Fortnite Keeps Crashing on Windows 11/10 – How to Fix It

As an avid Fortnite player, there’s nothing more frustrating than when your game crashes on your Windows 11/10 PC. Whether it’s at startup, mid-game, or randomly, these crashes can disrupt your gaming experience and leave you feeling frustrated. But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

Fortnite, the renowned multiplayer battle royale game, has been a sensation since its release in 2017. With its massive and dedicated player base, it continues to be a favorite among gamers worldwide. However, like any other online video game, Fortnite isn’t without its share of technical issues. One problem that players face frequently is the Fortnite crashing issue on PC.

Related: How to Fix Fortnite Freezing on PC (2023)

In this article, we aim to tackle this issue head-on. So if your Fortnite keeps crashing, follow our list of effective solutions to get you back into the game as swiftly as possible.

Table of contents

• Why does my Fortnite keep crashing?
• Check System Requirements
• How To Stop Fortnite From Crashing?
  1. Run Fortnite As Administrator
  2. Verify Your Game Files
  3. Turn Down Your Graphics Settings
  4. Avoid Overclocking Your CPU or GPU
  5. Update Your Graphics Drivers
  6. Turn off Timeout Detection
  7. Reinstall BattlEye Fortnite
  8. Disable Fullscreen Optimizations
  9. Repair Visual C++ Redistributables
  10. Reinstall Fortnite

Why does my Fortnite keep crashing?

There are several reasons why Fortnite is crashing on your PC. Some of the most common causes include:

Network Problems: A poor internet connection can lead to crashes, especially in multiplayer games like Fortnite.

Corrupted Game Files: If game files get corrupted, Fortnite may crash randomly.

Driver Issues: Graphics and network drivers are crucial for multiplayer games. Any issues with these drivers can cause Fortnite crashing on startup.

Misconfigurations: Incorrect settings in the game or Windows can also be the root of the problem.

Server Issues: If there’s maintenance or a problem with Epic Games’ servers, it can cause Fortnite to crash.

High Game Settings: If your game settings are set too high for your system to handle, it can lead to Fortnite closing on its own.

Overclocking: Overclocking your CPU can lead to instability and performance issues in Fortnite.

Faulty Anti-Cheat Service: The anti-cheat service, BattlEye, can sometimes cause the game to crash.

Remember, the exact cause can vary from one system to another, and it might take a bit of troubleshooting to pinpoint the exact issue causing the Fortnite crash on your PC.

Check System Requirements

Before we delve into the various fixes for the Fortnite crashing issue, it’s crucial to ensure that your PC meets the minimum system requirements for the game. If your system doesn’t meet these requirements, you may experience performance issues, including crashes.

Fortnite is a relatively lightweight game, but it still requires a certain level of hardware to run smoothly. Here are the minimum and recommended system requirements for Fortnite:

Minimum System Requirements:

• Video Card: Nvidia GTX 960, AMD R9 280, or equivalent DX11 GPU
• Video Memory: 2 GB VRAM
• Processor: Core i5-7300U 3.5 GHz, AMD Ryzen 3 3300U, or equivalent
• Memory: 16 GB RAM or higher
• Hard Drive: NVMe Solid State Drive
• OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit

Recommended System Requirements:

• Video Card: Intel HD 4000 on PC; AMD Radeon Vega 8
• Processor: Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6

How To Stop Fortnite From Crashing?

Is your Fortnite crashing on launch? Does the crashing occur after an update? Whatever the case, here are a few tried and tested methods that can help you get rid of this problem in no time.

Fix #1 – Run Fortnite As Administrator

The first course of action is to run Fortnite as administrator. Running the game as an administrator will let it have all the rights and access to function properly.

To do so, right-click Fortnite and select the Run as administrator option. Click Yes on the UAC window prompt if it appears. Now launch and play Fortnite for an hour or so and see if the game crashes.

If it doesn’t crash anymore after running as an administrator, you can use the ‘Permanent’ fix below for more convenience.

Step 1: Navigate to the directory where the Fortnite folder is located. Right-click the Fortnite folder and click on Properties.

Step 2: In the Properties window, go to the Security tab and click on the Edit button.

Step 3: In the Group or user names section, click on your account and see if Full Control is allowed for your account in the bottom window. Allow your account to have Full Control if it doesn’t already and save the changes.

Step 4: Go back to the Security tab and click on the Advanced option at the bottom.

Step 5: In the Advanced Security Settings window, change the Owner to your account. Apply and save the changes.

Step 6: Launch Fortnite.

If Fortnite keeps crashing after having administrator privileges, move on to the next solution.

Fix #2 – Verify Your Game Files

Fortnite randomly crashes due to missing or corrupted game files. You can check this by verifying the integrity of your game files. If they are indeed corrupted, the Epic Games Launcher will re-download them to fix the problem. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Open the Epic Games Launcher.

Step 2: Go to Library.

Step 3: Click the three horizontal dots next to Fortnite and select Verify.

Step 4: Wait some time for the process to finish.

After repairing, launch Fortnite and check if the crashing issue has been resolved.

Fix #3 – Turn Down Your Graphics Settings

It’s possible that your game settings are set to High that are causing the issue, so try lowering those settings. You can test with lower resolution and effects to see if that fixes Fortnite crashes on PC.

Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Go to your Fortnite Settings, then click Video Settings.

Step 2: Check the following graphics settings and adjust them accordingly:

• Display Resolution: Same as the resolution of your monitor
• Quality: Low or Medium
• View Distance: Medium or Far
• Shadows: Off
• Anti-Aliasing: Off
• Textures: Low
• Effects: Low
• Show FPS: On

Step 3: Save your settings and restart your computer to see if your Fortnite runs properly.

