Attention all Fortnite gamers: the servers are down and we need your help to bring them back up so you can get back to hitting the griddy with your preferred pop culture character. All that’s needed is to check out all of the information below to find out what the ‘Fortnite Servers Not Responding’ message means and how to fix the issue.
What Does ‘Fortnite Servers Not Responding’ Mean?
It’s pretty obvious why you’re here right now. Fortnite is down and the message, ‘Fortnite Servers Not Responding’ is popping up.
This can be for a number of reasons. Sometimes it can be as a result of the servers unexpectedly encountering an error and the game going down while Epic rolls out a fix. Most of the time, though, it’s a result of Epic Games performing scheduled maintenance on the servers for a content update.
On Friday, March 8, 2024, matchmaking has been disabled in preparation for the Chapter 5 Season 2 update. This downtime will run from 3am ET. The downtime was meant to last for around five hours, but an extra eight hours means it won’t go back up until 5pm ET.
It’s worth noting that before you can hop back into Fortnite, you’re going to need to download an update for the game. We’d recommend getting it downloaded as soon as it goes live. That way there won’t be any unexpected holdups when you’re ready to jump into the new season.
Fixing Servers Not Responding Fortnite Error
Depending on the circumstances around why the servers have gone down, or why you’re receiving this message, there are a few things you can try. We’ve outlined each option available to you below, and explained when each of these is most likely to work.
Wait It Out
If Epic Games is performing scheduled maintenance — which you can check on the Epic Server Status page — then you’ll just have to wait until the servers are brought back online. The Fortnite servers go down for longer when there’s a big content update dropping, more often when a new season is dropping.
Unfortunately, when this happens, there’s nothing you can do on your end in order to speed up the process so you can start playing sooner.
If the servers aren’t down for scheduled maintenance, though, try the below steps to resolve the issue on your end.
Restart the Game
The best way to make sure that the issue isn’t actually your own hardware is to first restart whatever device is trying to launch the game. Sometimes a computer, phone, or game system just needs to restart so it can get a new IP.
This is most often a good fix if you’ve left the game open or suspended the game on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Your connection will have timed out, so you may need to restart the game to ‘refresh’ the connection the servers and get yourself logged back in.
Check Your Network Connection
If restarting the computer doesn’t work, then the next step is to make sure that the network your device is connected to is functioning properly.
The first part of resolving a possible network issue is restarting both your modem and router. Power down both (or just one if it’s a combination modem/router), then power the modem back on until it shows you have an internet connection. Next, reconnect the router to power. Follow the steps below if the issue continues.
This should be your final port of call if you’ve checked the Fortnite servers aren’t down for either scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, and restarting the game hasn’t fixed the issue.
That’s all there is to know about what the ‘Fortnite Servers Not Responding’ message means and how to fix the issue. Hopefully, if you’re checking this out because of a Fortnite server issue, they aren’t down for too long. Stay strong, my friends.
