Discord screen share is causing Forza Horizon 5 to instantly crash for some

Forza Horizon 5
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Forza Horizon 5 players are experiencing the worst kind of crashes. Discord screen sharing is causing both the Steam version (which connects to the Windows Xbox app) and Microsoft Store version to break, according to several reports on Reddit.

Interestingly, Discord is listed on a Forza Horizon 5 support page as software known to cause the game to crash, but it doesn't specify what specifically causes it. Many players say as soon as they initiate screen sharing on Discord, the game closes itself and they have to restart it. Some suggest trying Discord's desktop screen capture setting instead of trying to stream the game itself, but doing so will not share the game's audio. Others say to try running Discord's beta "Canary" version to prevent the game from crashing.

One user detailed how to Stream the game using the desktop capture method with audio over a series of steps that involve tweaking your PCs audio settings. It's elaborate, but several people have reported it works, if you're up to it.

In the known issue list on the game's support page, programs like MSI Afterburner, OBS, and Xsplit are included. All of them are commonly used programs that inject themselves into games to display in-game overlays or to output video streams. Discord's Go Live feature likely runs into the same problems as the other software. Some people have pointed out that 2018's Forza Horizon 4 suffered the same issues with Discord specifically.

Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the reports of Discord screen share crashing the game. Hopefully a future patch will fix the problems.

Phil praised Forza Horizon 5 for its commitment to being the best Forza game it can be in our review. It's a shame that, for now, you'll have to keep the game to yourself.

Associate Editor

Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He's done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He's interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.