If you are stuck on the “Checking for Updates” screen in Fortnite Season 4 Chapter 4, the first thing you should know is that it’s a rather common issue. Fortnite is a live service game, and as such, it is regularly updated with new additions. New content is being added to Fortnite on a weekly basis, which means there are always some new updates to download. And occasionally, problems will occur. Read on to learn why this is happening and how it can be fixed.

UPDATE: On Friday, November 3rd, 2023, Fortnite Chapter 1 is set to kick off. The update marks the return of the OG Fortnite map. In order to deploy the v27.00 patch, the game will have a downtime period. Fortnite servers will be unavailable starting from 8 am CET / 7 am GMT / 3 am EST / 12 am PDT. We are not yet sure how long the servers will be down. Nevertheless, we will make sure to update the article once we have more information.

Where we droppin’?

v27.00 downtime begins at 3 AM EST and matchmaking will be disabled shortly beforehand. pic.twitter.com/RtHK57Bz0O

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) November 2, 2023

ORIGINAL STORY: The issue with Fortnite being stuck on the “Checking for Updates” screen usually appears when a new update is about to get released or is already live. Instead of finding the update, the game simply freezes with a blue screen and an infamous message. And it stays like that permanently until you restart the game. Your game client knows that it needs to download an update, but something is preventing it. And because your game is not up-to-date, you are unable to start Fornite.

One of the reasons why this is happening might be your internet connection. Thus, the first thing you need to check is if your device is properly connected to the Internet. You can do this by checking if other online games are working fine. If possible, use an Ethernet cable instead of a WiFe network. It’s both more stable and faster to download updates that way.

However, the most likely reason why this is happening is due to some issues with the game’s servers. Fortnite being frozen on the “Checking for Updates” screen usually occurs because your game can not communicate with the servers properly. If you have this issue, we advise you to check the official Fortnite Status Twitter account.