So you’re all set to share your screen on Discord, ready to show your gaming prowess or walk your friends through a cool tutorial… and boom — the screen is black. Your friends can hear you, but all they see is darkness. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
TL;DR
If your Discord screen share is only showing a black screen, there are a few simple fixes. Run Discord as an administrator, update your graphics drivers, or try changing how you share the screen. Sometimes, it’s caused by hardware acceleration. The good news? All these issues are fixable and mostly pretty easy!
Why is the Screen Black on Discord?
The black screen issue usually happens for a few key reasons:
- Discord doesn’t have the right permissions
- You’re trying to share a game or app that’s using GPU acceleration
- Your graphics drivers are outdated
- Discord’s settings are acting funky
Before you toss your keyboard out the window, let’s walk through the fixes one by one. Ready? Let’s go!
1. Run Discord as Administrator
This one fixes the problem a lot of the time. Apps that use hardware acceleration (like full-screen games or video players) often need admin access to display correctly through Discord.
Here’s how to do it:
- Close Discord completely (right-click in system tray and hit “Quit Discord”).
- Right-click the Discord icon on your desktop.
- Choose “Run as administrator.”
Now go ahead and try screen sharing again. Did it work? If yes — awesome! If not, keep reading.
2. Update Your Graphics Drivers
Outdated graphics drivers can mess with how Discord shows your screen. Let’s check and update them.
On Windows:
- Press Windows + X and choose Device Manager.
- Expand Display adapters.
- Right-click your graphics card and select Update driver.
- Choose Search automatically for drivers.
Restart your PC once that’s done. Updates can take a few minutes, but they usually help!
3. Turn Off Hardware Acceleration
Discord tries to use your computer’s hardware to run smoother. But sometimes, it backfires during screen sharing.
Let’s disable it:
- Open Discord.
- Go to Settings (the gear icon at the bottom left).
- Click on Advanced.
- Find “Hardware Acceleration” and turn it off.
- Restart Discord.
This change might lower performance a tiny bit — but it often fixes black screens!
4. Share the Right Window or Screen
Sometimes the issue is as simple as sharing the wrong thing. Discord lets you share either:
- A full screen
- A specific window or app
Some apps — especially games — don’t play nice when shared as a window. Try sharing your entire screen instead.
Tip: If your app goes full screen, switch it to windowed mode or borderless windowed before sharing. That helps Discord recognize it better.
5. Disable “Use our latest technology to capture your screen”
Seriously, that’s an actual setting! But it can sometimes break things.
To turn it off:
- Open Settings in Discord.
- Select Voice & Video from the left menu.
- Scroll down to “Screen Share”.
- Find the toggle labeled “Use our latest technology to capture your screen”.
- Turn it off.
Restart Discord for good measure. Then try your screen share again.
6. Clear Discord’s Cache
If something’s stuck behind the scenes, clearing the cache can hit the reset button without losing your settings.
Do this:
- Close completely out of Discord.
- Press Windows + R. Type %appdata% and hit Enter.
- Find the Discord folder and delete it.
- Open Discord again. It will rebuild fresh cache files.
This won’t delete your servers or messages — just temporary files.
7. Try Discord Browser Version
If the app isn’t cooperating, jump over to the browser version. It’s not fancy, but it works.
Go to discord.com and log in.
Try sharing your screen from there. Sometimes the black screen issue doesn’t appear in browsers. It’s a quick workaround!
8. Reinstall Discord
Everything else failed? Maybe it’s time for a clean slate.
Here’s how to reinstall:
- Open Control Panel.
- Uninstall Discord.
- Go to %AppData% and delete the Discord folders.
- Reboot your PC.
- Download fresh Discord from discord.com and install it again.
This should wipe out any bad files or corrupt settings causing the issue.
Bonus Tips
- Make sure your operating system is up to date.
- Use Borderless Window mode when gaming.
- Check if the issue only happens with one app or all of them.
- Disable any overlays like Nvidia GeForce or Xbox Game Bar.
These little things can make a big difference.
The Last Resort: Ask the Discord Community
Still not working? Head over to Discord forums or subreddits like r/discordapp.
It’s filled with tech-savvy folks and other users who’ve probably had the same problem and found a solution.
You Did It!
Screen sharing can be magical when it works and mega frustrating when it doesn’t. The black screen is one of the most common hiccups, but as you’ve seen, it’s usually easy to fix.
If one method didn’t work, try the next. Sometimes the fix is really just about combinations.
Happy sharing — now go show off that cat video or epic victory royale!