Fix: Origin won’t open or respond after launch
Origin is an online gaming platform that allows users to play online multiplayer games such as FIFA 19 and Battlefield V, it also has a digital distribution platform known as the Origin Store, so you could just use your credit card to purchase games for PC and mobile devices from this store. Social networking features such as profile management, chat with friends, and game joining is also available. EA also added an in-game overlay, cloud saving and, live gameplay streaming into the origin client.
What happens when origin doesn’t open or doesn’t respond after launch?
A lot of users are reporting that when they run the Origin client to play their favorite game, the client either doesn’t respond or doesn’t launch at all. Sometimes the program runs in the background and can be seen in the task manager, while other times, it just minimizes into the system tray.
What causes Origin to act like this?
Before we go into details on how these issues could be fixed, we need to determine the possible causes. These can range from a fault in the origin cache to a buggy update. Here are the most frequent scenarios.
- Issues with origin updater: Origin updater sometimes update the origin client. The client sometimes stops responding while it is being updated on the background.
- Corrupted cache files: There are chances that the error where the origin client doesn’t respond is directly related to the stored cache files. Somehow the cache can get affected and this will cause the issue to occur.
- Distorted temporary files: With the passage of time origin client creates temporary files that help it function smoothly, but these files could get corrupted and cause the client to not respond. Deleting these files might make origin run properly again.
- Problems with the core origin files: Some problems could occur with the core working files of the client itself and the only way to fix them is by reinstalling the whole client.
Method 1: Letting the Origin client update
You will need to check whether the origin updater is updating the origin client on the back-end, if it is, then trying to run origin while it is updating causes the client to not respond. You can do that by following these steps
- Open the task manager by right-clicking on the task-bar and then selecting the task manager.
- Now once the task manager is opened you need to look for the Origin application.
- Once you have found it you must check if it is taking all of your internet bandwidth in the network column. If it is taking bandwidth then the client is updating and will need some time to finish the update, once it has finished, you will be able to run the client again. If the client is not taking any bandwidth, then move down to the next method.
Method 2: Deleting the Origin cache files
In order to load faster, Origin creates cache files and stores the most frequently used data in them. It checks on each startup if whether it needs those files and if so, it loads them from the cache instead of downloading them again. If the files are not stored, then they are created. Over time these files could pile up and get corrupted. Deleting these files might fix the issue. Here’s how you could do that.
- First close the origin client if it is running, using the Task Manager window.
- On the keyboard, press the Windows + R key and then type “%ProgramData%” into the dialog box and press Enter.
- In the ProgramData folder open the Origin folder.
- In the Origin folder delete all the files and folders except the LocalContent folder.
- Now try to run the Origin client again to see if the error is gone.
Method 3: Deleting the Origin’s temporary files
Origin keeps creating temporary files in the AppData folder, these files could sometime cause the origin to not respond. Deleting these files would cause the origin client to create fresh files that might solve the issue. These files are hidden by default, so we will have to unhide them first.
- In the search box on your task-bar type “folder”, now select Show hidden files and folders from the results.
- Under Advanced settings, select Show hidden files, folders and drives, then select OK.
- Now press Windows + R keys and write “%AppData%” and press Enter.
- Once the AppData folder opens up, delete the Origin folders located in both the Local and the Roaming folder.
- Now restart Origin to see if the issue is resolved or not.
Method 4: Reinstalling the Origin client
If all the above methods have failed, then the last option is to first uninstall the old Origin client and then install it again using the latest setup. This will only delete your Origin client and not your games, but you will have to re-add them.
- On your keyboard, press Windows + R keys, write “control panel” and then press Enter to open.
- Click on “Uninstall a program” under the Programs section.
- Find the Origin client in the list and right-click on it and then click Uninstall.
- Now download the latest version of Origin from here. Once downloaded run the setup by double-clicking on it and then clicking “install origin”.
- Now run it to see if the issue is resolved.
None of these fixed it for me. Very frustrating because it was working fine 1 day and now it wont open at all. Tried everything including a clean boot.