A How to Fish black screen on startup is most often cleared by running the game as an administrator through Task Manager, or by uninstalling and reinstalling. A separate black screen when joining a lobby and a grey screen at startup were both addressed in patch 1.0.4, so update and restart Steam first.
What the black screen actually is
When How to Fish opens to a black screen and never draws its menu, the launch is hanging rather than crashing outright. A player on the Steam discussion forum described exactly this, with the process sitting on a black window and using only about 0.1% of their CPU. Nothing is progressing, so no error appears and the game will not close on its own.
That detail matters because a hung launch is usually a permissions or install problem, not a broken graphics card. How to Fish is a 1-4 player physics-based fishing game, and the black screen locks you out before you ever reach a boat, so there is nothing to configure in-game — the fix has to happen around the launch itself. The fixes below are ordered by how often the community reports them working, so start at the top and only move down if a step does nothing. Most players never get past the first two.
The fix most players report works: run as administrator
The single most-repeated fix in the forum thread is forcing the game to launch with administrator rights. One commenter posted the full sequence, and at least one other replied that it worked for them. It does not help everyone, but it is the first thing to try because it costs nothing and takes about a minute.
Here is the path in plain terms. With the black screen still up, open Task Manager, find How to Fish in the process list, and use Open File Location to jump to the game folder. Right-click the game's executable there, open Properties, and switch to the Compatibility tab. Near the bottom choose Change settings for all users, tick Run this program as an administrator, then apply and confirm.
Once that is set, close the black-screen process from Task Manager and launch the game again from Steam. Because the setting is applied for all users, it sticks across future launches, so you only do this once. If the game reaches its menu, you are done.
If that fails: reinstall and update
When the administrator toggle does nothing, the next most common suggestion is a clean reinstall. One player wrote that simply uninstalling and reinstalling let the game boot normally afterward. It is slow, but it clears out a corrupt or half-applied update, which is a plausible cause of a launch that hangs before drawing anything.
Before you commit to a reinstall, make sure the game is fully up to date and restart Steam so any pending patch actually installs. Dazed Games has shipped fixes almost daily since the August 20, 2026 launch, and several of them target screen problems directly. Updating alone has resolved these faults for players on older builds, so it is worth ruling out first.
Black screen versus grey screen: what the patches changed
The official patch notes treat the black screen and the grey screen as two separate bugs, which is a useful way to think about your own symptom. Patch 1.0.4 (August 21, 2026) lists both: it "(Hopefully!) Fixed blackscreen when trying to join lobby" and "(Hopefully!) Fixed grayscreen when starting the game by not trying to force fullscreen-mode."
That second line is the clue. The startup grey screen was linked to the game forcing fullscreen mode, so the developers simply stopped forcing it. If you boot to a grey screen rather than a black one — one player described a grey screen with the spinning Windows cursor — updating past patch 1.0.4 is the direct fix, not the administrator trick.
The lobby black screen is a different animal. It happens when you try to join a multiplayer session rather than at launch, which puts it closer to a connection fault than a display fault. That distinction changes how you should troubleshoot it, covered further down.
If it started right after an update
Not every case is a patch away from fixed. One player, posting on August 24, reported the opposite pattern: they played roughly eight hours over the first two days, then could not launch at all after update v1.0.6. Their symptom was a grey screen with the spinning cursor, a game they could only close through Task Manager, and a mouse that stopped working on their primary monitor.
If your black or grey screen appeared right after a specific update, work the basics in order. Run as administrator, verify the game files or reinstall, update your graphics drivers, and confirm you are on the newest patch. Later updates added debugging help — patch 1.0.10 (August 27, 2026) now prints the game version number in player.log, which makes it easy to report exactly which build broke for you.
It also helps to know what the surrounding updates changed. Patch 1.0.5 (August 22, 2026) lowered the minimum locked frame rate from 50 to 30, and patch 1.0.6 (August 23) reworked saving so the game no longer writes a file when it crashes, autosaving every minute instead. Patch 1.0.9 (August 24) then aimed to fix save files being corrupted, and noted that players still hitting crashes when loading a save or equipping a weapon should visit the Community Discord to have the bad file removed. If your launch problem lines up with a crash-and-corrupt-save loop rather than a pure black screen, that path is worth following.
Persistent, update-linked failures are worth reporting directly. Dazed Games directs players to the bug-report forum in their Community Discord, and the studio's site confirms that is the official channel for "my game is not working." Include your version, your GPU, and whether a solo launch works.
When it is a connection problem, not a graphics problem
A black screen that only appears when joining a lobby is often not about your display at all — it is the game failing to connect. Patch 1.0.9 (August 24, 2026) added a short Steam connection debug to the main menu that shows whether the connection fails while initializing. If that Steam relay text turns red, you are looking at a networking problem, and the display fixes above will not help.
Patch 1.0.10 also increased the time the game allows for connecting, which the developers said should lower the risk of being disconnected instantly. If your black screen is tied to multiplayer rather than a solo launch, treat it as a connection issue and work through the How to Fish online fix guide for the networking side. For every other startup and stability problem, the How to Fish fixes hub links to the rest of the guides.
Quick checklist
- Run the game as administrator via Task Manager, Open File Location, Properties, then the Compatibility tab.
- Uninstall and reinstall if the administrator fix changes nothing.
- Update to the latest patch and restart Steam — the startup grey screen was addressed in patch 1.0.4.
- For a black screen only when joining a lobby, check the Steam relay debug added in patch 1.0.9; red text means a connection problem.
- Report update-linked failures in the official Discord bug-report forum, noting your version from player.log.
Frequently asked questions
Why does How to Fish open to a black screen on my PC?
The launch is hanging rather than crashing. One player measured the process sitting at about 0.1% CPU on a black screen before fixing it. Running the game as an administrator through its Compatibility settings cleared it for several players; a clean reinstall cleared it for others.
How do I fix a black screen when I join a co-op lobby?
That is a different bug from the startup black screen. Patch 1.0.4 (August 21, 2026) says it hopefully fixed the black screen when trying to join a lobby, so update to the latest version and restart Steam. If it persists, treat it as a connection issue rather than a graphics one.
What is the difference between the black screen and the grey screen?
The grey screen at startup was tied to the game forcing fullscreen mode. Patch 1.0.4 stopped forcing fullscreen to address it. The black screen is more often a startup hang cleared by the administrator fix or a reinstall.
The game stopped launching after an update — what should I do?
One player reported launch failures starting with v1.0.6 after playing fine for two days. Run as administrator, reinstall, update drivers, and confirm you are on the newest patch. Patch 1.0.10 now prints your game version in player.log so you can report the exact build.
Could a black screen actually be a connection problem?
Yes, especially when it only happens joining a lobby. Patch 1.0.9 added a Steam connection debug line to the main menu — if that Steam relay text turns red, the fault is networking, not display, and the online fix guide applies instead.