How to Fix Valorant Error Code VAL 5 (June 2026) 10 Solutions

Nothing ruins a ranked session faster than watching the Valorant client flash “the game has lost connection” followed by Error Code VAL 5. If you are staring at that message right now, you are in good company. The VAL 5 error has become one of the most reported Valorant issues across Reddit, Riot’s support forums, and community Discords, and it strikes at the worst possible moment, often mid-match or right when you queue a second game.

I have spent months digging through 190-comment Reddit threads, Riot’s official documentation, and community fixes to understand exactly what triggers VAL 5 and, more importantly, what actually resolves it. The truth is that most guides recycle the same generic “restart your PC” advice, when the real fix is usually much simpler. In many cases, your account is just logged in somewhere else.

This updated guide walks you through how to fix Valorant error code VAL 5 in 2026 using ten proven solutions, starting with the fixes that work most often and ending with the nuclear options. I will also clear up the confusion around whether VAL 5 is a ban, why it keeps happening on your second game, and what console players on PS5 and Xbox can do.

Also Read: How to Fix Valorant Error Code VAL 19?

What Does Valorant Error Code VAL 5 Mean?

The VAL 5 error in Valorant means the game client has lost its connection to Riot’s servers, but the reason behind that disconnection is not always obvious. Riot’s own support documentation ties VAL 5 to a session conflict, which usually happens when your account is logged in from another location or device at the same time. The full message players see is “The game has lost connection. Please reconnect in order to continue,” followed by the VAL 5 code.

That account conflict is the most common trigger, but it is far from the only one. VAL 5 can also fire when Riot’s servers are undergoing maintenance, when your ISP’s routing to Riot’s data centers degrades, or when Riot Vanguard fails to authenticate your session properly. Many players mistakenly assume the error is always a network problem on their end, when in reality the issue could be entirely server-side.

This is also where a lot of confusion around bans comes in. VAL 5 is not a ban code. It is a connection and session error. If your account has actually been suspended or hit with a hardware ID (HWID) ban, you would typically see a VAN restriction code like VAN 152 or VAN 183 instead. So if you are seeing VAL 5, your account is almost certainly fine, it just needs to be re-authenticated.

The table below breaks down the most frequent VAL 5 triggers so you can quickly identify which one matches your situation before jumping into the fixes.

• Account logged in elsewhere — A second session on another PC, laptop, or even a friend’s machine is competing for the same account.
• Server maintenance or outage — Riot’s servers are down or overloaded, severing active sessions.
• Vanguard authentication failure — The vgc service crashed or is disabled, preventing Riot’s anti-cheat from validating your client.
• ISP routing problems — Your internet provider’s path to Riot’s servers is unstable, causing drops that look like VAL 5.
• Corrupted game files — A botched update or interrupted download left Valorant’s installation in a broken state.
• Firewall or antivirus interference — Third-party security software is blocking the connection between your client and Riot’s servers.

How To Fix Valorant Error Code VAL 5 in 2026?

Below are ten fixes ordered from the highest success rate to the most time-consuming. Start at the top and work your way down. For most players, the first or second fix resolves VAL 5 within two minutes. I have included time estimates and difficulty ratings so you can prioritize the quick wins before committing to a full reinstall.

One important note before you begin: always check whether Riot’s servers are actually online before tearing apart your own setup. A surprising number of VAL 5 cases during patch days or major events are caused by server-side problems that no amount of local troubleshooting will fix.

1. Log Out Everywhere From Your Riot Account

This is the single most effective fix for VAL 5, and it is the one most guides bury or skip entirely. Because VAL 5 is usually triggered by an account session conflict, forcing every device to log out resolves the conflict instantly. Riot’s AI Overview and community consensus on Reddit both rank this as the number one solution.

1. Open your browser and go to the Riot Account Management page at account.riotgames.com.
2. Log in with the same Riot credentials you use for Valorant.
3. Navigate to the Connected Devices or Sessions section.
4. Click the Log Out Everywhere button. This kills every active session tied to your account across all devices.
5. Close Valorant completely, then relaunch the Riot Client and log back in.
6. Queue a match and verify that VAL 5 no longer appears.

