Using communication in League of Legends is an important aspect of the game, especially if you’re playing with friends. That’s also why it’s important that Discord is working in a correct manner. Unfortunately, a lot of gamers have a problem with Discord lagging when they play League of Legends.
That’s why I’ve listed 9 ways to fix this problem. Hopefully, one of these fixes can solve your communication problem and you can get back to winning matches in League of Legends!
1. Turn Off Debug Logging
Debug logging is a feature many software programs use. It sends information to developers on things like crashes and other bugs so that it’s easy to gather data and fix problems. However, this feature can cause Discord to lag when playing League.
Therefore, you should try to turn this setting off. To do this, follow the simple steps below.
- In Discord, click the cogwheel in the bottom left
- From the menu, choose “Voice & Video”
- Find “Debug Logging”
- Disable it!
Why this setting causes Discord to lag when playing League isn’t known, but the setting serves little to no function for you as a private user anyways, so it doesn’t matter if you turn it off.
2. Install Discord Beta (PTB)
You can install a different version of Discord, namely the public test version of the client. This version is to test new functions before they release to the official Discord client, and it’s fully functional.
If there’s an issue causing the regular Discord client to have a conflict with League, this can be fixed by installing the PTB. While the PTB can introduce other bugs, these usually get fixed fairly quickly. Plus, you get early access to new features!
To get the PTB, follow the steps below.
- Go here
- Scroll all the way to the bottom
- Under the “Feeling experimental?” heading, select “Download Public Test Build”
- Download it and log in with your user details
3. Turn Off The Discord Overlay
The Discord overlay has been known to cause problems both for performance in different games as well as in Discord itself. I would strongly recommend you disable it. In my opinion, it’s not massively useful anyways, and it’s certainly not worth it if you sacrifice performance and good quality in Discord calls.
To disable the pesky Discord overlay, follow the steps below.
- In Discord, click the cogwheel in the bottom left
- Under “Activity Settings”, select “Game Overlay”
- Disable the overlay
As I mentioned, turning off this overlay is not only beneficial to get Discord to stop lagging, but also to get your games to perform better. I turned it off a long time ago and have never considered turning it on again.
4. Reinstall Discord
There’s a possibility that some of the Discord files have been corrupted or some other bug in the client has made your Discord feature non-functional. Consider reinstalling the Discord client, it’s a small client so it shouldn’t take that long.
To reinstall Discord, simply uninstall the client from your computer and reinstall it by clicking this link. Make sure you have your login details so you don’t lose anything. Your servers and channels are all saved on your account, so you won’t lose them by reinstalling the Discord client.
5. Clear Discord Cache Files
Without getting too technical, cache files are temporary files stored on your computer. It’s a good idea to get rid of these sometimes, and having too many cached files can cause Discord to lag. Let’s go over how to clear your cached Discord files.
- On your keyboard, press the Windows key + R
- In the menu that pops up, paste the following: “%APPDATA%/Discord/Cache”
- Delete all the files within the folder
6. Check Your Discord Voice Settings
To be safe, you should check that your voice settings are up to snuff. For example, it’s generally not a good idea to have the automatic voice recognition option turned on, rather you should correct the slider to a good level.
Also, consider deactivating things such as “Krisp”, which is a noise-canceling software within Discord. It’s fine software, but with certain microphones, it just screws with your voice recording levels. All the mentioned settings are available under the “Voice & Video” settings.
7. Toggle Your Hardware Acceleration
Another setting that can potentially cause problems within Discord is the hardware acceleration setting, especially in League of Legends. This is a strange one, however, because users have reported that turning it on have fixed the problem, while other users have reported that turning it on has fixed their Discord lag issue.
Therefore, if you have it turned on, turn it off. If you have it off, turn it on. To activate/deactivate the setting, follow the steps below.
- In Discord, click the cogwheel in the bottom left
- Under “App Settings”, click “Advanced”
- Toggle the hardware acceleration option
8. “Ultimate Performance” Plan In Windows
Make sure you don’t have a power-saving power plan activated. This can cause lag in Discord when playing League of Legends. In fact, I recommend that you turn on the “Ultimate Performance” power plan in Windows. To do this, follow the steps below.
- Type “cmd” in the Windows start search bar
- In the black window that appears, copy and paste the following: “powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61”
- After this, type “power plan” in your Windows start menu search bar
- Select “Choose power plan”
- Find and select the “Ultimate performance” option
9. Update Drivers
As a last resort, you can try to update your graphics drivers. Having outdated graphics drivers can cause all sorts of problems, especially if Discord gets continuous updates. To do this, simply head to your manufacturer’s website and download new drivers. Most people have Nvidia graphics cards, and their drivers are available here.
Make sure you select your exact graphics card when downloading drivers. If you’re unsure of what exact GPU you have, simply go to device manager in Windows, click on “Display adapters” and check.