Discord is one of the most popular ways for gamers and businesses to stay in touch and communicate freely.
It offers convenient ways to connect with people, such as voice chat, sharing screens, and putting gaming groups together.
These days it’s considered pretty essential software and is usually the method of choice for groups and parties to organize themselves. This makes it a real problem when Avast thinks Discord is malware and blocks it, as you’ll be left with no way to chat with your friends online.
Fortunately, this issue is pretty standard and relatively easy to solve. In this article, we’ll show you how to unblock Discord so you can get back to some trouble-free gaming.
Why is Avast blocking Discord?
If Avast is blocking Discord, it indicates that Avast thinks something within your Discord software is malicious, such as a virus or trojan, and has decided to stop it.
Therefore, we must look at the potential causes to determine the exact culprit. Although Discord runs as a single executable file, a few different processes are involved with running the software that needs to be addressed separately to get things up and running again.
Falsely flagged by antivirus.
The most common reason Avast will block Discord is that it incorrectly believes it is a threat and has intercepted the process to prevent it from harming your computer.
Discord is popular and widely used enough that you can safely trust the software. Therefore, in this scenario, we need to whitelist the Discord files within the Avast Antivirus software to solve the issue.
The voice server is triggering Avast.
When you use voice communication with another person inside of Discord, that data is run through a server and relayed back to the recipient.
When Avast Firewall detects incoming data from a server location it doesn’t trust, it will block the process, preventing the Discord app from working.
For example, if you are in the US and Avast detects incoming data from East Asia that it hasn’t been instructed to trust, it may intercept the data transfer to protect you.
Some users have reported that changing their server location within the Discord software to somewhere closer to their current location has fixed the issue.
Overbearing System Shield
Unlike antivirus software, Avast’s System Shield module is designed to protect your machine in real-time and intercept anything it deems as malicious.
However, with Discord using voice communication, video, and attachments, the System Shield will sometimes block these processes.
To fix this, we can adjust the System Shield settings within the Avast software so it will no longer interfere with Discord’s operation.
File corruption and glitches
With Avast receiving so many software updates, it can sometimes experience some bugs and glitches within the software that can affect its operation.
Some users on the Avast forum have reported that by repairing Avast within Windows, they have been able to get Discord working again.
Launch Discord with administrator privileges
Discord needs to take control of specific processes on your computer, including your microphone or webcam. It also needs to receive metadata from other software, such as Spotify or Steam, to show what you are currently doing.
If the Discord software doesn’t have permission to do that, Avast will jump in, assume it’s trying to do something malicious, and block it. Therefore, we need to launch Discord with admin rights so it has permission to do what it needs.
How to stop Avast from blocking Discord
As frustrating as it can be to have Avast blocking your Discord software, this issue does occur quite often and is fairly easy to solve.
We’ll walk through the steps you need to take to ensure that Avast stays out of Discord’s way.
Whitelist Discord within Avast Antivirus
Whatever the reason that is causing Avast to flag Discord as malicious software, we need to instruct the antivirus program to ignore that particular file so it can launch unhindered.
Here’s how to add a file to Avast’s whitelist:
- Open Avast Antivirus, navigate the menu in the top right and click on the Settings tab.
- Click General in the top left, and then click the third tab called “Exceptions.”
- Now, click “Add advanced exception,” which is the white text next to the green button.
- Once this is selected, navigate to the Discord.exe file.
- By default, this is C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Discord, where “username” is your current Windows username.
- Select the Discord executable file.
Save this, close Avast Antivirus, and it will no longer be able to block Discord.
Change the voice server location.
Avast is relatively quick to block incoming data from a location it does not trust, so when you receive voice communications over Discord that have come from a server that Avast has falsely flagged as being untrustworthy, Discord will not be able to work.
Users on the Avast forum have reported that changing the server location has fixed this problem. For example, if you are in the United States on the east coast, try swapping over to a server on the west coast.
This will result in a tiny increase in delay time when talking to people but is hardly noticeable as the difference is just a few milliseconds.
Turn off the File System Shield
Unlike the regular antivirus, File System Shield monitors your computer’s activity for anything suspicious and immediately intercepts and blocks it.
This is, unfortunately, common in Discord, as you use data and file transfer for attachments, images, and even voice and video communication.
Follow these steps to instruct Avast File Shield to ignore Discord:
- Open up Avast and click over to Real Time Shields.
- Click the File System Shield.
- Find the Expert settings and add the C:\ProgramData\Discord folder.
- Click OK.
Now, File Shield will not intercept any real-time data transfers made on Discord.
Repair Avast
Users have also reported that a simple repair of Avast can fix any potential bugs or glitches that may have occurred due to a bad update or install.
Using the Windows Search bar, type in “Add or remove programs,” which will bring up a list of the currently installed software.
From here, click the Repair button next to the Uninstall button, and let it run through its process. This can also help if your Avast disconnects mid-way through playing a video game.
Give Discord administrator privileges.
As Discord needs to access many things on your machine, from audio drivers to peripherals such as a webcam or microphone, it must be given access to these devices, otherwise, Avast may interpret it as malicious software trying to gain access to your machine.
Right-click on the discord.exe file and click Properties.
Then, tick the “Run as administrator” box. Click apply and then click OK.
