 said the Ashenvale quest “Vorsha the Lasher” had been disabled “until a bug causing a crash can be fixed,” and the November 6 hotfixes then resolved an issue with that quest. If your crash happens at the same place every time, check both lists first.

Step 4: When It Is Not Your PC

If the game opens to the login screen and stops there, or everyone you know is stuck at once, the problem is on Blizzard’s side. Our guide to checking whether the servers are down lists the official places to look, and our guide to how login queues work explains the wait at peak times. If you get in but cannot make a character, our Error Creating Character fix covers those messages.

If Nothing Works

Write down the exact error text and code, your graphics card and driver version, and your Windows version. Post in Blizzard’s WoW Forever Bug Report forum if it looks like a game bug, or open a ticket with Blizzard Support for an install or account problem. Your characters are stored on Blizzard’s servers, so a reinstall never touches them. Every other guide is on our World of Warcraft hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is WoW Forever not launching? Most often the Game Version menu is set to another version of WoW, the game needs an update, or a file is blocked. Pick WoW: Forever, restart, run Battle.net as an administrator and use Scan and Repair.

What does “Your computer is out of date” mean in WoW Forever? The game thinks part of your PC is behind what it wants, most often the graphics driver. Update your driver and Windows, and check your card against Blizzard’s GPU cutoff.

Why does WoW Forever keep crashing? Out-of-date addons are the usual cause at launch. Turn them off, reset your interface folders, and lower the heaviest graphics settings.

Does my graphics card run WoW Forever? It needs an AMD Graphics Core Next 1, NVIDIA Maxwell or Intel Skylake design or newer, per Blizzard’s GPU requirements post.

Will reinstalling WoW Forever delete my characters? No. Characters are stored on Blizzard’s servers.