Discord Stuck on Checking for Updates: What Causes It and How to Fix It

Discord has been stuck at the update screen, unable to check for updates.

Discord users are reporting that they cannot update the app, which freezes at “Checking for updates.”

A fix involves a virtual private network (VPN) client. This resolves DNS problems with some Internet Service Providers (ISPs), allowing Discord to complete its update process.

Discord is currently stuck on the “Checking for updates” screen. Why? Because of a problem with DNS settings on the ISP’s end. While it’s possible that you’ve run into this issue if you’re on an ISP that uses Cloudflare, the report from several Reddit users points toward their provider’s use of a DNS service as being behind the scenes. Regardless, there appears to be no way around it — unless you try using a virtual private network (VPN) service to route your connection through another server and allow the Discord update process to complete.

Discord’s website offers several solutions when your PC or Mac is unable to connect to Discord. These include checking your firewall settings, checking whether your antivirus is blocking Discord, updating your browser or OS, or running the troubleshooter. But in this case, these aren’t viable solutions.

The problem lies with DNS resolution at the level of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The solution isn’t a matter of changing any settings on your computer; rather, you need to switch on a VPN client to bypass the problematic DNS resolution process.

You can try turning off your router for 15-30 seconds before turning it back on, but I’m not sure how effective this will be. In fact, it may simply force you to re-enter your WiFi password, again and again. If you don’t mind waiting about five minutes while the process completes, you could always turn off your PC or Mac. If you’re connected via Ethernet, then this is probably unnecessary.

Instead, try launching a virtual private network (VPN) service. Some ISPs have used DNS services to manage DNS settings for their customers, and it appears that this has caused issues for users who are trying to access Discord. However, this hasn’t been reported widely enough to determine what exactly is going wrong, other than that your ISP may be preventing you from reaching certain servers.

The good news? By switching on a virtual private network (VPN) client, you can bypass those DNS issues. That means that Discord should then be able to successfully reach the servers that it needs to download an update.