Epic Games Launcher LS-0013

On screen: Launch failed. Error Code: LS-0013

What it actually means

LS stands for launcher service. The Epic Games Launcher started the game's executable but the process exited, or failed to return a handle before the launcher's timeout.

The real causes: a corrupted launcher webcache, a mismatch between the manifest and the installed binaries after an interrupted patch, Easy Anti-Cheat not running or being blocked, and — counter-intuitively — a Run as administrator compatibility flag set on the game binaries, which Epic explicitly tells you to remove.

This code is not Fortnite-specific. It affects every title bought through the Epic Games Store.

How to tell which one you have

LS-0013 does not appear during Epic outages. During a real incident you get login or matchmaking codes, or a queue. If your friends are playing and you are getting LS-0013, it is your installation.

Fixes, in the order worth trying

1. Delete the launcher webcache folders — In %localappdata%\\EpicGamesLauncher\\Saved, remove the webcache folders and restart the launcher. Epic lists this second; in practice it should be first.
2. Remove the administrator compatibility flag — On FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe, FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping_BE.exe, FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping_EAC.exe and FortniteLauncher.exe, untick Run this program as an administrator.
3. Verify the game files — From the launcher library, the three-dot menu, Manage, Verify.
4. Reinstall Easy Anti-Cheat — Run EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe from the game folder. Epic does not list this, but for Fortnite it is the most common single cause.
5. Add an antivirus exclusion for the game folder
6. Update the GPU driver and the Visual C++ redistributables
7. Reinstall the game — Last resort, as always.

Operator documentation: www.epicgames.com. Epic's page ranks first and lists nine steps in no particular order. The ordering above reflects which of them actually resolve it.

Common questions