How to Fix Fortnite Error 93 (Unable to Join Party)
What Error 93 means
Error 93 is one of Fortnite's strangest errors. Your friend is sitting in a party lobby, you try to join, and instead of loading in you get a blunt "Unable to join party" message with error code 93 attached. The game isn't crashing, your account isn't banned, and you can usually still play solo matches just fine — only the party join fails.
What makes error 93 stand out from the other party errors is how often it traces back to your cosmetic loadout. Fortnite streams a lot of item-shop and locker graphics on demand, and if any equipped item — your skin, back bling, pickaxe, or wrap — has assets that haven't fully downloaded to your device, the party-join handshake can fail. The server thinks the session looks one way, your client thinks it looks another, and they can't agree, so you get kicked back to the lobby with error 93.
The other common trigger is a broken party session itself. Private-lobby invites are a known troublemaker here: the leader's invite and your join attempt can disagree about the session state, producing exactly this error. That's why some of the most reliable fixes below have nothing to do with your setup at all — they're about rebuilding the party from scratch or approaching it through a different door, like the Epic Games friends list.
Common causes
- Cosmetic loadout with un-downloaded graphics: an equipped skin or item whose graphics haven't fully downloaded breaks the party-join handshake — the single most distinctive cause of error 93.
- Broken party session state: a stale or half-dead party session, often created by private-lobby invites, makes the server and your client disagree about how to connect.
- Private lobby invite weirdness: joining through a private party invite rather than the lobby itself is one of the most frequently reported triggers.
- Unstable or intermittent internet connection: slow speeds (under 3 Mbps) or a connection that drops randomly can interrupt the party handshake and produce error 93.
- Epic's party services having issues: if the "Parties, Friends, and Messaging" service is degraded on Epic's side, party joins fail regardless of what you do — always check the status page.
How to fix Error 93 — step by step
Work through these in order. The first fix is famously odd, but it's odd because it works — most players solve error 93 at step one or two.
- Change your skin and cosmetic loadout Go to your Locker and swap your current outfit for a different skin — a default or long-owned one is safest — plus a different back bling and pickaxe. Avoid anything brand-new or exotic. Once your loadout uses cosmetics that are fully downloaded to your device, try joining the party again. As strange as it sounds, removing the un-downloaded item from the equation resolves error 93 for a huge number of players.
- Set the party to Public and join without an invite Have the party leader switch the lobby's party privacy to Public (Anyone) instead of Private, then join the party through the lobby screen without waiting for an invite. Private-lobby invites are one of the most common triggers for error 93: the invite and your join attempt disagree about the session state, and the handshake fails. Joining a public lobby directly sidesteps that broken handshake entirely.
- Join through the Epic Games friends list Instead of joining through Fortnite's in-game friends list, use your Epic Games friends list. On PC, open the Epic Games Launcher, go to your Friends list, find your friend's party, and join from there. The Epic friends list resolves party membership through Epic's account-level system rather than the game's own party browser, which can bypass whatever is corrupting the in-game join path.
- Leave, restart, and recreate the party session Have everyone leave the current party completely. Then close Fortnite fully — on PC, quit the game and exit the Epic Games Launcher; on console, highlight Fortnite, press the menu button, and choose Close application. Relaunch, create a brand-new party, and send fresh invites. This clears the broken session state that a stale or half-dead party leaves behind, which is a frequent underlying cause of error 93.
- Power-cycle your router and check your connection Turn your router off, unplug it from power for at least 30 seconds, then plug it back in and wait until all the connection lights are stable. Restart your PC or console too. Fortnite needs a stable connection of at least 3 Mbps — run a speed test, and if your connection drops randomly or feels sluggish, that intermittent packet loss can break the party handshake. If you play on Wi-Fi, try a wired Ethernet connection temporarily to rule out wireless interference.
- Check Epic's server status and update network drivers Visit status.epicgames.com and confirm the "Parties, Friends, and Messaging" service is operational — if Epic's party servers are having a bad day, error 93 will appear no matter what you do, and waiting is the only fix. On PC, also update your network drivers: open Device Manager, expand Network adapters, right-click your adapter, and choose Update driver. Outdated network drivers have been linked to repeated error 93 occurrences, so this is worth doing if the error keeps coming back.
Did this fix it? Quick checklist
- You can join a friend's party without error 93
- Your Locker loadout uses fully downloaded skins and cosmetics
- Joining a Public party or a fresh session works on the first try
- The Epic status page shows party services as operational
If error 93 keeps coming back, try playing on a different skin set for a while and see if the error follows a specific outfit — that tells you exactly which cosmetic is causing it. You can also try a different friend's party to rule out a problem with one leader's setup. Reinstalling Fortnite is almost never the answer here: error 93 is about party sessions, loadouts, and network communication, not corrupted game files, so a reinstall wastes time without fixing anything.
Frequently asked questions
What is Fortnite error 93?
Error 93 is a party-join error in Fortnite. It appears as "Unable to join party" when you try to join a friend's lobby. Unlike most connection errors, error 93 is commonly triggered by a cosmetic loadout containing items whose graphics haven't fully downloaded, or by a broken party session caused by private-lobby invites.
Why does changing my skin fix error 93?
It sounds bizarre, but it's well documented: if any cosmetic in your loadout — skin, back bling, pickaxe — has graphics that haven't been downloaded to your device, the party-join handshake can fail with error 93. Swapping to a fully downloaded, default or long-owned outfit removes the un-downloaded item from the equation, and the join goes through.
Does error 93 mean my account is banned?
No. Error 93 is not a ban. It is a party-system problem — either on Epic's side, in your party session, or in your loadout. A banned account would show a ban message and block you from playing entirely, not just from joining parties.
What's the difference between error 91 and error 93?
Both stop you from joining a party, but error 91 is a general "party service not responding" failure fixed mainly through server checks, restarts, and network fixes. Error 93 is more specific and quirkier — it often involves a broken skin or cosmetic loadout, private-lobby invite weirdness, or a stale party session, and the famously odd fix is changing your character's outfit.
Should I reinstall Fortnite to fix error 93?
Almost certainly not. Error 93 is about party sessions, loadouts, and network communication — not corrupted game files — so a reinstall rarely helps and wastes a lot of time. Work through the steps above first; reinstalling is only a last resort after every other fix has failed repeatedly.