Top 7 Ways to Fix Screen Share Not Working on Discord

Discord has emerged as the most preferred communication platform for gamers in recent times. It lets us interact with fellow gamers through text, voice, and video calls. But most of us use it to share our screen with others and showcase what’s happening on the screen. But if you’re failing to live stream your gaming session because the screen share isn’t working, you’re at the right place.

If Discord is not allowing you to share the screen or if your fellow users are seeing a black screen instead, then this guide has a few troubleshooting methods you can use to resolve the issue. So, without further ado, let’s check it out.

1. Run Discord as administrator

Such screen sharing issues in Discord can occur if the app doesn’t have the relevant permissions. To fix this, you can try running Discord with admin rights.

To open Discord with administrative privileges, right-click on the Discord app icon and select Run as administrator from the resulting menu.

If it works, you can configure the Discord shortcut to always launch with administrative rights. To do that, select the shortcut and press Alt + Enter to open its Properties. Navigate to the Shortcut tab and click on Advanced.

Check the box next to Run as Administrator, and then click OK.

Likewise, if you’re having trouble with sharing a particular game or program screen, try launching the same with admin privileges as well.

2. Switch to Windowed Mode

It’s important to know that Discord only supports screen sharing for applications and games that are windowed. So, if the game or program you’re trying to present is in the full-screen mode, viewers might see a black screen in their Discord app. Try switching the app to windowed mode and see if the screen sharing works now.

3. Ensure Application Is Added to Your Profile

If Discord fails to detect the current game or program screen you’re on, it might fail to present it on the screen share. You can try adding the game or program to your Activity Status to see if that helps.

Step 1: Launch the Discord app on your PC and click on the gear icon next to your username to open Settings.

Step 2: Use the left pane to navigate to Activity Status under Activity Settings. If Discord hasn’t detected your program, you’ll see ‘No game detected’.

Step 3: Click on Add it and use the drop-down menu to choose the game or app you want to share. Then click on Add Game.

Restart the Discord app and try sharing the screen again to see if it works fine now.

4. Turn Off Discord’s Latest Technology

The Discord app is configured to use the ‘latest technology’ option while sharing the screen by default. But if you’re having issues while doing so, it’s recommended that you turn it off.

Step 1: Launch the Discord app on your PC and click on the gear icon in the bottom left to open Settings.

Step 2: Switch to the Voice & Video tab and scroll all the way down to the Screen Share section. Disable the toggle next to the ‘Use our latest technology to capture your screen’ option.

5. Disable Hardware Acceleration in Discord

Some graphics-intensive tasks are assigned to your GPU instead of the CPU to manage your system resources more efficiently when hardware acceleration is enabled. But if your PC is old, this can also work against you and lead to such screen share issues. Hence, you can try disabling the Hardware acceleration on Discord to see if that helps.

Step 1: In the Discord app, click on the gear icon next to your username to open Settings.

Step 2: Switch to the Voice & Video tab and locate the ‘H.264 Hardware Acceleration’ option. Then turn it off.

6. Update Discord

Discord’s developers constantly release updates to introduce new features, security patches, and bug fixes. So, if the screen share issue is occurring due to a bug, then updating the app to the latest version might help.

7. Reinstall Discord

Lastly, if nothing works, you should uninstall and install Discord again. This should help clear any app data, including cache and allow the app to run smoothly again.

Download Discord

Sharing Your Vision

Screen sharing is an important aspect of Discord. Hopefully, the above solutions have ended your screen sharing issues on Discord, and you’re back to share your screen.