Discord is an platform used for digital distribution and instant messaging. Discord creates a community for users. The communities are called ‘servers’.
There is a collection of voice chat channels and persistent chat rooms on the servers. Media files are stored in the servers.
Discord can create and manage public and private communities. Users can communicate with each other.
The mode of communication for users here are video calls, text messages, voice calls. In spite of being gamer friendly at the starting days, discord is now becoming more useful to general users.
One of the unique features of discord is it’s in–game overlay feature. This feature is used by gamers to communicate through discord’s messaging and voice chatting while playing a full-screen game.
This feature comes as very handy for gamers. But sometimes the overlay does not show up while playing the game.
This problem hampers the gaming experience of the gamers as chatting and communicating are very important to succeed in some games.
Causes Of Discord Overlay Not Showing Up
There can be various reasons which result in discord overlay not showing up. The reasons are –
Game overlay option – Discord’s overlay feature needs to be turned on. For playing some games, the name of game is also to be added to the game list of discord as well.
Many new users are not familiar with this settings. They tend to forget that they have to manually turn on the overlay and add the game to the discord game list. This is the most common and basic cause of the problem.
Overlay Location – The location of the discord overlay should be appropriate in order to work properly. Discord overlay is movable.
While scaling the display, some users move the overlay out of the screen. This causes the problem.
As an example, if one scaled the display and put the overlay at the edge of the screen then in this case one can’t see the overlay but it will work fine.
Antivirus – Sometimes discord or its overlay features get blocked by antiviruses. Antivirus might flag the features. This incident can also be the cause of the problem of discord overlay not working.
Hardware acceleration – The process of using computer hardware to run some programs better than software running is called hardware acceleration.
It is used normally in general-purpose CPU. If this feature is turned on, the. Running discord in the same computer can be troublesome.
Scaled display – If the user is using a scaled Windows display, then there’s a chance that the discord overlay is getting behind the screen. This can also result in the discord overlay not working properly.
How To Fix Discord Overlay Not Working?
Before everything else, the user should do a reboot of the discord app and the reboot of the system. Because sometimes there’s a glitch that goes away after the reboot process is done.
After rebooting, one should run the discord to check if everything is working properly or not.
If this does not solve the problem of discord overlay not showing up, the. One can follow the methods listed below to solve the problem.
Method 1: Turn on The Game Overlay
At first, it should be made sure that the game overlay is turned on. Follow the steps listed below to make sure that everything settings have been set properly to avoid any kind of issues.
Step 1 – At first Open discord.
Step 2 – There is an icon of settings on the top of the right side of the user’s avatar. Then Click on that user settings.
Step 3 – Afterwards Overlay should be selected from the left pane.
Step 4 – On the top of the right pane, there’s an option named enable in-game overlay. Turn that option on.
Step 5 – Then Game activity is to be selected from the left side.
Step 6 – Next one should click on Add it! Link from the right pane. Then select the specific game’s name from the drop-down menu. – If the name of the playing game is not in the game list of discord then the user has to add it manually. Click add the game.
Step 7 – Finally the user should make sure that overlay is turned on for the specific game that he or she is playing.
If the overlay option has been turned on then the game should be shown in a green box in the right pane. Overlay on status will also be shown.
If the overlay is not turning on then one has to click the monitor button in front of the game. This action will turn the overlay on.
Method 2: Turn Off Hardware Acceleration
Hardware acceleration can cause the problem of discord overlay not working. So, the bellow listed methods should be followed to turn off hardware acceleration to avoid this problem.
Step 1 – At first open discord.
Step 2 – There is an icon of user settings on the top of the right side of the user’s avatar. Then Click on that user settings.
Step 3 – Then apperance should be selected from the left pane.
Step 4 – Next in the right pane, there’s a section named under that menu.
Step 5 – Thereafter hardware acceleration should be turned off.
Step 6 – Afterwards click okay in the given confirmation box.
Now the discord app will reboot and the issue should be solved when it restarts.
Method 3: Rescale The Display
Sometimes the discord overlay couldn’t work properly because the display was scaled. One should scale the display back to its natural 100%.
Step 1 – At first, hold Windows key and press I.
Step 2 – Then click system.
Step 3 – Next go to the scale and layout section. Then select 100% (recommend) from the drop-down menu.
Method 4: Move The Overlay
The wrong location of the overlay can result in not working properly sometimes. Steps of moving the overlay to the right position is listed below:
Step 1 – At first, one should close the game and open discord.
Step 2 – Then press and hold ( CTRL +SHIFT +I). A javascript console will open on the right side.
Step 3 – Afterwards, click on the >> arrow icon which will be in the top right corner of the given javascript console.
Step 4 – A new list has been created. Select application from there.
Step 5 – A new left panel has been created. Double click local storage from there.
Step 6 – Next a new entry has been created under the local storage named. It should be clicked.
Step 7 – Next click right on the overlay store.
Step 8 – Now select delete.
Step 9 – At last reboot discord.
Now launch the game and the overlay should be in perfect position.
Method 5: Update Discord
Discord gives regular updates to fix the bugs, problems and run it smoothly. So the user should check out for the updates at a regular interval.
Method 6: Run As Administrator
Discord needs important system permissions to read and write on the root directory of the computer.
Not giving the permissions can result in discord not working properly. Try to run discord as an administrator following the below steps to solve the problem –
Step 1 – At first, click right on the discord executable under the discord installation folder. Then select the properties option.
Step 2 – Next click on the compatibility tab and press run this program as an administrator button.
Step 3 – Therefore click apply and than ok button.
Step 4 – At last run discord again to see if the problem has solved.
Method 7: Use a VPN
Using a VPN service can solve voice connection problems. So this particular problem can be solved by establishing a VPN connection to PC.
But discord can only work with VPN solutions that have User Datagram Protocol.
Method 8: Contact Discord Support
If none of the above ways are able to solve the problem of discord overlay not work properly, then finally one should contact discord support for help.
There are two ways to reach the Discord support section.
Step 1 – Go to their website and find the support section.
Step 2 – Find related help there.
For a quick response, one can contact discord via their Twitter account.
Conclusion
Discord is a very popular and useful platform. But sometimes, users can face problems like Discord overlay not working and some others.
Use the above-listed methods to solve the problem and experience using the platform without any problems.
