Honkai: Star Rail launcher won’t start – how to fix?

Honkai: Star Rail launcher won’t start – how to fix?
Eva Black Updated on by

Posted in Tech

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If your Honkai: Star Rail launcher won’t start, don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place.

Honkai: Star Rail is the latest release in the Honkai series. It follows on from Honkai Impact 3rd and comes from HoYoverse, the minds behind Genshin Impact. A hotly anticipated game, the RPG surpassed 10 million registrations in the pre-launch period alone. But before gamers can get stuck in, and certainly before they can even begin to worry about the best graphics settings for Honkai: Star Rail, they’re being pipped at the post by the launcher not starting. So, can you fix this issue?

Let’s get stuck in.

Potential fixes if your Honkai: Star Rail launcher won’t start

  1. Check your device meets the system requirements
  2. Verify or delete the game files
  3. Disable your DNS
  4. Check you are not running a dump file

1. Check your device meets the system requirements

The number one reason you might be running into issues launching Honkai: Star Rail is because your device might not meet all of the system requirements. The first thing to check is what mobile and PC OS you are trying to run the game on.

PC system requirements:

  • Minimum: Windows 7 with a 64-bit processor
  • Recommended: Windows 10 with a 64-bit processor

Mobile system requirements:

Android:

  • Minimum: Android 8
  • Recommended: Android 9

iPhone:

  • Minimum: iPhone 8 Plus with iOS 10.0
  • Recommended: iPhone XS, iPhone XR with iOS 11.0

One of the other most likely issues with your set up will be storage space.

Mobile storage requirements

  • iPhone recommended storage: 9GB
  • Android recommended storage: 8.5GB

PC storage requirements

The recommended storage for PC to run Honkai: Star Rail is 20GB.

Make sure you have that space available, and bear in mind that as you play the game more data will be stored from gameplay so the space Honkai: Star Rail needs in your storage my exceed this number.

2. Verify or delete the game files

If your device and set up meets the recommended system requirements but your are still running into issues starting the Honkai: Star Rail launcher, we recommend verifying the game files.

Deleting game files for mobile

For iPhone:

  1. Navigate to the application in your Home Screen.
  2. Hold the icon down.
  3. Hit Remove App.
  4. Hit Delete App.
  5. Now go into the App Store and reinstall the game.

For Android:

  1. Open Play Games app,
  2. Hit the three dots (More) at the top of your screen.
  3. Hit Settings > Delete Play Games account and data.
  4. Scroll down to Delete individual game data, then navigate to Honkai: Star Rail and hit Delete.
  5. Now navigate to Honkai: Star Rail in Play Games app, and redownload.

Verifying game files for PC

Honkai: Star Rail is supported by Epic Games, so you can verify your game files from their launcher. Here’s how:

  1. Open up your Library.
  2. Find Honkai: Star Rail, then click on the three dots next to the game name.
  3. A pop-up drop-down menu will appear. Scroll down and hit Manage.
  4. Locate the Verify Files option, and hit Verify.
  5. Wait for the files to verify, then hit Launch when prompted.

3. Disable your DNS

A possible block to starting the Honkai: Star Rail launcher could be your DNS. Some gamers have reported issues playing Honkai: Star Rail in the reddit forum, and found that disabling their DNS helped rectify the issue.

Bear in mind that it is not recommended that you have your DNS disabled as a default setting, so make sure to switch your DNS back on when you have finished playing Honkai: Star Rail.

Disabling DNS for iPhone

  1. Navigate to Settings > Wi-Fi.
  2. Hit the ‘i’ icon to the far right of your Wi-Fi network.
  3. Scroll down to and hit Configure DNS.
  4. Delete any text there.

Disabling DNS for Android

  1. Navigate to Settings > Network & internet.
  2. Hit Private DNS.
  3. Select Off.

Disabling DNS updates for PC

  1. Locate the Registry Editor.
  2. Click Start > Run.
  3. Type ‘regedit‘.
  4. Hit OK.
  5. Navigate to this subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Paramters
  6. Hit Edit, then hover over New.
  7. Hit DWORD Value.
  8. Type the following: ‘DisableDynamicUpdate‘.
  9. Press Enter twice.
  10. An Edit DWORD Value dialogue box will appear. Type ‘1‘ into the Value data box.
  11. Hit OK.
  12. Exit the Registry Editor.

This will disable DNS updates in Windows. For more information, head over to the official Windows DNS troubleshooting guidance page.

4. Check you are not running a dump file

HoYoverse identified ‘clicking the launcher produces no response’ as a potential issue that players may be facing and provided a solution to this issue. It might be worth trying this solution to see if it is also applicable to your situation if all the other ‘hacks’ have failed to produce results. Here’s how:

  1. Navigate to the game directory.
  2. Hit “launcher.exe“.
  3. Check if a dump file has been created.
  4. If a dump file has been created, send it and the corresponding log file to the HoYoverse customer service.
  5. In the launcher directory search for “vc_redist_x64.exe“.
  6. Double click the file to install.

Honkai: Star Rail launcher won’t start – can you fix it?

Since there has been no confirmed reason provided by HoYoverse as to why some players are experiencing this issue there could be a variety of causes. With that in mind we have suggested a variety of ‘hacks’ that could help alleviate the issue.

We’re going to be keeping an eye on this issue and updating the page regularly as new information comes in so make sure to check back in periodically to stay up to date.

Frequently Asked Questions

As this is such a popular release we know many gamers have questions they want answers to. We’ve done our best here to answer your most pressing queries.

What could cause your Honkai: Star Rail launcher to not start?

At the time of writing there is no confirmed reason as to why the Honkai: Star Rail launcher might not be starting for some players. However, there are some workarounds which could help alleviate the issue.

How much storage do you need to run Honkai: Star Rail on mobile?

iPhone requires 9GB available storage, while Android requires 8.5GB to run Honkai: Star Rail on mobile.