How to Fix Black Screen on Discord

Keep seeing a black screen on Discord when sharing your screen?

Discord is an instant messaging platform that allows you to join voice, video, or text chats. It features communities and servers, where you can engage in various discussions about specific topics or hobbies. 

You can also host a server for your friends so that you can easily communicate during gaming sessions. There are also Discord servers for specific games, where you can invite fellow players for a public match. 

On the other hand, some people use Discord to share their screen and host watch parties or stream gameplay. 

Although the screen share feature of Discord is top-notch, it has its limitations and issues. If you are here, we can assume that you experience a black screen when sharing your display on Discord. 

To help you out, we’ve decided to make a guide for fixing the black screen issue on Discord. 

Let’s dive right in!

1. Restart Your System. 

When you experience a black screen on Discord, the first thing you can do is restart your system. A temporary bug or glitch may have occurred on your device, causing some features on Discord to malfunction. 

Follow the steps below to restart your PC: 

1. First, access the Start Menu on your Taskbar. 
2. Next, go to the Power Options tab. 
3. Lastly, choose Restart to reboot your system. 

Once done, try sharing your screen again on Discord to check if the problem is solved. 

2. Run Discord As Admin. 

Discord needs to have the correct permissions to record your screen. If the app doesn’t have access to your system, it can’t function properly, and some features may not work. 

To fix this, run Discord as an administrator to bypass restrictions from your system:

1. On your desktop, right-click on the Discord app. 
2. Now, choose Properties and access the Compatibility tab. 
3. Finally, enable the ‘Run this Program as an Administrator’ option. 

Relaunch Discord afterward and check if you still encounter a black screen. 

3. Clear Discord Cache. 

Discord stores temporary data on your system, which improves its overall performance. However, Discord’s cache can accumulate over time and become corrupted. When this happens, some features on the app may not work. 

If you keep encountering a black screen on Discord, see the steps below to clear its cache: 

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows + R keys to open the Run Command. 
2. Now, type ‘%appdata%’ and hit Enter to open the folder. 
3. Lastly, open the Discord folder and delete all its content. 

Restart your system afterward and check if the problem is solved. 

4. Update Your Display Driver. 

Your graphics card needs to be working properly if you want to use the screen share feature of Discord. To ensure that your hardware functions correctly, update your display drivers to patch possible bugs and errors. 

Here’s how you can update your drivers on Windows: 

1. First, press the Windows + X keys on your keyboard to access the Quick Menu. 
2. After that, click on Device Manager and expand the Display Adapters tab. 
3. Lastly, right-click on your graphics card and choose Update Driver. 

After updating your device, restart your computer and check if the black screen issue on Discord is fixed. 

5. Update Windows. 

The current version of Windows you’re using may have an underlying issue related to screen recording. It’s also possible that your OS is not compatible with the version of Discord you’re using.

To rule this out, update your Windows OS to the latest version possible. See the steps below to guide you on the process: 

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows + I keys to open Windows Settings. 
2. Now, go to Update & Security. 
3. Finally, access the Windows Update tab and click on Check for Updates. 

After the update, go back to Discord and check if the problem is solved. 

6. Turn Off Hardware Acceleration. 

If your system doesn’t have integrated graphics, double check your settings and ensure that hardware acceleration is disabled. This feature on Discord utilizes your GPU’s power to improve performance. 

However, if your system doesn’t have a dedicated GPU, hardware acceleration won’t function properly. 

See the steps below to turn off this feature on Discord: 

1. First, open Discord’s Settings on your computer. 
2. After that, go to the Advanced tab. 
3. Lastly, ensure that Hardware Acceleration is disabled. 

Try sharing your screen afterward to check if the problem is solved. 

7. Check Your Screen Share Settings. 

Discord updates its platform from time to time to test out new technology and methods to improve performance. However, if a new feature was introduced, expect it not to be perfect right away. 

If you keep seeing a black screen on Discord, check your settings and turn off the ‘Use Latest Technology to Capture Screen’ feature. 

Here’s what you need to do: 

1. First, open Discord and access the Settings. 
2. Next, go to the Voice & Video tab. 
3. Lastly, disable the ‘Use Our Latest Technology to Capture Your Screen’ option under the Screen Share tab. 

Restart Discord afterward and check if you’ll still encounter a black screen when sharing your screen. 

8. Reinstall Discord. 

If none of the solutions above worked for you, the last option you have is to reinstall the entire app on your system. This should ensure that there are no corrupted files from your system and you’re using the latest working version of Discord. 

Check out the guide below to reinstall Discord on your PC: 

1. Open the Control Panel on your computer. 
2. After that, click on Uninstall a Program and find the Discord app. 
3. Finally, right-click on the app and choose Uninstall. 

Once done, go to Discord’s official website and download the latest installer there. 

That wraps up our guide for fixing the black screen issue on Discord. For your questions and other concerns, please leave a comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer them. 

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