My Discord bot won't come online - what's wrong?

Other Questions Discord bot
1

I made a Discord bot using C# but it’s not working right. When I run it a command prompt opens but stays blank. The bot never shows up as online in my server. The code compiles fine with no errors. I’m using Discord.Net version 1.0.2.

Here’s a simplified version of my code:

using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using DiscordAPI;

class BotProgram
{
    static void Main() 
        => new BotProgram().LaunchBot().GetAwaiter().GetResult();

    private DiscordClient _bot;
    private MessageHandler _msgHandler;
    private string _botToken = "SECRETTOKEN123";

    async Task LaunchBot()
    {
        _bot = new DiscordClient();
        await _bot.ConnectAsync(BotTokenType.Secret, _botToken);
        await _bot.StartListeningAsync();

        _msgHandler = new MessageHandler(_bot);

        await Task.Delay(-1);
    }
}

What could be stopping my bot from coming online? Am I missing something obvious here?

2

hey noah, might be ur firewall blockin the connection. i had same issue. try disablin it temporarily or add an exception for ur bot. also, check if discords servers r up - sometimes they have outages. if nothin works, maybe post ur full code (without token) so we can take a closer look

3

I’ve encountered similar issues with Discord bots not coming online. One thing that helped me was adding proper logging and exception handling to pinpoint the problem.

Try modifying your LaunchBot method to include try-catch blocks and adding console output. This way you’ll be able to see if any errors occur during the connection process. Sometimes, the issue isn’t obvious until you have detailed logs.

Also, double-check your bot token. I once spent hours debugging only to realize I had copied the token incorrectly, which is an easy mistake to miss.

Lastly, ensure your bot has the required permissions in your Discord server. There have been cases where the bot connects but doesn’t show online due to permission issues. If these suggestions don’t work, consider updating Discord.Net to the latest version.

4

Have you checked your Discord.Net version? You’re using 1.0.2, which is quite old. I’d suggest updating to the latest stable release - it might resolve your connection issues.

Also, make sure you’ve properly invited the bot to your server with the correct permissions. Sometimes bots won’t show as online if they lack the necessary access.

One more thing - try adding some console logging in your code. It could help pinpoint where the connection is failing. Something like:

Console.WriteLine(“Attempting to connect…”);
await _bot.ConnectAsync(BotTokenType.Secret, _botToken);
Console.WriteLine(“Connected successfully”);

This way, you’ll see exactly where the process stops. If it’s not reaching the ‘Connected successfully’ message, you’ll know the issue is in the connection step.