This fix works because VAL 5 fires when Riot detects your account connecting from a new session while an old one is still active. That can happen if you logged in on a friend’s PC, left the mobile Riot app running, or had a previous session crash without properly closing. Logging out everywhere clears those ghost sessions in seconds.

Time required: under two minutes. Difficulty: easy. This should always be your first attempt before touching any system settings.

2. Check Riot Server Status Before Anything Else

Before you restart your router, update drivers, or reinstall anything, confirm that Riot’s servers are actually online. On patch days, new episode launches, and during major esports events, Valorant’s servers frequently go down for maintenance or buckle under load. When that happens, every player gets VAL 5 simultaneously, and no local fix will help.

1. Visit Riot’s official status page at status.riotgames.com.
2. Select Valorant from the game list.
3. Check the current server status for your region. Look for yellow or red indicators showing degraded performance or outages.
4. Scroll down to the Recent Updates section to see if Riot has posted about scheduled maintenance or known issues.
5. If servers are down, wait for Riot to resolve the issue. Check back every 15 to 30 minutes.

You can also cross-reference with third-party trackers like Downdetector or check the official Valorant Twitter account for real-time updates. If thousands of players are reporting VAL 5 at the same time, it is almost certainly a server-side event.

Time required: one minute. Difficulty: trivial. Save yourself hours of pointless troubleshooting by checking this first.

3. Restart Your Computer and Modem/Router

If Riot’s servers are online and logging out everywhere did not help, the next step is a full power cycle of your PC and network equipment. This clears temporary network glitches, refreshes your IP lease, and restarts any background services that may have stalled, including Riot Vanguard’s vgc service.

1. Save your work and close all open applications.
2. Shut down your computer completely through the Start menu. Do not use sleep or hibernate.
3. Unplug your modem and router from their power source. If you have a combined unit, just unplug that.
4. Wait at least 60 seconds. This gives the capacitors in your networking equipment time to fully discharge, which is longer than most people wait but makes a real difference.
5. Plug the modem back in first, wait for it to fully boot, then plug in the router if they are separate devices.
6. Wait until all status lights are stable and no longer blinking.
7. Power your computer back on, launch Valorant, and check for the error.

Several Reddit users in the 190-comment VAL 5 thread reported that a full power cycle resolved the error after a simple restart did not. The longer 60-second wait matters because shorter pauses do not always clear the cached connection state on certain ISP-provided modems.

Time required: five to ten minutes. Difficulty: easy.

4. Verify The Integrity Of Your Game Files Using Riot Client Repair

Corrupted or missing game files can prevent Valorant from authenticating with Riot’s servers, which then surfaces as VAL 5. The correct way to fix this is through the Riot Client’s built-in Repair function, not by manually hunting for batch files in your install directory. Older guides that tell you to run _install_vanguard.bat from File Explorer are outdated and can actually cause more problems.

1. Close Valorant completely. Make sure the game is not running in the background.
2. Open the Riot Client from your desktop or Start menu.
3. Click your profile icon in the top-right corner of the client window.
4. Select Settings from the dropdown menu.
5. Find VALORANT in the list of installed games and click on it.
6. Click the Repair button. The Riot Client will now scan your installation for missing or corrupted files and automatically download replacements.
7. Wait for the repair process to complete. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour depending on your storage speed and how many files need replacing.
8. Once finished, launch Valorant and check if VAL 5 is resolved.

The Repair tool is Riot’s official answer to file integrity problems, and it works because it compares your local files against Riot’s master copies and only re-downloads what is broken. This is functionally identical to Steam’s “Verify Integrity of Game Files” feature but built directly into the Riot Client.

Time required: 5 to 30 minutes depending on repair scope. Difficulty: easy.

