World of Warcraft accounts vanished on October 3, 2025

On October 3, 2025, many World of Warcraft players opened the Battle.net launcher and saw no WoW at all. Some could still see Classic, some could not see Retail, and some saw a greyed out install button. I watched the threads flare up and went down the rabbit hole.

Only need the fix? Head to section 3 for the steps that worked.

What happened on October 3, 2025

A Battle.net launcher display bug hid some World of Warcraft licenses. Players could not see their Retail game tile, or the launcher showed an Install prompt even though the game was already on disk. Some saw prompts to buy or upgrade even with an active license. This lined up with the weekend after The War Within activity, so the panic was louder than usual.

The bug did not delete accounts. It did not remove purchases. It hid the license selector inside the launcher for some users.

How to tell if this bug hit you

You likely saw one or more of these during that weekend:

• The World of Warcraft game tile vanished from the Battle.net app

• Only WoW Classic showed up, Retail was missing

• The Play button changed to an Install button for no clear reason

• The launcher asked you to buy The War Within or showed an inactive account for Retail

• Clicking the region picker did nothing, or you could not change accounts

• Logging in asked you to purchase the game again, while the website still showed an active license

If that looks familiar, it was the same problem.

Fixes that actually worked for players

These steps got most folks back in. Start at the top and stop when it works.

1. Fully close Battle.net, then end all Battle.net processes in Task Manager. Open it again and check the account selector near the Play button.

2. Sign out of Battle.net, then sign back in with the same email to refresh your licenses.

3. Switch accounts or regions in the top right of the launcher. Pick the account that holds your Retail license.

4. Launch WoW from the folder. Run WoW.exe in your install path. At the login screen, cancel once and pick the correct account when the selector appears.

5. Clear the app cache. Close the app first.

   • Windows: Press Windows Key + R, type %ProgramData%, press Enter. Open *C:\ProgramData* and delete the Battle.net folder. Reopen Battle.net.

   • Mac: Quit Battle.net. In Finder, open /Users/Shared/Blizzard/ and delete the Battle.net folder. Reopen Battle.net.

This clears cached launcher data. Your installed games stay on disk.
6. Scan and Repair. In the launcher, click the gear on the game tile, choose Scan and Repair.
7. Reinstall the Battle.net app. Keep this for last. It is quick and does not delete installed games.

Tip, if you have more than one WoW license on the same email, give it a moment after a cache clear. The selector can take a bit to load.

What Blizzard said and when

That day, multiple reports landed on the official forums across Desktop App Bug Report and WoW forums describing missing Retail licenses and account selectors. The issue was tracked in a Blizzard Desktop App forum mega thread where players gathered workarounds while it was being looked into. That evening, Blizzard CS posted on X that they were aware of World of Warcraft licenses not appearing in the Battle.net app and were investigating (October 3, 2025): Blizzard CS on X. Later that night they noted it should be resolved. Through October 4 and October 5, player reports slowed down as launcher updates rolled out.

If you saw forum posts that mentioned The War Within, that was common. People with that expansion seemed to notice the problem more, since they were trying to log in during busy hours.

Why The War Within accounts were impacted

From what I saw in player talk, this hit accounts that had The War Within attached more often than others. That does not mean the expansion was broken. It likely means a license flag in the launcher view got stuck. The app did not know which license to show, so it hid the Retail tile or showed Install.

There is a simple reason it felt bigger for TWW players. More people with that license tried to log in during the same window, so the same bug looked widespread.

If it still does not show today

As of October 7, 2025, if your WoW tile is still missing, try this short checklist.

• Confirm the email on your Battle.net account is the same one you used to buy WoW

• Open Account Management in a browser and check that your World of Warcraft license shows as Active

• Sign out of the launcher, clear the app cache, sign back in

• Try launching WoW.exe directly from the folder

• If the launcher still shows Install, point it to your existing folder

• If that fails, reinstall the Battle.net app, then use Locate the game

If none of that works, contact support and include a screenshot of your Account Management page that shows the active license. That helps them see it is a launcher view issue and not a billing issue.