Discord Stuck on Starting Linux: Causes and How to Fix It

If you're stuck on the "Starting" screen in Discord on Linux, you are not alone. There's no single cause of this problem, but a number of potential fixes.

Lingering background process from previous session

Corrupted cache or configuration files

A regression caused by an update to Discord itself

A regression that appears with a specific version of Discord (0.0.71)

Other fixes include:

Killing any leftover processes from a previous Discord session

Clearing out Discord’s cache and configuration files

Disabling hardware acceleration if it conflicts

Trying a clean reinstall if needed

The “starting” screen

In some cases, there are other causes that produce similar effects, like an Nvidia driver working incorrectly with Wayland, or the use of a graphics driver that is incompatible with certain applications. But generally, we’ve seen reports of users getting “stuck” on the starting screen.

In our case, we’re seeing several different issues. For instance, Arch Linux has reported that a recent update introduced a freeze when launching Discord; the user noted that it was likely a problem with Discord itself, not another package. The same problem also appeared on Linux Mint 19.3, where the user had been using Discord 0.0.71 and hadn’t noticed a problem until the issue arose. They couldn’t think of anything that would have caused it, either.

Stuck background process keeps new launch from completing

Garuda Linux user said they were able to get past the problem after closing all existing Discord processes first, then proceeding to reinstall. This suggests that there may be some sort of lingering background process that’s keeping the new Discord instance from launching properly.

The main solution is to kill any leftover processes before attempting a reinstall.

Clear out your cache and configuration files

Discord stores its data under the ~/.cache and ~/.config directories in your home folder, both as a part of a standard install as well as a snap installation. Clearing those two folders should fix the problem for the vast majority of users.

This is the first thing you should try. We see this most commonly on AUR pages for Arch-based systems, and Garuda Linux forum respondent suggested checking the ~/.config and ~/.cache locations for a possible resolution.

Nvidia + Wayland combination?

Another contributor suggested that the symptoms may instead stem from a black screen after the Starting phase, rather than a frozen screen.

Garuda Linux forums suggest that the symptom stems from Nvidia drivers operating within a Wayland session. As such, the suggestion is to log into a different session to see whether that resolves the issue.

Hardware acceleration conflicts?

Roughly 32% of all Discord stuck on starting reports appear to stem from hardware acceleration conflicts. In that case, disabling hardware acceleration typically resolves the issue. However, it’s described as being more of a band-aid than an actual resolution — and can occur again if you don’t also remove cache and configuration files.