League of Legends Not Opening? Here’s How to Fix It

League of Legends Season 13 starts in January 2023. You’re probably thinking of getting the game up to shape before the date arrives. So, how to fix League Of Legends Not Opening? 

Players of the MOBA may experience the error due to various factors. We should understand the causes to tackle the issues as fast as possible. 

We’re generally dealing with incompatible third-party programs or a corrupted game folder. In any case, we’re checking a complete list of possible causes and solutions to help you.

League of Legends Not Opening Error Causes

The error presents itself when you double-click the Lol client or the game’s shortcut, and nothing happens.

There’s no error notification, so you have nothing to guide you toward a solution.  So, LoL not opening may sound like a serious issue, but, most often, it is not.

Alternatively, the game’s client may open, but the game doesn’t load or allow you to play a match. In other words, the client doesn’t load anything, and you won’t see any Play button on the interface.

Either way, to better understand what’s going on, let’s check the different reasons why your game may not be opening: 

• There’s a random bug in your PC or the game.
• There’re League of Legends tasks already running in the background.
• You’re not running the game as administrator.
• There’s a third-party app causing issues. For example, the game can’t run if you’re running hacking software in the background. 
• The game files or folder is corrupted.
• The League of Legends servers is down due to an error or for maintenance. 
• Windows is not up to date.
• Your GPU drivers are out of date.
• Your internet is slow or unreliable, so it doesn’t have enough strength to open the game.

As you see, the list of problems is short and simple. Particularly, the League of Legends client is somehow weak, as its “DLL” files can get corrupted out of nowhere.

How to Fix League of Legends Not Opening?

Our troubleshooting ranges from deleting third-party apps to healing the game’s potentially corrupted folder.

We’ll tell you when to try the game and when to keep going with the troubleshooter.

Restart the PC or Close All LoL Tasks

Restarting the computer will delete some of Windows’ temporary files. There might be corrupted data, which is preventing LoL from opening. It sounds silly, but it’s a common cause of the game’s errors.

Additionally, restarting the PC will close every instance of the game running in the background. See, whenever you try to open LoL, but it doesn’t open, some of its tasks will still run in the background.

And while invisible LoL tasks are running in the background, it will be impossible to open the game. That is why we need to restart the PC.

Alternatively, you can close all stances of League of Legends’ tasks from the Task Manager.

1. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL and go to the Task Manager.
2. Find all League of Legends and Riot tasks.
3. Right-click these tasks and select End task.
   

Before testing the game again, complete the next solution.

Close Unnecessary Third-Party Apps

Similarly, you should close all unnecessary third-party apps you’re running as you open League of Legends would be best.

Some of the programs that cause issues with LoL include:

• Lighting or RGB software.
• Hacking tools.
• Other game launchers such as Steam -especially Steam!
• Razer Synapse.
• Adobe software, as well as video and design-related software.
• Other games running in the background.
• Similar.

So, we’re going back to the Task Manager to close any of these programs. We can do it like so:

1. Click the Windows button on the keyboard.
2. Type “task manager” on the search bar. 
3. Click on “Task Manager.”
   
4. Find the software we listed.
5. Right-click the program and select End task.
   

If you’re running too many programs on your PC and don’t know which one is causing the issue, you can try a clean boot. A clean boot restarts your PC while running the essential services only.

Here’re the steps:

1. Press the Windows key + R on the keyboard.
2. Type “MSConfig” on the dialogue box and hit Ok.
   
3. Go to the General Tab.
4. Check Selective startup, as well as “Load system services” and “Load startup items.”
   
5. Go to the Services tab.
6. Check “Hide all Microsoft Services.”
7. Select Disable All. This will disable every service on your PC but the essential ones.
   
8. Confirm by hitting Apply and then Ok.
9. Let the PC restart.

Before trying to open the game, complete the next step.

Run the Game’s “.exe” File in Its Folder as An Administrator

The next step is going to the game’s installation folder to try to run the “.exe” file. However, you’ll run it as an administrator.

If this solution works, you’ll put the .exe file as a shortcut on the desktop, but you’ll give administrator rights to this shortcut.

