Player stuck in CONNECTING.. when trying to rejoin an ongoing session (39.11)

General Issues and Bug Reporting
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1

Summary

EDIT: This original report was about a Private Playtest map, but the same happens on public maps too

When player leaves and immeditely in Lobby tries to re-join a Playtest build, Player stuck in CONNECTING.. screen for a long time, and eventually is back to Lobby (consoles) or Fortnite crashes (PC). This started happening in 39.11

Please select what you are reporting on:

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

What Type of Bug are you experiencing?

Other

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Start playtest game with two players (“A” and “B”)
  2. While a round is ongoing, A leaves the game
  3. In Lobby, A immediately clicks PLAY butto to re-join the ongoing game
  4. (After a while the “Island found” text is shown and Connecting screen opens)

Expected Result

After a while in Connecting screen, A re-joins the game without problem.

Observed Result

Player A is stuck in Connecting screen for a long time.

On Console, maybe after 7 minutes, Connecting-screen closes and A is back in Lobby.

On PC, Connecting-screen shows longer (maybe 10 mins?), and eventually Fortnite crashes

Platform(s)

PC, PS4, PS5, XBoxOne

Island Code

0431-7421-3201

Additional Notes

Re-joining was possible still yesterday (Dec 17), before 39.11 update, using the same private version for Playtest.

Infinite Loading Screen in Already Published MAp
It seems it is impossible to play two creative games in a row
Infinite Loading Screen in Already Published MAp
2

same issue. I can Connect Private Lobby. But cant Connect Public lobbys is just loading..

Mapcode: 1530-3156-8570

1 Like
3

Same issue. I can connect to private island for the first time but then rejoin stuck in Connecting

Also I can’t join to the party in private or live session (always show Matchmaking #1 error)

1 Like
4

Now I realized same happens in the Public version of my island (7907-0947-9097)

6

I’m getting reports from players that this is also happening on my map (9585-8458-8959). Reported as stuck connecting/loading into the map while other of my maps they are able to load in normally with no issues. Not sure why this is the case but has only been an issue as of today.

7

Hi, I have the same problem with my map : 3533-5038-7728

8

Anything new here? This has a very big impact on player experience… @Flak

9

The team is checking into it.

6 Likes
10

Yep, same issue with public code on two others I tried this morning. Seems like it’s all maps with this issue.

11

We are having this issue in our map as well. Its not only happening in playtests but also in the live version of the map.

When a player joins a published island, then leaves immediately and rejoins directly, they get stuck on the connecting screen. We tested this on PS4, XBOX, PC, MOBILE and it’s happening on all of them

EDIT: Potentially happens when you try to rejoin a previously played map, not only if you try rejoining directly after

EDIT2: The issue appears to be if you leave and rejoin and the game attempts to put you in the same session. If you try this in a high ccu map, it will be hard to replicate as you will just be put into a different session, try this with a low player count map (50-100) @Flak

2 Likes
12

Was able to replicate this here, definitely not only a game breaking bug but a full on fortnite breaking bug

13

Was able to replicate this as well, agree with @GraemeBB it is very game breaking.

14

Same happen to us

1 Like
Infinite connection when trying to log into the game again
15

In the UK on domestic Broadband this fails as described getting Network Error on Android and connecting then falls back to lobby try again Just Connecting.

The main reason is EPGL is updating to 39.11 on PC.

When trying to open same island on a Gigabit connection using Wi-Fi 6 at three time domestic broadband could play no problem, leave join fine.

Obviously there are loads of people updating, but even the watching the download there a periods of several seconds where there is 0 bps a big stall from download servers and watching Wi-Fi network there is nothing therefore not long after the Android give network error and cannot connect again.

IMHO its the Epic Servers unable to cope with all the network traffic which is updating and serving games

Will start and run in Android. When you click the Favorite button, then jump out to community,

Then come back the display

There was a Problem

Server stopped responding to connection, FailedToConnect

[errors.com.epicgames.common.processing]

after clicking OK, went to

Then 39.11 Winter Fest screen, went in got present, left Lodge, returned to lobby

clicked play again works fine in U.K UTC Europe servers

Works as well and gives out XP

UPDATE 20TH DECEMBER 05:00 UTC GMT

Reloaded 39.11 unstill/install PC Windows 11 with AMD CPU /Intel graphics.

Now breaks ALL Islands on PC ! ,

ALL Islands work on Mobile/Android/N Switch 1/Xbox One

keeps flicking to Connecting/Preparing Shaders, then lockups up PC after 9th flicker on Past working before 39.11.

The PC Shaders are broken!

