Apex Legends is the latest battle royale game to challenge the dominance of Fortnite and PUBG. Apex Legends has broken Fortnite’s record of 10 million downloads in the first week by surpassing 25 million downloads. As a PUBG fan, I wanted to try Apex Legends, mainly because the characters appeal to me. Unfortunately, Apex Legends won’t launch on my PC.
That’s frustrating as hell. I really wanted to try this game, and I had already forgotten about it. So I started looking for solutions and realized that quite a few people are facing a similar problem. While I’m sure EA is working on a patch, here are some possible solutions to solve this bug.
1. Run as Admin
You will need administrator rights to run Apex Legends on your computer and the game may not have the necessary permissions. Right-click on the Apex Legends icon and click Run as administrator.
If this works, you need to make some changes so that Apex Legends always runs with administrator rights. To do this, right-click on it again and, this time, select Properties. You can also use the Alt+Enter shortcut while the icon is selected. On the Compatibility tab, select the Run this program as administrator check box and click Apply and OK.
2. Repair/update the game
EA understands that sometimes, files get corrupted and there can be many reasons behind it. That is why EA has included an option to repair Apex Legends if it does not launch as intended. To repair Apex Legends, open Origin and go to My Game Library.
Right-click on the game icon and click Repair Game. Follow the instructions on the screen. On the same screen, there is also the option to Update game. Developers often release patches and updates that address common issues. In our case, check if there is an update for Apex Legends.
3. Change language
I know, it’s a strange fix, but it worked for some users. Maybe it will work for you too. One user accidentally discovered that by changing the game language from English to Polish and vice versa, Apex Legends launched for him. It can’t hurt to try.
To do this, start Origin, right click on the Apex Legends icon and select Game Properties.
Click Advanced Launch Options.
This is where you will change your game language from English to Polish. Don’t forget to save. Launch Apex Legends again and close it. Then change the language back to English to see if it works.
4. Disable full screen optimization
Full screen optimization can cause all sorts of problems such as lag and crashes while playing on Windows 10. Windows 10 introduced borderless display mode which may be preventing Apex Legends from running normally. Check out our comprehensive guide on how to disable full screen optimization.
5. Reinstall
Maybe Origin and Apex Legends were installed incorrectly? Press the Windows key, find Control Panel and open it.
Find Uninstall a program and open it.
Find Apex Legends, right click and select Uninstall. Do the same for Origin then.
Download Origin and then Apex Legends from the Origin Store or game library using the following link.
Download Origin
6. Check your firewall and antivirus settings
Firewall and antivirus protect us against all kinds of malware, adware, viruses, ransomware and more. And hackers can still infect our systems and steal data. Sometimes, the firewall can also block perfectly good software like Apex Legends.
Open Windows Defender Firewall and check if Apex Legends and Apex Origin appear in the Inbound Rules column. If you are using another dedicated software firewall, then you need to check to see if there is software that you have allowed Apex Legends to play.
Some users found that adding a rule to allow Apex Legends on the firewall helped. To do this, select Inbound Rules in the left column, click Action and select New Rule.
Select Program and click Next.
Select This program path to locate the Apex Legends launch file in the folder where you have installed the game. It should be an.exe file inside the C drive. Click Next when you are ready to continue.
Select Allow connection on the next screen and click Next.
Check all three boxes and click Next.
Assign any name to this rule, but I recommend that you set it to Apex Legends so that it is easy to remember. Click Finish. Repeat the same process but this time for Origin.
7. Malwarebytes and CCleaner
Although we are not big fans of CCleaner, we recommend Malwarebytes to as many Windows users as we can find. An EA representative asks users having trouble launching Apex Legends to run these two tools.
Simply download them using the link below, install and run them. Both applications will notify you if they find anything. Follow the on-screen instructions if you find a threat. The free version is good enough, but get the pro if you can.
Download CCleaner
Download Malwarebytes
8. New account
If you are a new user and haven’t played Apex Legends yet, it can’t hurt to create a new account. The process of creating a new account is still the same as the first time.
Log out of Origin if you are logged in. Click create a new account and follow the process as you did the first time when creating an account. Hopefully that will help.
Play as a legend
Apex Legends is a fantastic battle royale shooter, and each character has special abilities. You need to choose different characters to build a balanced team overall. My favorite is the Wraith. which one is yours?
Next: Want to buy some games on Origin? Want a bargain? Learn how you can buy cheap games in the Origin store.