5. Make Sure the vgc Service Is Running

Riot Vanguard relies on a Windows service called vgc to run its kernel-level anti-cheat. If that service is disabled, stopped, or set to manual startup, Vanguard cannot authenticate your client and you will get disconnected with VAL 5. This is one of the most overlooked fixes, and it comes directly from the top-voted comment in Reddit’s largest VAL 5 thread.

1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
2. Type services.msc and press Enter to open the Services console.
3. Scroll down the list and locate vgc in the Name column.
4. Right-click on vgc and select Properties.
5. Set the Startup type to Automatic.
6. If the Service status shows as Stopped, click the Start button to launch it immediately.
7. Click OK, then restart your computer to ensure the change takes full effect.
8. Launch Valorant and verify the error is gone.

Alternatively, you can check this through the System Configuration tool. Press Win + R, type msconfig, go to the Services tab, check Hide all Microsoft Services at the bottom, then make sure vgc is checked in the list. This is the exact method recommended by Reddit user u/HelpTechSupport in the most upvoted VAL 5 fix comment.

Time required: two to three minutes plus a reboot. Difficulty: moderate.

6. Flush DNS and Reset Network Settings via Command Prompt

If your network stack has accumulated bad DNS cache entries or corrupted Winsock catalog data, Valorant’s connection to Riot’s servers can degrade or drop entirely, producing VAL 5. Running a series of network reset commands clears these caches and forces Windows to rebuild its networking state from scratch. This fix is recommended by both thespike.gg and egamersworld, and it is far more thorough than simply changing your DNS server.

1. Click the Start button, type cmd, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.
2. Type the following commands one at a time, pressing Enter after each and waiting for it to complete before moving to the next:
3. ipconfig /flushdns — Clears the DNS resolver cache.
4. ipconfig /release — Releases your current IP address.
5. ipconfig /renew — Requests a new IP address from your router or ISP.
6. netsh winsock reset — Resets the Winsock catalog to its default configuration.
7. netsh int ip reset — Resets TCP/IP stack settings to factory defaults.
8. Close the Command Prompt and restart your computer. These changes require a reboot to take effect.
9. Launch Valorant and check if VAL 5 has been resolved.

Multiple Reddit users credit this exact sequence of commands with fixing persistent VAL 5 errors that survived multiple restarts and reinstalls. The netsh winsock reset command in particular addresses deep networking corruption that a simple reboot cannot touch.

Time required: five minutes plus a reboot. Difficulty: moderate.

7. Change Your DNS Settings To Google Public DNS or Cloudflare

Your Internet Service Provider’s default DNS servers can be slow, unreliable, or actively interfering with connections to Riot’s game servers. Switching to a public DNS provider like Google or Cloudflare often resolves VAL 5 by giving your computer a faster, cleaner path to resolve Riot’s server addresses. This is one of the most commonly recommended fixes across Reddit, thespike.gg, and gameboost.com.

1. Press Win + X and select Network Connections from the menu.
2. Click on Change adapter options under the Advanced network settings section.
3. Right-click your active network connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) and select Properties.
4. Scroll down the list, find Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), click to highlight it, then click Properties.
5. Select the radio button for Use the following DNS server addresses.
6. For Google Public DNS, enter 8.8.8.8 as the preferred DNS server and 8.8.4.4 as the alternate. For Cloudflare, use 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 instead.
7. Click OK to save, then close all windows.
8. Restart your computer or run ipconfig /flushdns in Command Prompt to apply the change immediately.
9. Launch Valorant and test for VAL 5.

Google DNS and Cloudflare DNS both work well for Valorant. Some players report better results with one over the other depending on their region and ISP, so try Google first and switch to Cloudflare if VAL 5 persists.

Time required: three to five minutes. Difficulty: moderate.

8. Temporarily Disable Antivirus and Firewall Software

Third-party antivirus programs and aggressive firewall configurations can block Valorant’s connection to Riot’s authentication servers, triggering VAL 5. This is especially common with security suites from Norton, McAfee, Bitdefender, and Kaspersky, which use deep packet inspection that interferes with game traffic. Even Windows Defender Firewall can occasionally cause issues after a Windows update.

