Discord can be so sluggish lately, as reported by many users. Sometimes the app gets frozen, causing you to miss out on important updates and conversations with your friends.

Even once or twice of such an unfortunate thing is already frustrating enough to ruin your whole day.

To fix the sluggish Discrod, please read on and go through the following steps (Please note that you don’t have to try all the fixes below. Just start from the one you haven’t tried before until you get it fixed.):

  1. Update Discord
  2. Reinstall Discord
  3. Clean up Discord cache
  4. Update graphics drivers
  5. Change power settings
  6. Free up resources on your computer
  7. Turn off hardware acceleration
  8. Delete key bindings
  9. Reset Discord voice settings

Before we start troubleshooting, you can check the Discord servers’ status here: https://discordstatus.com/ since there’s nothing you can do but wait if the game servers are down due to some tech issues.

1. Update Discord

In most cases, using an outdated version of Discord can result in the Discord lagging or freezing problem. To prevent this, check for updates whenever you launch this app.

Discord’s desktop app will automatically do it for you.  Alternatively, you can do it by yourself:

  1. Click the Maximum icon to maximize the Discord window;
  2. On your keyboard, press the Ctrl key and the R key together to request an update. If available, Discord will download and install the update automatically.

2. Reinstall Discord

When Discord freezes and your mouse cannot move, you can first close Discord in Task Manager in this way:

  1. On your keyboard, press Ctrl, Alt and Delete together to open Task Manager.
  2. Find the Discord icon and select it.
  3. Click the End Task button on the bottom right.

Then, perform a clean reinstallation of Discord. Here’s how you can do it:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows Key and the R key together.
  2. Type %appdata% in the Run window and hit Enter.
  3. In the coming up folder, find the Discord folder and delete it.
  4. Again, press the Windows Key and the R key together.
  5. Type %localappdata% in the Run window and hit Enter.
  6. In the coming up folder, find the Discord folder and then delete it.
  7. Restart your computer.
  8. Download Discord again to your computer.
  9. Log in and start using Discord as you did before.

3. Clean up Discord cache

When Discord user data has built up too much over time, the lagging or freezing problem may start to occur.

Here’s what you can do to clean it up.

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows Key and the R key together.
  2. Type %appdata% in the Run Window and hit Enter.
  3. In the pop-up folder, find the Discord folder.
  4. Find the Cache folder in it and delete it.

Next time you launch Discord, you will have to log in again, and it will hopefully run smoothly.

4. Update graphics drivers

When Discord lags or freezes, one of the first things you should do is to update your graphics card driver since an up-to-date graphics driver always ensures the best performance and fewer bugs.

To update your display card driver, here’s what you can do (please note that the following screenshots are taken on Windows 11, but the instructions work on Windows 10 as well):

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and the X key together, select Device Manager.
  2. Double-click to expand the category Display adapters. Then right-click your graphic card driver and click Update driver (the name of the graphics card can be different on your computer).
  3. Then click Search automatically for updated driver software.

  4. Wait for Windows to find the latest driver available for you.
  5. When the driver update is done, restart your computer for the change to take effect.
  6. Then check and see if the problem is fixed.

If Windows says that it’s already found the latest driver for you, so no newer drivers are found, then you should consider updating your graphics drivers in a different way with the help of Driver Techie.

Its ever-growing driver database allows you to always have access to the latest device drivers that you need. More importantly, Driver Techie simplifies the driver update process, so all it takes is just 3 clicks (for Pro users), and all your drivers are updated.

To use Driver Techie to find you the latest drivers:

  1. Download and install Driver Techie, then launch it.
  2. Click Scan Now.
  3. After the scan, click Update All. Then all your drivers will be updated automatically without you having to do anything else.

Please note that Update All is available for Pro subscribers only, otherwise, you can only manually update the driver one at a time. To see how to manually update the drivers one by one, please check this post.

If you’re a Pro user of Driver Techie, and need our technical support to help with the Discord lagging problem, please feel free to contact <support@drivertechie.com>

4. Change power settings

If you’re using a laptop and it’s prioritizing energy efficiency over performance, it could affect Discord, and thus cause the lagging and freezing issue.

To check if this is your case, please:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and the X key together to open Power Options.
  2. Check that it is set to High performance. It may be Best performance depending on your laptop model.

5. Free up resources on your computer

Although Discord doesn’t take up too much CPU and memory usage, some other unnecessary apps running in the background can eat up a lot of processing resources, resulting in the lagging or freezing issue.

To give more processing power to Discord, follow the steps below:

  1. On your keyboard, press Ctrl, Alt and Delete at the same time to open Task Manager.
  2. Click the Processes tab at the top. Click More details if it’s shown at the bottom of this tab to reveal background Windows processes.
  3. Click Options in the top menu bar, then select Always On Top.
  4. Once you’ve identified any process as non-critical and you’ve saved what you were working on it, then select the process and click End Task on the bottom right.

Please note that closing anything related to Windows can make your computer unstable.

6. Turn off hardware acceleration

The use of hardware acceleration in computers usually contributes a better performance to your software. However, if your hardware isn’t strong enough, turning on this feature in Discord seems to be the culprit of the lagging issue. Here’s how you can close it:

  1. Click on User Settings, a gear icon located on the right side of your avatar.
  2. Click on Advanced to see if Hardware Acceleration is on. If so, turn it off.
  3. Relaunch Discord to see if the issue has been resolved.

If the problem persists, read on to try the next fix.

7. Delete key bindings

If you used key bindings in the previous version of Discord, then they are most likely the cause of the lagging issue. To delete the previous key bindings:

  1. Run Discord and click on User Settings, a gear icon located on the right side of your avatar.
  2. Select Keybinds in the left sidebar.
  3. Hover your mouse over to the keybinds list in the right pane, and you can see a red cross showing on the top right corner of the keybind.
  4. Click the red cross to delete it.
  5. Leave the one that doesn’t show a red cross. It should be the default keybind.

8. Reset Discord voice settings

Some errors related to voice settings can affect Discord. When you launch Discord, you’ll see User Settings, a gear icon located on the right side of your avatar. Click on it, scroll to the bottom and click on the Reset button. You can now set up your mic and speaker preferences again.

After that, relaunch Discord to see if it works properly.

Some of the fixes provided above can help you with other programs as well. Please note that always keep your drivers, programs, or operating system updated since the outdated version may cause unexpected errors. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.