Introduction
The Forge is aware that some users are experiencing issues where worlds are failing to load/launch, as of mid-August 2026 and onward. This exhibits itself in one of two ways:
- The world or worlds being unable to load past the world loading screen, usually on the migration step.
- The world or worlds reaching the dreaded “grey screen of death”, or eternal loading bar, after the world has loaded.
This is due to a platform-specific bug on The Forge that has recently appeared, where databases for modules, systems, and packages are breaking seemingly at random for specific users.
We know this is very disruptive. The Forge is hard at work investigating this problem as a priority issue, and will update this page and our release notes when the issue is resolved. In the meantime, read below to diagnose and fix the issue.
Fixing this issue
The issue appears to be due to package databases breaking, whether in a system, module, or world. We recommend diagnosing it in the following steps.
- Identify if a module is broken.
- Identify if a system is broken.
- Identify is a world is broken.
Broken Module
If a module or modules are broken, worlds with that module enabled will fail to load. You can diagnose this by enabling safe configuration for a world. If safe configuration allows the world to load, this means that there is a broken module, or modules.
You can figure out which modules are broken by then re-enabling only 2-3 modules at a time. Once the world fails to launch again, you will now know that one of those modules are the issue.
Enable safe configuration again, and then narrow down which module in that set is broken. In some cases, we have unfortunately seen users with multiple modules broken, which means you will need to follow that same process for the rest of the modules that see regular usage.
Upon identifying that a module is broken, simply uninstall the module, and then reinstall the module. This will fix the broken module, and your worlds should now load properly. Please keep in mind that if a server is online when a module is reinstalled, you will need to restart the server for the changes to take effect.
Broken System
If a system is broken, any world on that system will fail to load when hosted on a user’s Forge account. To test if it is a system error, enable safe configuration for a world that fails to load. If that world fails to load, and other worlds on that same system also fail to load when enabling safe configuration, then it is likely a system issue.
Upon identifying that a system is broken, simply uninstall the system, and then reinstall the system. This will fix the broken system, and your worlds should now load properly. Please keep in mind that if a server is online when a module is reinstalled, you will need to restart the server for the changes to take effect.
Broken World
If you have verified that your systems and modules are functional and working, you may have a broken world database. In order to fix this, you will need to do the following:
- Follow our guide to backing up your Forge content, backing up your world: Backing Up Your Forge Content. Save a separate copy of this backup elsewhere, just in case.
- Move this world backup data into a local Foundry VTT instance, which is on the same version as your Forge account.
- Open the world locally. This will fix the world.
- Reimport the world, following the instructions within our backup guide for restoring a world backup. The reimported world should now be fixed.
We understand this is not ideal, and many users cannot even install a local instance of Foundry VTT. If you do not have a local installation of Foundry VTT and cannot install/set one up, Forge support will remain available to fix users with broken worlds during this service issue. You can request help via Discord by opening a ticket in #ticket-support. You can also email us via [email protected].