1. Locate your antivirus icon in the system tray at the bottom-right of your screen.
2. Right-click the icon and look for an option like Pause protection, Disable, or Snooze.
3. Choose a short duration such as 15 or 30 minutes. This is only for testing.
4. Press Win + X and open Control Panel, then go to System and Security > Windows Defender Firewall.
5. Click Turn Windows Defender Firewall on or off in the left pane.
6. Select Turn off Windows Defender Firewall under both Private and Public network settings.
7. Click OK, then launch Valorant and check for VAL 5.
8. If the error disappears, re-enable your firewall and antivirus immediately, then add Valorant and Riot Vanguard to their exception or allowlists.

Never leave your antivirus and firewall disabled permanently. The goal is simply to confirm whether they are the cause. If disabling them fixes VAL 5, the long-term solution is to add VALORANT-Win64-Shipping.exe, RiotClientServices.exe, and the Vanguard executables to your security software’s exclusion list so they can run without interference.

Time required: five minutes. Difficulty: easy. Remember to re-enable all protection after testing.

9. Run Valorant and Riot Vanguard As Administrator

Windows permission restrictions can prevent Valorant and Vanguard from accessing the network resources and system services they need to maintain a stable connection. Running both as administrator grants them full access and bypasses any permission-related causes of VAL 5. This is a quick fix that thespike.gg and multiple Reddit threads recommend.

1. Close Valorant and Riot Vanguard completely.
2. Right-click on your Valorant desktop shortcut or the Riot Client launcher. If you do not have a shortcut, navigate to the install folder, typically C:\Riot Games\VALORANT or C:\Program Files\Riot Vanguard.
3. Select Properties, then go to the Compatibility tab.
4. Check the box for Run this program as an administrator.
5. Click Apply and OK.
6. Repeat the same process for vgtray.exe in the Riot Vanguard folder.
7. Launch Valorant and test whether VAL 5 is resolved.

Setting the administrator flag through the Compatibility tab is better than right-clicking and selecting Run as administrator each time, because the setting persists permanently. Every future launch will automatically run with elevated privileges.

Time required: two minutes. Difficulty: easy.

10. Reinstall Valorant and Riot Vanguard As a Last Resort

If none of the previous nine fixes have worked, a clean reinstall is your final option before contacting Riot support. This wipes out any deeply corrupted files, broken registry entries, or damaged Vanguard components that the Repair tool could not fix. Before committing to a full reinstall, try uninstalling just Riot Vanguard first and letting Valorant reinstall it automatically, which is faster and often sufficient.

1. Close Valorant and the Riot Client completely.
2. Press Win + R, type appwiz.cpl, and press Enter to open Programs and Features.
3. Find Valorant in the list, right-click, and select Uninstall.
4. Find Riot Vanguard in the same list and uninstall it as well.
5. Press Win + R again, type %localappdata%, and press Enter.
6. Delete any folders named Riot Games, Valorant, or Vanguard to clear residual files.
7. Restart your computer.
8. Visit playvalorant.com and download the latest installer.
9. Run the installer and follow the on-screen prompts. Riot Vanguard will install automatically alongside Valorant.
10. Grant Vanguard the necessary permissions when prompted, then launch Valorant and verify VAL 5 is gone.

One Reddit user reported that only a complete Windows reset finally cured their persistent VAL 5, but that should be an absolute last resort. Try a standard reinstall first, and if it fails, contact Riot support before considering a full OS reinstall.

Time required: 30 to 60 minutes depending on download speed. Difficulty: moderate.

Bonus: How to Fix VAL 5 on PS5 and Xbox

Since Valorant launched on consoles, PS5 and Xbox players have started reporting VAL 5 errors as well. Console troubleshooting options are more limited than PC, but the same underlying causes apply. Here is what console players should try.

