Failed to initialize Studio

Are you running into issues when launching the Studio app? We’re happy to help!

I’ve encountered the “Failed to initialize Studio” error message.

If you are receiving a “Failed to initialize Studio” error message when trying to launch Studio, please try the recommendations below.

Recommended actions

1. Launch the app with administrator privileges.
   • On Windows, launch Studio with the "Run as Administrator" option.
   • On Mac, you can right-click the Studio app and select “Open”, which is the equivalent of “Run as Administrator”.
2. Update your graphic card drivers to the latest version.
   • If you experience an empty black screen when launching Studio, try changing the display settings. For AMD graphics cards, go to AMD Radeon settings and under "display," change scaling mode from "preserve aspect ratio" to "full panel". For NVidia graphics cards, change the display scaling to “Full-screen”. You can find information about display settings at the following links for AMD and NVidia.
   • You can also launch the app with the integrated graphics card if you happen to have multiple graphic card drivers or try switching from the integrated graphics card to the dedicated graphics card. Here are links to detailed steps for Windows and Mac devices.
3. Start the troubleshooting process in the Studio app
   • When the system detects the “failed to initialize” issue, it will display a pop-up to let you start the troubleshooting process. As this case is mostly caused by the Studio cache folder, the troubleshooting process is to delete the folder and create a new one. This process includes a backup of the folder to keep you from losing any custom parts or palette data.
   • Clicking on "Troubleshoot" will give you an explanation of the process.
   • Clicking on the “Proceed” button will begin the troubleshooting process.
   • After the process is complete, you should be able to find the backup folder below.
     • Mac: Users > YOUR USERNAME > .local > share > Stud.io Backup
       • Note: to see the hidden folders in your user folder(.local), press Shift + Cmd + >.
     • Windows: Find the file under \Users\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Stud.io Backup

I’ve encountered the "Unable to install Studio on my Mac" error message.

If you run into a message saying, “Studio.pkg cannot be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software," try to launch the .pkg file while pressing Ctrl, or you can right click it and select Open. For more information about this issue, please refer to the Mac OS User Guide.

I've tried the above, but the issue still hasn’t been resolved. What do I do?

If you’re still experiencing problems, please check your system requirements. Your operating system or graphics card may be unsupported, likely due to age. You can try to use an older version of Studio, since sometimes updates may not be compatible with older operating systems.

If the issue persists, please contact bricklink@support.LEGO.com. Please send us an error log file (Prev_Player.log), which can be found in the same location as the cache file. Don’t forget to include your computer specs and OS information, too!