Dealing with BetterDiscord Crashes: The Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide

As an avid Discord user and self-proclaimed tech geek, I know how frustrating it can be when BetterDiscord suddenly crashes on you. One minute you‘re chatting away with your customized plugins enabled, and the next – boom – you get that dreaded popup saying "BetterDiscord has crashed."

Not to worry my friend! I‘ve been there myself, and through trial and error I‘ve learned the proper way to troubleshoot and fix these BetterDiscord crashes. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share everything I wish I knew when I first started modding my Discord client.

The World of Discord Mods and Why Crashes Happen

For the uninitiated, Discord has become the go-to voice, video, and text chat app for gamers and all kinds of communities. It offers easy setup of public/private servers with granular permissions. But the standard Discord client is pretty barebones – which is where BetterDiscord comes in.

BetterDiscord is a popular third-party client modification that lets you customize Discord with different themes, plugins, and tweaks. As of 2022, BetterDiscord boasts over 150 million users!

Some of my favorite plugins include:

• Server Folders – Organize servers into collapsible folders
• Custom CSS – Modify the look and feel of Discord
• Notification Sounds – Set custom sounds for pings, DMs, etc.

Plugin	Features
Server Folders	Fold and group servers for organization
Custom CSS	Change colors, fonts, spacing, images, and more
Notification Sounds	Assign custom audio clips for notifications

But there‘s a catch. Since BetterDiscord runs on top of the normal Discord client, issues with specific plugins can cause the entire thing to crash.

I learned this the hard way when my beloved "Custom CSS" plugin kept causing BetterDiscord to freeze up. The problem? An update added CSS features that didn‘t jive with the latest Discord version.

Why Plugin Updates Lead to Crashes

BetterDiscord relies on developers to maintain plugin compatibility across Discord and BetterDiscord updates. When they fall behind, problems arise.

Most BetterDiscord crashes happen because:

• A plugin update introduces new code incompatible with the current Discord/BD versions

• The Discord API changes, breaking plugin functionality

• A core BetterDiscord update causes conflict with existing plugins

As BetterDiscord lead developer Amos explains:

"It‘s an ongoing process to keep plugins secure and operational as Discord changes. We work hard to maintain backwards compatibility where possible. But some plugin updates will inevitably break things until fixed."

To prevent everything from crashing, BetterDiscord will disable itself as a safety measure when a plugin causes issues. But don‘t worry – with the right troubleshooting, you can get back up and running!

Step-By-Step: Fixing Those BetterDiscord Crashes

When BetterDiscord crashes, the key is to identify and remove the problem plugin(s) and then repair everything. Here‘s how to do it:

Access Your BetterDiscord Plugin Folder

First, navigate to where BetterDiscord stores all your installed plugins:

• Hit Windows key + R to open the run dialog
• Type "%appdata%" and click OK to open your Roaming folder
• Go to Roaming > BetterDiscord > Plugins

This plugins folder contains every plugin currently active in your BetterDiscord client.

Prune Problematic Plugins

Next, sniff out any dodgy plugins causing crashes:

• Library plugins like "ZeresPluginLibrary" are frequent culprits – remove them first.
• If you only have a few plugins, deleting them all can help isolate the issue.
• Removing plugins one at a time and testing will eventually reveal the crashing plugin.

I‘d recommend backing up your plugins folder periodically so you can easily restore your collection after testing.

Once you‘ve deleted any suspect plugins, it‘s time to repair BetterDiscord.

Repair Using the BetterDiscord Installer

Luckily, the BetterDiscord team provides an easy repair utility:

• Download the latest installer from betterdiscord.app.
• Run the installer and select "Repair" when prompted.
• Choose your Discord version (probably the standard one).
• Click Repair and wait for the process to finish.

This will reconfigure BetterDiscord without the troublesome plugins active.

Reinstall and Restart Discord

Almost done! Two final steps:

• When prompted after repairing, reinstall BetterDiscord to complete the update.
• Fully close Discord using your task manager to clear any lingering processes before relaunching.

Once Discord reloads, BetterDiscord should be crash-free and ready to party!

I definitely learn this the hard way after spending hours troubleshooting with no luck. Forcing Discord to fully close ensures all old plugin data gets cleared out.

Bonus Tips for Avoiding Future Crashes

Got BetterDiscord up and running again? Awesome! Here are some pro tips for keeping things stable going forward:

• Update plugins one at a time to catch any new incompatibilities.

• Wait for plugins to release compatibility fixes before updating after crashes.

• Make regular backups of your plugins folder for easy restoration.

• Carefully read plugin release notes for known issues.

• Keep BetterDiscord itself updated to match Discord‘s API changes.

Believe me, I‘ve wasted a lot of time debugging Discord crashes over the years. But staying diligent about plugin management will save you headaches!

My Plugin Update Horror Story

Let me tell you about the time I broke my Discord trying to update ALL my plugins at once.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and I noticed a few plugins had new versions available. Figure I could just batch update them all quickly rather than one at a time. Big mistake!

Installed all the updates and relaunched Discord, only to be greeted by the dreaded "BetterDiscord Crash" screen. Disabled every plugin and repaired BD multiple times with no luck.

After an hour of fruitless fiddling, I finally threw in the towel and fully deleted both Discord and BetterDiscord. Had to reinstall from scratch and slowly add back my plugins one-by-one to find the culprit.

Turns out two plugins – Custom CSS and Read All Notifications – had major issues with the latest Discord upgrade. If I had just updated them separately, I could‘ve avoided the mess.

So learn from my laziness, friends! Update cautiously.

Let‘s Recap

Got all that? Here‘s a quick cheat sheet for dealing with BetterDiscord crashes:

1. Access your BetterDiscord plugins folder
2. Delete any problem plugins
3. Repair using the BetterDiscord installer
4. Reinstall BetterDiscord
5. Fully close and relaunch Discord

Follow those steps, and you‘ll be back to chatting in your pimped out Discord client in no time.

We all love customizing our apps, but modding does come with occasional headaches. Luckily the BetterDiscord team has provided great tools to help smooth things out.

So try to avoid my impatient mistakes, back up your plugins folder regularly, and update cautiously. Let me know if you have any other tips! Happy Discord-ing.