UE 5.7 Freezes at 74% During Plugin Initialization – Launches Only If Plugins Folder Is Removed (Windows 11 / RTX 3060)
Hello,
I am experiencing a critical startup freeze in Unreal Engine 5.7 (5.7.0 / 5.7.1 / 5.7.3).
The engine consistently freezes at approximately 74% during “Loading Plugins” before the editor window appears.
Key Behavior
The freeze happens even when:
Launching without a project
Creating a brand-new blank project
The plugin shown at freeze varies between launches (not fixed).
No crash dialog appears.
The engine becomes “Not Responding”.
Important Technical Observation
If I manually delete or rename the Engine/Plugins folder, UE 5.7 launches successfully.
However:
The editor runs without plugins (as expected).
As soon as the plugins are restored, the engine freezes again at ~74%.
This strongly suggests the issue is related to the plugin initialization subsystem in UE 5.7, not to a specific project or third-party Marketplace plugin.
System Specs
OS: Windows 11
RAM: 32 GB
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060 (12GB)
Drivers: Clean installed
UE 5.6: Fully functional on the same machine
Troubleshooting Already Attempted
Clean reinstall of UE 5.7
Engine file verification
Deleting DerivedDataCache
Launching with -dx11, -norhithread, -noshadercompile
Removing Marketplace plugins
Clean GPU driver install
None resolved the issue when plugins are present.
Given that UE 5.6 works perfectly and 5.7 consistently fails under identical conditions, this appears to be a regression in the 5.7 branch.
It’s an old problem. Simply running too many local plugins will freeze a 5.7 project, so make sure your engine is the latest version 5.7.3 and wait for 5.8 and update to 5.8.
launch with -log -forcelogflush -LogCmds=“LogStreaming Verbose, LogPluginManager Verbose”, or “global Verbose” for even more, and check the log file to see it it shows where it’s hanging. I think the logfile for the engine with no project is in the local appdata folder/unrealengine/…
If you’re using a tablet or other perifs besides mouse/kb try unplugging them and starting the engine up. I’ve had this with a 3d space mouse driver conflict before.
The freeze does not occur on a specific plugin.
The engine stops at different plugins each time during startup (~74%).
If I completely remove the Engine Plugins folder, UE 5.7 launches normally.
When the plugins are restored, the engine freezes again during plugin initialization.
Unreal Engine 5.6 and earlier versions work perfectly on the same system, so this seems specific to UE 5.7 plugin loading.
Ok… usually hangups on loading there are due to a specific plugin init stalling or plugin driver crash. Odd for it to hang on different plugins. Impossible to say without the log files to look at.
With the info you’ve provided so far it seems like a system-based incompatibility issue with your setup. I doubt it’s a problem with the plugin system itself.