GTA V is already running fix

 

Let's be honest, the Rockstar Launcher and Social Club are pieces of garbage. You'll often see frustrating messages, out of the blue, that keep you from playing GTA V. One of the dreaded and most misunderstood issues is when you get the confusing Rockstar Launcher is already running or GTA V is already running.

Solution 1. Shut down any duplicate instances of game or launcher. Open the Windows Task Manager and shut down any processes with GTA V and or Rockstar. Shutdown Steam or Epic or Rockstar Launchers if that fails and try again.

To shutdown GTA V explicitly from a command prompt use this command:

Taskkill /IM gta5.exe /F

Solution 2. Do a verify integrity. Why? Because it's very likely you have corrupt files when solution 1 doesn't do the trick. Corrupt files can result from many reasons:

1. Your game crashed during a save.
2. You modded game files directly instead of using a mods folder
3. You screwed up files while editing them in Open 4
4. Open 4 screwed up itself - yes that happens - and corrupted files.
5. You used an OIV installer that damaged your installation.

Final Notes:

Don't listen to morons on Youtube who tell you to reinstall the game or delete files. The best solution if the task manager options don't work is to do a verify integrity. A reinstall is almost never necessary, so it should always be a last resort. Keep in mind that the measures above are to fix a game that was working. Other issues such as incorrect drivers or improperly installed mods can also lead to this or similar problems.