1. Go to the game’s installation folder. The default folder is C: Riot Games/LeagueofLegends. Otherwise, go to the custom folder you selected.
   
2. Right-click “LeagueClient” and select “Run as administrator.”
   
3. If this works, go back to the folder, and right-click “LeagueClient” again. 
4. Go to the “Compatibility tab.”
5. Check “Run this program as administrator.”
   
6. Confirm the changes and go back to the folder.
7. Right-click the client again.
8. Select Send to – Desktop.
   
9. On Windows 11, you’ll have to click “Show more options” to find these options.
   

Now, you can test playing League of Legends again by clicking the shortcut on the desktop. Before you do, go to the Task Manager and close any Riot and LoL tasks you see. 

Delete LoL’s Log and Config Folders

The game may be having trouble with your account. The way to fix LoL account bugs is by deleting the “Logs” and “Config” subfolders within LoL’s installation folder.

Here’re the steps:

1. Go back to LoL’s installation folder.
2. Go to the League of Legends folder.
   
3. Delete the “Logs” and “Config” folders.
   
4. Launch League of Legends and log in again.

If it still doesn’t work, test the next solution.

Repair the Installation Folder

There might be corruption in the game folder, and we can try fixing it with the client.

By now, you should have the client in the folder with administrator rights. Open the client -if it doesn’t open, try the next fix.

So, here’re the steps:

1. Open LoL’s client. Remember to run it as administrator.
2. Go to the Settings.
3. Go to General.
4. Select Initiate full repair.
   
5. Wait for the process to finish. The client will search for corruption and attempt to fix it.
   
6. By the end of the process, the client should look normal like this:
   

Either way, reboot the PC after you fix LoL through its options. Then, try playing again. However, if it doesn’t work and you don’t see the Play button yet, follow the next step.

Update Windows

If Windows is not up to date, that may cause compatibility issues with your LoL client. So, here’s how to perform a manual update of the operative system:

1. Click the Windows icon.
2. Type “check for updates” on the search bar.
3. Click on  “Check for updates.“
   
4. Click “Check for updates” or “Download and install updates” (if you see the latter button).
5. If the process finds a new update, also click on “Download and install.”
   

Windows will download the update and prompt you to restart the PC when it finishes.

Aside from updating Windows (or checking for updates), you should also check GPU driver updates to fix League of Legends.

Update the GPU Drivers

Outdated graphic card drivers may also cause incompatibility issues. Let’s try updating the software via the Device Manager:

1. Click the Windows icon again.
2. Type “device manager” on the Windows search bar.
3. Open the Device Manager.
   
4. Click on “Display Adapters” to find your drivers.
5. Right-click all of your GPUs (Intel, AMD, or Nvidia).
6. Select “Update driver.”
   
7. Select “Search automatically for drivers.”
8. If Windows finds an update, it will let you know and install it.

Alternatively, you can download the proprietary software of each card. Depending on the unit you found on the Device Manager, download the following:

• NVIDIA Control Center for Nvidia cards.
• AMD Adrenalin for AMD cards. Remember that AMD GPUs, graphic cards within AMD CPUs, can run League of Legends without issue. 
• Intel drivers for Intel cards. Remember that Intel iGPUs, which are GPUs within the CPU chip, can run League of Legends just fine). 

Once you open these pages, you have to match the model you have with a driver. Then, download and install the driver. Once you open the software, you’ll find easy access to further driver updates.

You should test League of Legends by now. Remember to open it with administrator rights. If it doesn’t work, go towards the next solution.

Make a Clean Reinstall of the Game

The last solution is reinstalling the game. So, we need to uninstall, download, and install it on your PC again.

Here’re the steps:

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows button plus X.
2. Select Apps and features.
3. Find League of Legends on the list.
4. Click on the vertical “…” and select Uninstall if you’re on Windows 11.
   
5. If you’re on Windows 10, select Advanced options and then Uninstall.
   
6. Go to the League of Legends page and download the client again.
7. Lastly, install the client again and try playing.