Here is my logs

Fortnite3911Logs.zip (2.9 MB)

These errors DO NOT appear in the 39.10 log for PC

[2025.12.20-05.09.21:553][411]LogFort: OnRep_bHasServerFinishedLoading 1
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:569][411]LogFortLoadingScreen: Setting override message PREPARING SHADERS
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:569][411]LogFortLoadingScreen: Setting override message 
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:587][411]LogProjectPlay: Warning: InitWeakPtrs: unable to get the game mode.
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:593][411]LogFort: Warning: MovementModeExtension: Unable to retrieve Movement mode extension from registry, Looking for -777215498, number in registry: 0
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:593][411]LogFortPlayerPawn: Warning: AFortPlayerPawn::UpdateActorHiddenInGameInternal FAILED could NOT find Ability System Component
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:594][411]LogAbilitySystem: Warning: PlayerPawn_Athena_C_2147482644_AbilityAsync_WaitGameplayTagCountChanged_2147482646: AbilitySystemComponent is nullptr! Could not register for gameplay tag event with Tag = Athena.Player.Sprite.DisableBackpack.
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:600][411]LogProximityChat: [3ce0] Applying Mutator List Properties for Mutator [CreativeMutator_ProximityChat_C_2147482646].
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:600][411]LogProximityChat: [3ce0] Applying Mutator List Properties for Mutator [CreativeMutator_ProximityChat_C_2147482646].
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:608][411]LogFort: AFortGameStateAthena::CheckAndAddMissedPlayerStatesToMaps(): Added missed player state to team and squad map, with UniqueId: MCP:80243...44fd5, in team: 4 and squad: 4.
[2025.12.20-05.09.21:610][411]LogIoStoreOnDemand: Skipping cache purge, MaxCacheSize=1504.00 MiB, CacheSize=12.10 MiB, ReferencedBlockSize=12.10 MiB, ReferencedSize=12.15 MiB, FragmentedBytes=0.52 MiB, UncachedSize=0.58 MiB
[2025.12.20

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There are new threads/ posts appearing all the time

Infinite Loading Screen in Already Published MAp - General / Issues and Bug Reporting - Epic Developer Community Forums

Players are not able to rejoin a game after exiting to the FN lobby. - General / Issues and Bug Reporting - Epic Developer Community Forums

2 Likes
It seems it is impossible to play two creative games in a row
16

same issue, but with a map released(live version) after v39.11, stuck in loading screen for minutes then kick in lobby for inactivity. This happens only in public mode… if I put private mode I can join the map.

This happens when I try rejoin the map.

EDIT: also happens in maps published before v39.11

3 Likes
17

These connecting problems, where the player is simply stuck on the loading screen, affect games that are live. @Flak

1 Like
18

Just wanted to note this also happens in already published islands. It’s extremely game breaking and detrimental to creator islands with already established player bases.

4 Likes
Players are not able to rejoin a game after exiting to the FN lobby.
19

Same issue.. Its Happening to islands which are published. Private lobbys mostly work but public lobbys do not work when you try rejoin the map.. please a fix here this is game breaking

1 Like
20

Same issue here. It’s completely locking people out of my game launch they’ve waited years for… I know EPIC is on break, but this isn’t something that can go unresolved for 3 weeks.

Code: 8025-5133-5479

1 Like
21

More info:

  • This does not just happen when testing a private playtest maps; it happens on all instances of an Island, whether private or public.
  • It is extremely widespread, meaning people cannot join into the Island more than 80% of the time.
  • It is seemingly mostly happening when trying to join an in-progress Island.
  • It may or may not be related, but as of this update, on Nintendo Switch, loading into a UEFN edit session takes FOREVER, and once it finally does, it crashes the game with no specific error code.
  • I’ve not yet figured out which is true, but either one of the two (or both) possibilities are happening:

  1. Joining an in-progress game in general only works about 20% of the time
    OR

  2. Joining an in-progress game, then leaving it, and then trying once again to rejoin it, will cause the issue to occur.

    Key note: it does not matter how many times you restart your game, you will still be unable to queue into that specific lobby. For that reason, this issue is more noticeable on smaller games, such as the island code: 8025-5133-5479

  • From what I’ve noticed, if you’ve never played that lobby, you still have a very small chance of being able to load in; but if you HAVE played that lobby, 99% of the time, you WILL NOT be able to load in.

Additional related issues:

  • On Islands where this issue is occurring, Verse code and devices are also not consistently working.
  • Players leaving the server of affected Islands may potentially be causing the above issue to happen.
  • If you do manage to load in, your HUD may not load at all, and in the case where that happens, opening text chat will softlock your game.

Something to note:

For clarification, this very critical issue is as follows: the player gets stuck on an infinite loading screen for ~10 minutes, then either crashes, or is sent back to the lobby.

@Flak

5 Likes