Apex Legends Won’t Start – How To Fix

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you’re at least peripherally aware of Apex Legends. One of the newest additions to the battle royale genre, Apex Legends was released without much fanfare or announcement in early 2019. While the apparent organic nature of Apex’s rise to prominence was revealed to be somewhat contrived by publishers, it still remains a very popular game.

A game with such a large user base – over 50 million in its prime – is bound to have difficulties running properly on so many different systems. Apex Legends’ developer, Respawn, has a good history of keeping their games stable, but reports of the game not starting properly have begun to steadily creep in. If you’re one of the unlucky players experiencing issues starting Apex Legends, here is how to fix them.

Start the Game as an Administrator

For this fix, all you have to do is get employed in management somewhere and presto, you’re an administrator, and the game will run fine. That was a joke, of course. What you need for this fix is to change how the game perceives the user that is running it.

This method has fallen into disuse over the years as compatibility issues have become less frequent, but older users will recognize this as basic first aid when an application is acting up.

The process is simple. Search for Apex Legends in your Windows search bar. When you select it, you will see a few options in the panel. Click on “Run as Administrator.” There’s not much more to it – if this works, then you’ve got a compatibility issue, and you can permanently run it this way in the application properties.

Repairs and Reinstalls

There could be a corrupted file causing errors in the game startup, which you can test for by using Origin’s “Repair” feature. Log in to the Origin client and look for Apex Legends in your library. From there, right click on the game’s icon to reveal an associated menu. In this menu, click on Repair. Origin will verify if all the game’s files are in order and automatically reinstall those that are missing or damaged.

Once you’ve repaired the game, try to run it. If it runs, you’re all set. If you continue to have issues, however, try a reinstall. You can use the very same menu to uninstall the game, but to make sure it uninstalls fully, use the Apps and Features panel in your Windows Settings. Once it’s removed, perform a full install as you normally would and give it a try.

Stay Updated

Trying to update the game almost goes without saying, and it can be done from the Origin game library in seconds. In your library, right-click on the game icon and choose “Update” from the menu. The game should update automatically anyway, so this is unlikely to be the problem. More importantly, you should update your hardware drivers.

You can update drivers to all your adapters and peripherals from the Windows device manager, but this will take a long time to do individually. An easy way to check for any updates available is free software called Driver Easy. Download Driver Easy and follow a few simple on-screen instructions to check for any newer drivers or firmware for your computer. It’s a good idea to accept any updates it offers and then try to run Apex again.

Disable Security Tools

Some security applications have been reported to interfere with Apex Legends. It’s not clear which process exactly is conflicting, but if you have any active antivirus or malware protection, try disabling it. Sophos Home, in particular, has been known to cause issues with Apex.

There is some speculation that the security programs might be interfering with Easy Anti-Cheat, a near-ubiquitous piece of software in multiplayer games that prevents cheating.

Windows’ own firewall can also prevent proper function, so make sure that Apex is allowed through your firewall settings by accessing it from your Control Panel. In the firewall settings, click on the link “Allow an App Through Windows Firewall.” In this panel, find Apex Legends, make sure it has both Public and Private access privileges, and then try to run it.

Try a Different Language

This may sound like a bit of a Hail Mary, but it seems to do the trick for some users. To apply this, go to your Origin library and right-click the Apex Legends icon, select “Game Properties” from the menu. In the properties, access the “Advanced Launch Options” tab. Here you will see a drop-down menu. Scroll down and select Polish. You read that right, you’re going to change it to Polish specifically.

Save your settings, cross your fingers, and launch the game. If it works, you can change it back to English.

Reach the Apex, Legend

So there you have it – a slew of options to repair your game and get back into the fight. Start with the simplest ones first: try running it as an administrator and work down from there. Just like you need to pick a coherent team in Apex, you need all your hardware and software to work well together, so make sure your drivers are always up to date. All these fixes are fairly quick, so you shouldn’t have a hard time finding the right one.

Did one of these fix your game or was there another solution that worked for you? Do you think it’s more important to pick your legend to complement your team or do you just pick Pathfinder every game? Let us know in the comments below – and be honest.