• Close the game fully — Press the PS button or Xbox button, highlight Valorant, and select Close Application. On PS5, you can also select Check for Updates from the options menu to ensure you are running the latest patch.
• Log out everywhere from a browser — Use a phone or computer to visit account.riotgames.com and click Log Out Everywhere. This fixes the account conflict version of VAL 5 on console just like on PC.
• Test your network connection — On PS5, go to Settings > Network > Connection Status > Test Internet Connection. On Xbox, go to Settings > General > Network Settings > Test network connection.
• Restart your console and router — Power cycle both devices. Hold the PS5 power button until you hear two beeps for a full shutdown. On Xbox, hold the power button for 10 seconds.
• Rebuild the database (PS5 only) — Boot the PS5 into Safe Mode by holding the power button through two beeps, then select Rebuild Database. This can fix file corruption that causes VAL 5.
• Reinstall Valorant — If nothing else works, delete the game from your console’s storage and download it fresh from the PlayStation Store or Microsoft Store.

Note that console players do not have Vanguard, since Riot uses a server-side anti-cheat for the console version. This means the vgc service fix does not apply, and the issue is almost always account-related or network-related.

Why VAL 5 Keeps Happening On Your Second Game

One of the most frustrating VAL 5 patterns is the error firing specifically on your second consecutive match. A Reddit thread titled “Val 5 Error Code every time I queue a 2nd game” gathered over 190 comments from players experiencing the exact same issue. The first match works fine, but the second queue disconnects with VAL 5 every time.

The likely cause is a session timeout or memory issue where the Riot Client fails to maintain authentication between matches. Fixes that have worked for affected players include: using the Log Out Everywhere button before each session, running the network reset commands from Fix 6, performing a clean boot to eliminate background software interference, and verifying that the vgc service is running with Automatic startup type.

If the second-game pattern persists after all fixes, submit a support ticket to Riot with specific details about the timing. Riot is aware of this pattern from community reports and may have account-specific solutions.

To perform a clean boot on Windows, press Win + R, type msconfig, go to the Services tab, check Hide all Microsoft Services, click Disable all, then re-enable only vgc and any Riot-related services. Go to the Startup tab and disable all startup items. Restart your PC, then launch Valorant and test.

Quick Fix Summary Table

Use this table to quickly identify which fix to try based on your situation and how much time you have.

• Fix 1: Log Out Everywhere — Best for account conflict. Under 2 minutes. Start here.
• Fix 2: Check Server Status — Best for patch days. 1 minute. Always check this.
• Fix 3: Restart PC and Router — Best for temporary glitches. 5 to 10 minutes.
• Fix 4: Riot Client Repair — Best for corrupted files. 5 to 30 minutes.
• Fix 5: Enable vgc Service — Best for Vanguard issues. 2 to 3 minutes plus reboot.
• Fix 6: Flush DNS and Reset Network — Best for persistent network corruption. 5 minutes plus reboot.
• Fix 7: Change DNS to Google or Cloudflare — Best for ISP DNS issues. 3 to 5 minutes.
• Fix 8: Disable Antivirus and Firewall — Best for security software interference. 5 minutes.
• Fix 9: Run as Administrator — Best for permission issues. 2 minutes.
• Fix 10: Reinstall Valorant and Vanguard — Last resort. 30 to 60 minutes.

Also Read: Valorant Tier List

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

VAL 5 is annoying, but it is almost always fixable. The key insight most guides miss is that this error is primarily an account session conflict, not a generic network problem. That is why the Log Out Everywhere button on Riot’s Account Management page resolves the majority of cases in under two minutes. Start there, then work through the other nine fixes in order if the error persists.

Always check Riot’s server status before touching your own system, especially during patch days and major events. If the servers are down, no amount of local troubleshooting will help. For persistent VAL 5 that survives all ten fixes, file a support ticket with Riot and include details about when the error occurs, what fixes you have tried, and whether it happens on a specific game or match.

Now that you know how to fix Valorant error code VAL 5, you can get back to ranking up without connection errors interrupting your matches. And once you are back in the game, check out our Valorant Tier List to make sure you are picking the strongest agents for the current meta.