Fix #4 – Avoid Overclocking Your CPU or GPU

Overclocking your CPU or GPU can seem like a great way to get more performance out of your system. However, it’s important to remember that while overclocking can indeed provide a performance boost, it can also lead to system instability, including crashes in games like Fortnite.

Overclocking pushes your hardware beyond its factory-set limits, which can cause overheating and other issues. If you’re using the overclock and are experiencing Fortnite crashing and freezing issue, it might be time to reconsider this approach.

• Try resetting your CPU or GPU to their default settings. This can usually be done through your system’s BIOS or via software provided by your hardware manufacturer.

• Keep an eye on your temps while in-game. You should better dial down your overclock if your system is running hot right before the crashing occurs. If your system is running hot and isn’t overclocked, you may need to improve your cooling solution.

Fix #5 – Update Your Graphics Drivers

Often times, the main culprit behind gaming errors is your graphics card driver. You may be using a wrong device driver or it’s out of date which is causing the Fortnite crash on PC. Updating your driver can potentially resolve the problem. Here’s how to do it:

Fix 1: Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog.

Fix 2: Type “devmgmt.msc” and hit Enter. This will open the Device Manager.

Fix 3: In the Device Manager, double-click on the Display adapters category.

Fix 4: Right-click on your graphics driver and select Update driver.

Fix 5: Choose the option Search automatically for drivers and allow the system to search and install the latest drivers for your hardware. This process may take some time.

Fix 6: Once the update is complete, restart your PC.

Fix 7: Launch Fortnite and check if the issue is resolved.

Fix #6 – Turn off Timeout Detection

If you experience Fortnite crashing when loading into game, then your TDR setting might be to blame. TDR stands for Timeout Detection and Recovery. Timeout detection would cause the game to crash if the graphics card took too much time to launch the game. Turning it off will let the graphics card take as much time as it wants.

It is recommended that you ‘back up your registry’ before applying this fix in case if something goes wrong. To save a backup copy of your registry, press Win+R to bring up the Run box. Type “regedit” and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. Click File on the menu bar, then select Export. Finally, select the location where you want to save the backup copy, then type a name in the file name box and click Save.

Now that you have saved a backup copy for your registry, let’s turn off the GPU’s timeout detection.

Step 1: Open the Registry Editor and follow this path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers.

Step 2: In the GraphicsDrivers section, locate the TdrLevel value. If it isn’t there, right-click on any empty space in the right pane, then hover over New and click QWORD (64-bit) Value.

Step 3: Rename the new value as “TdrLevel”.

Step 4: Double-click TdrLevel and assign it a ‘0’ value in the Value data field. Click OK to save changes.

Step 5: Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

Check to see if Fortnite not working issue has been resolved.

Fix #7 – Reinstall BattlEye Fortnite

Your BattlEye anti-cheat service may also cause the game to crash at random times. If this is the case, you’ll have to reinstall the service to fix the problem.

Step 1: Go to your Fortnite install folder and proceed to:

\Fortnite\FortniteGame\Binaries\Win64\BattleEye

Step 2: Run Uninstall_BattlEye.bat file.

Step 3: Restart your computer.

Step 4: Now run Install_BattlEye.bat from the same folder.

This should fix the problem if it’s been related to BattlEye.

Fix #8 – Disable Fullscreen Optimizations

For some users, disabling this option from the game executable’s properties has fixed Fortnite crashes. This can be done by changing the compatibility mode on ‘FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe’. The process is as follows:

Step 1: Go to your Fortnite install folder and proceed to:

\Fortnite\FortniteGame\Binaries\Win64\

Step 2: Right-click on FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe and select Properties.

Step 3: Go to the Compatibility tab and check Disable Fullscreen Optimizations, then click Apply > OK.

Step 4: Similarly, right-click on FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping_BE.exe and select Properties.

Step 5: Go to the Compatibility tab and check Disable Fullscreen Optimizations, then click Apply > OK.

Fix #9 – Repair Visual C++ Redistributables

Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable is a runtime library that is required by Fortnite to run properly. If these libraries get corrupted, the game will likely crash. You can repair the Visual C++ Redistributables in Windows 11/10 to fix the issue. Here’s how:

Windows 11:

Step 1: Press Windows key + I to open Settings and click Apps.

Step 2: Select Installed apps from the left pane, assuming it’s not already selected.

Step 3: Scroll down and locate Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages.

Step 4: Click on the three vertical dots next to them and click Modify. Click Yes in the UAC prompt.

Step 5: Click Repair and follow the on-screen instructions.

Windows 10:

Step 1: Press Windows key + I to open Settings and click Apps.

Step 2: Select Apps & Features from the left pane, assuming it’s not already selected.

Step 3: Scroll down and select Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages.

Step 4: Click Modify, then click Yes in the UAC prompt.

Step 5: Click Repair and follow the on-screen instructions.

Once the repair completes, restart your computer and launch Fortnite again to test the issue.

Fix #10 – Reinstall Fortnite

If none of the solutions seem to work, you can try to uninstall and then reinstall Fortnite.

Step 1: Launch Epic Games Launcher.

Step 2: Uninstall Fortnite (click the gear icon next to ‘Launch’ and select Uninstall).

Step 3: Restart your PC.

Step 4: Launch Epic Games Launcher.

Step 5: Install Fortnite.

Step 6: Install Fortnite Battle Royale (optional, click the gear icon, click options, tick Battle Royale and confirm).

Step 7: Launch Fortnite.

We hope that one of the above solutions will work for you and you’ll be able to play the game smoothly again. But if that doesn’t happen and you still face the crashing issue, then we suggest heading over the Fortnite Support Site for help.

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