So, you’ve downloaded NordVPN, but it isn’t working as you expected, or it has been working faultlessly for a while and now you’re getting an error along the lines of—“NordVPN background process is not running”.
Only a minor number of users get this error but there’s a working fix. So consider yourself lucky!
This can sometimes happen when NordVPN releases an update and downgrading to the last stable version isn’t something that fixes it.
Usually, clicking on the “Start process” button will fix the problem, however, some users have reported that this needs to be done several times before NordVPN will work properly again.
Sometimes clicking the button won’t work though, so then what?
Fixing the “NordVPN Background Process Not Running” Error
If clicking “Start process” doesn’t work, then there are a few additional steps you will need to take. Clearing NordVPN’s application cache is one of these solutions and this is how you can do it.
1. Close NordVPN through your task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
On Windows, it should look something similar to this. The apps and background processes you see will be different depending on what you have running.
2. Click on the “Details” tab between “Users” and “Services”
Again, this will look different depending on what apps you have running. This is a list of all applications running as well as resources being consumed by those applications. Among the list you’ll see NordVPN as well.
3. Scroll down until you see all the processes running by NordVPN
This is in alphabetical order so you should be able to find NordVPN’s processes quite easily. Just scroll down to N.
You need to right-click and press “End process tree” for both nordvpn-service.exe and NordVPN.exe.
4. Close down your task manager and launch the “Run” menu
You can do this by pressing the “Windows” (Start) key and “R” at the same time.
In the box, type in %localappdata% and then hit Enter or click “OK”. This will open your Local App Data folder and you will see lots of different folders for the software you have currently got installed.
5. Find the NordVPN folder and delete it
Don’t worry—this just deletes the app’s saved data (its cache) and will not remove any of the software’s core files.
That’s it—this should have fixed your problem. Launch NordVPN and see.
Still Experiencing Problems?
In the unlikely event that you follow these steps and still experience the same problem, we recommend contacting the NordVPN support team.
They are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over both email and live chat. All support agents are friendly, knowledgeable and respond quickly with a high-level of support. This is one of many reasons why NordVPN is our favorite VPN service provider.
They will help you out no matter what device or operating system you’re using.
Try NordVPN for Free
If you haven’t yet purchased VPN and are currently doing your research, we recommend trying it out for free by taking advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee.
Although you do need to subscribe to one of their premium plans which does cost money and requires a valid payment method, you can get a refund at any time if you are not happy with NordVPN, if it is not right for you, or if it isn’t working as intended.
Their 30-day money-back guarantee has no strings attached to it—all you need to do is email their customer support team and ask for it.
Thank you! This worked for me 🙏