How to Restart Discord on Desktop & Mobile? [Step-By-Step Guide]‍

Discord is one of the most famous online communication tools for social groups, especially gamers. Apart from letting you send texts/voice messages, Discord can do a lot more. It offers a host of great features that’s well-suited to gaming - like custom servers, voice channels, and lots of personalisation and integrations.

Be it for networking or having fun, Discord can be a great place to be online. As of 2021, Discord has over 150 million active users per month. Naturally, this can introduce glitches or bugs in the platform.

That said, most of these issues can be resolved by simply refreshing or restarting discord. In this article, we take you through a step-by-step guide on how to restart discord and make it work for you. Let us get started.

Discord is well-compatible with both mobile and desktop interfaces. Here’s how you can restart glitchy Discord:

You can refresh Discord on the desktop (Windows or Mac) by pressing the Discord hotkey (CTRL+R). If you are using Discord on a mobile phone, you can scroll on the screen from the top and refresh Discord chats.

Table of Contents

1. When should you refresh Discord?
2. How to refresh Discord?
3. How to restart Discord on Windows?
4. How to restart Discord on Mac?
5. How to restart Discord on a smartphone?
6. What to do if restarting Discord does not work?

When Should You Refresh Discord?

One of the major benefits of refreshing Discord is that it shows you other members’ updated status. Discord does not offer status updates on its own. As a result, you might see glitches in status updates.

Besides, many other issues can be fixed by refreshing Discord. We have mentioned a few important ones below:

Frozen Channels

One of the most common bugs in Discord, a frozen channel suddenly stops your mic from working properly.

Wrong Status

As stated above, Discord does not refresh on its own. Such glitches can make online members appear offline and vice versa. Or, you might find members in yellow when they are actually green and not idle. That is why it is always recommended for users to manually refresh the program at regular intervals.

Not Getting New Direct Messages

If you have not been receiving messages from your friends on Discord, it is likely that the platform needs to be refreshed. Restarting Discord can resolve this issue right away.

How to Refresh Discord?

Discord can be easily refreshed using the physical keyboard. Simply press the Discord hotkey (CTRL + R) to refresh the platform. Once you press CTRL + R, the application will be completely refreshed and it will display a black screen for a few seconds. Your screen will appear normal when the application is ready for use.

In case you prefer to use the browser app, you can restart Discord by closing the browser and then reopening it in a new one. Once done, you can launch the browser again and hit CTRL + SHIFT + T to open all the recently closed tabs. This will reopen all the closed tabs including Discord. You can test the browser again to see if the issues have been resolved.

If you are working on other tabs and do not want to disturb them, you can also choose to simply close the Discord tab. If you see that the Discord tab got frozen on your browser, you will have to close the program via Task Manager and restart it. You can finish the process by following our step-by-step instructions in method 2.

How to Restart Discord on Windows?

In case you face any of the aforementioned issues, it is ideal that you restart discord. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to restart Discord on Windows:

Method 1: Close Discord application from Taskbar

1. Search for the Discord icon in your taskbar and right-click on it.

2. From the menu that appears, choose ‘Close window’.


3. Once that’s done, open the list of hidden icons in your taskbar.
4. From the list, look for the Discord icon again and right-click on it. Choose ‘Quit Discord’ from the new menu.

The program has now been completely closed and you can relaunch it whenever you like.

Method 2: Restart Discord application with Task Manager

This is yet another simple yet effective way to restart Discord and put an end to unwanted glitches.

1. You can either directly open the Task Manager or use the Windows shortcut CTRL + SHIFT+ ESC to open it.
2. Ensure that you expand the window of the Task Manager for a full view of all the options.
3. Move the cursor to the ‘Processes’ tab and you will see two sub tabs - ‘Apps’ and ‘Background processes’.


4. From the list of Apps, choose ‘Discord’ and click on ‘End task’.
5. Once done, scroll below to find all the running Discord files and close all of them.

This will completely close Discord on your computer and you can relaunch at your convenience by right-clicking on the Discord icon. Then, click on ‘Run as administrator’ and the program will work error-free.

Method 3: Clearing app and local app data on Windows

This method is basically used to reset Discord. If Discord keeps crashing on your device or does not detect mic, clearing data is the best way to get rid of such issues.

1. Press WINDOWS + R key.
2. Now, type %appdata% and press enter.


3. You will now be able to see the Windows roaming folder. Look for a folder named ‘Discord’, and delete it. You can delete it by pressing SHIFT + DEL.


4. Repeat the process again by pressing WINDOWS + R and type %localappdata% before you hit enter key.


5. This step will reveal Discord’s local app data on Windows. Hit SHIFT+DEL to delete it.

The data has now been completely erased and you can restart Discord again.

How to Restart Discord on Mac?

One of the top reasons why Discord has a huge user base is that it is compatible with a range of devices. Irrespective of the type of software you use, you can easily connect with your friends and fellow gamers. You can also successfully accomplish the restarting process on Mack in a few steps. Follow our guide below to know how to restart Discord on Mac:

To refresh Discord on Mac, hit COMMAND + R. Restarting Discord on Mac is also simple. Follow the steps below:

1. Locate the Discord icon pinned on the dock.
2. A two-finger click on the Discord icon reveals the options menu.
3. From the list, click on ‘Quit Discord’.

The application has now been completely closed on Mac and you can relaunch it whenever you like.

How to Restart Discord on a Smartphone?

Although Discord is absolutely compatible with mobile phones, there is no such option that allows users to refresh or restart Discord. Simply, close the application on the smartphone and relaunch it after a few seconds. If the problem persists, you can also try uninstalling the application and reinstalling it.

What to Do if Restarting Discord Does Not Work?

Discord is compatible with a range of devices - Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS, Linux, and in web browsers. The service has over 350 million registered users and sometimes, Discord servers can be down. In such cases, you can switch to the web browser and try accessing the program there.

Alternatively, you can also try to uninstall and reinstall the app on your desktop/smartphone. This clears cache on your device and helps run Discord smoothly. As a last resort, you can always talk to the support team at Discord.