When APEX isn’t working, there are a plethora of things that could be at fault. To narrow it down, check out the symptoms of the problem so you know precisely which fixes are most likely to work.
After all, troubleshooting isn’t as much fun as making your way to becoming an APEX Legend after taking down all your opponents.
Here are a few things to look out for that help you troubleshoot more efficiently.
- Check whether the game launches at all. If it isn’t, try to launch another game or program to determine whether only APEX is the issue. If not, it might be a computer issue. If APEX is the only affected program, you may need to repair those files.
- If you can get to the load screen but can’t join games, it could be your settings or the internet at fault. Checking those first might get you back in the game more quickly.
- If you’re having stuttering, lagging, and other similar problems, you may have to check how your computer is holding up and adjust your settings accordingly.
There are many options to fix APEX Legends when it isn’t working. If one solution doesn’t seem to pan out, don’t worry. Another one surely will.
Restart Everything
Before making changes to your system and the game, try restarting your computer, modem, and router. That will allow you to start fresh, sign back into the launcher, and try to get APEX working again.
- Shut down your computer. This will also shut down the launcher you’re using for APEX.
- Unplug your modem and router. Once they’re unplugged, you want to wait a few minutes to plug them back in. That waiting time isn’t wasted – it ensures the signal refreshes, and you reconnect to your ISP cleanly.
- Plug in the modem and wait until all the status lights are lit and indicate you have a functioning internet signal.
- Plug in the router and wait for the same indicators.
- Turn on your computer, reconnect to the internet, sign into your launcher, and restart APEX.
If this worked, you probably have nothing to worry about. Sometimes a momentary error in your system prevents APEX from working, and it’s fixed as soon as the computer comes back on.
You may want to reinstall the game if you find it frequently happening until you restart.
Check APEX Legends Server Status
Sometimes the issue isn’t on your end. This is often the case when you still can’t connect but can get to the main screen – especially if you took the time to restart your router and modem.
Check out one of the APEX status centers to see whether or not it’s working correctly. If the server you’re using is down, you can swap it to another data center until it’s working again.
- Sign into APEX and choose the Server option at the bottom of the launch screen. If you don’t see it, wait a few minutes, click Accessibility, and then close the menu. It should appear.
- Select the server with the best ping that is still functional.
- Start playing APEX on your new server.
While you probably don’t want to move away from your preferred data center forever, it’s a great way to keep the game going when only a selection of APEX servers are down.
Update Everything
Before going further, check that your GPU drivers, PC, and APEX are updated. If you haven’t updated them, do so before you attempt to play again.
These updates can offer hotfixes or improvements that will improve your gameplay. It could help APEX use fewer resources and eliminate problematic content that is overtaxing your PC or other things. If you’ve been putting off your updates, do them now.
Identify Resource Issues
If your problem is how APEX is behaving, check out the resource usage on your computer to see whether it is a problem.
Sometimes APEX is just using too much of your memory, CPU, or GPU to function at the highest settings.
In those cases, turning down certain graphics options can help fix it. First, however, you need to find out whether you’re even having resource issues.
- Hook up a second screen if you can. While it seems easy to tab between the Task Manager and APEX, your computer will use things differently when APEX is focused versus running in the background.
- Press the Windows key and type Task Manager. Click the corresponding app and move it to your second screen.
- Launch APEX and enter a game.
- Watch the monitors on the second screen to see how much CPU, Memory, and GPU you’re using, especially. If something is using a very high percentage when APEX is running, then it might be causing glitches or stuttering as it attempts to keep the game going with limited resources.
You can upgrade your computer or lower your APEX settings to make it work better. If you upgrade your computer, focus on the components showing high usage when APEX was running.
Change Your Settings
Many settings can help you make APEX work better. These fixes primarily work if your computer is taxed by the graphics and gameplay on APEX rather than with actual problems with the game file itself.
If your problem is how the game performs, try some of these ideas to help make APEX work better.
You can also set APEX to run as an administrator, which is especially helpful if you’re streaming while you play.
- Navigate to your game’s installation files.
- Find r5apex.exe.
- Right-click the file and choose Properties.
- Select the Compatibility tab.
- Check the Run this program as an administrator box.
- Click Apply.
- Click OK.
- Launch APEX Legends.
- Press Continue.
- Choose the Setting icon.
- Select Settings.
- Make the appropriate adjustments.
Here are a few things to think about changing. Remember, no one preset will be perfect for everyone because each player has such different hardware. Sometimes the best way to find settings that work is to experiment until it feels right as you play.
- Lowering shadows almost always reduces the amount of resources the system uses. Shadows shouldn’t make a big difference in your game’s functions, so don’t be afraid to lower them significantly to see whether you can live without them.
- Sun and lighting options should also be reduced as much as possible. When the game uses resources to generate more lifelike imagery, it’s less able to allocate them to actual gameplay.
- Switch on every option designed to help improve gameplay. NVIDIA Reflex should be enabled with the boost option if it suits your build. Turn on V-Sync. Play in fullscreen even if it’s less convenient to do so. These can all make APEX work better.
Experimenting with different settings can really improve your experience. If APEX isn’t working, consider switching to low settings and slowly moving up to see what your computer can handle.
Repair Game Files
Repairing your game files through the launcher is one way to fix damaged files or replace missing ones without having to reinstall the entire game.
Since APEX has such a large file size, this is a great first step before you go into the trouble of uninstalling and reinstalling. It should be much quicker and give the same results.
Depending on which launcher you use, you’ll do this through Steam or the EA App.
For the EA App:
- Open My Collection.
- Click the three-dot icon on the APEX listing.
- Click Repair.
- Wait for the process to finish.
For Steam:
- Open your Steam library.
- Right-click on APEX Legends.
- Choose Properties.
- Choose Game Files.
- Select Verify Integrity of Game Files.
- Wait for the process to finish.
It should report on whether successful repairs were made. If it couldn’t acquire the necessary files or it didn’t work, consider a complete reinstallation.
Reinstall APEX Legends
Finally, you can reinstall APEX Legends by deleting the files from your device and installing them again from scratch. While this may take a lot of time and bandwidth, it will help give you a completely new game with no errors in the files.
You shouldn’t jump right to reinstalling because it won’t fix issues like needing to update your drivers, computer resource problems, and incorrect settings.
It’s always best to try to troubleshoot the game when you can to understand what’s wrong – that way, you don’t go to the time and trouble of reinstallation only to be met with the same problems.
