How to fix Vanguard error VAN 185 in VALORANT and League of Legends
Rare treat with this one: Riot itself tells us the cause, a client left running for over 7 days or the account signed in on several devices. So the fix is a session reset, not surgery, most people are playing again in five minutes.
By Neeraj Singh ~10 min Updated Jul 2026 85% found this helpful
Error message
Error Code: VAN 185 (Riot Vanguard session error, shown in VALORANT and League of Legends)
Quick fix
Seeing “VAN 185” in VALORANT or League? Relax, it is not a ban and Riot has publicly named the cause: the client running for longer than 7 days, or your account signed in on more than one device. Fully exit the Riot Client from the system tray, end any leftover Riot processes in Task Manager, restart and sign back in. Method 1 walks you through it.
Play on more than one PC? That is the other documented trigger. Sign out everywhere except one machine, and if you cannot reach a machine, change your Riot password to force every session out. Method 2 covers it.
Kicked mid-match? Do not troubleshoot yet, restart the client and rejoin from the play screen first, then reset the session after the match. Start at Method 1.
Neither cause fits you? Then a local contributor is breaking the session: the vgc service faltering or an unstable network path. Methods 3 and 4 hunt it down.
The error where Riot names the cause
Most Vanguard codes leave you guessing, this one does not. Riot's own error documentation states VAN 185 may be caused by leaving the client running for longer than 7 days or being logged into the client on multiple devices. Both break the same thing: the session Vanguard maintains for your account. A client that never restarts carries that session past its shelf life, and two live logins hand Vanguard two competing sessions. Either way it refuses to continue, in League or in VALORANT, and the cure is the same: give it exactly one fresh session. Local factors, a faltering vgc service or a network path that keeps dropping, can break the session too, which is what the later methods cover for the minority the two named causes do not fit. And during a Riot outage, VAN 185 can appear in a wave alongside sibling codes such as VAN 84, so if the code hit many players at once, thirty seconds on the Riot Games Service Status page saves you the whole checklist, waiting is the only fix for their side.
Figure 1: Riot's two documented causes of VAN 185, and the one cure
✓ How to fix it
Methods 1 and 2 are Riot's two documented causes and clear most cases on their own. Work down only if you need to, each method tells you what success looks like.
Method 1
Fully restart the client and give Vanguard a fresh session
1Close the game, then exit the client properly: click the taskbar's hidden-icons arrow, right-click the Riot Client icon and choose Exit. Closing the window alone leaves it running in the background, which is how clients quietly rack up a week of uptime.
2Open Task Manager and end any Riot, VALORANT or League processes still listed, then restart the PC so Vanguard starts clean with Windows.
3Launch and sign in. If you were kicked mid-match, rejoin from the play screen first and finish the reset after. Logging in and staying connected is your success sign, this alone clears most VAN 185 cases.
Figure 2: closing the window is not exiting the client
Method 2
Get down to one signed-in device
1Riot's second documented cause is the same account live on several machines, a desktop and a laptop is all it takes. Sign out of the Riot Client on every machine except the one you are playing on.
2Cannot reach one of them, an old PC, a friend's machine, a cafe? Change your Riot account password. Every existing session is forced to sign in again, which guarantees you a single live login.
3Sign in fresh on your main machine. A clean login with no repeat of the code confirms the duplicate session was the trigger.
Method 3
Check the Vanguard service is healthy
1A vgc service that falters mid-game breaks the session from your side and lands on the same code. Press Win+R, type services.msc and press Enter.
2Find vgc, set its Startup type to Automatic, click Apply and then Start if it is stopped.
3Relaunch the client as administrator while you test, restricted permissions can break the session too, and play a match. If vgc keeps stopping or refuses to start, that is its own problem, the vgc not initialized guide digs into it properly.
Method 4
Steady the connection the session rides on
1Mid-match VAN 185 with neither documented cause usually means the network path keeps flickering. On a wired setup, check the Ethernet cable and swap a worn one, a damaged cable drops packets and with them the session.
2Restart the router, and turn off VPNs and overlay tools while you test, both interfere with Vanguard's authenticated traffic. Unplug USB controllers and gamepads too, their background drivers have conflicted with Vanguard.
3Still flaky? Point your DNS at a public resolver such as 8.8.8.8, and if drops continue run Windows' full reset: search Network Reset, click Reset now and restart. A complete match without a drop is your confirmation.
Method 5
Reinstall Vanguard
1If the code persists through clean sessions, replace Vanguard itself. Uninstall Riot Vanguard from Settings > Apps and restart the PC.
2If the standard uninstall fails, do the deep clean: open Command Prompt as administrator, run sc delete vgc and sc delete vgk, restart, then delete the Riot Vanguard folder in C:\Program Files. Launch VALORANT or League, either reinstalls Vanguard automatically, then restart once more so the driver loads at boot.
3A clean session on the fresh Vanguard closes the case for nearly everyone who gets this far.
Method 6
Reinstall the game, your progress is safe
1The true last resort, and a safe one: your progress and purchases live on your Riot account, not in the local install, so nothing that matters is lost.
2Uninstall the game and Riot Vanguard, restart, then reinstall from the official site with one more restart after installing.
3Still seeing VAN 185 on a fresh install? Contact Riot Support with when it appears and what you have tried, at that point it deserves their eyes.
Prevention beats fixing here: exit the Riot Client fully every few days, keep the account on one machine at a time and keep Windows and the network drivers current. Cheap habits, and they retire this error for good.
Common causes of VAN 185
The Riot Client left running for longer than 7 days, Riot's first documented cause.
The same account signed in on multiple devices at once, Riot's second documented cause.
The vgc service faltering or stopping mid-game, breaking the session from your side.
An unstable network path, a worn Ethernet cable, flaky Wi-Fi or interfering VPNs and overlays.
Lingering Riot processes carrying a stale session after a crash or improper exit.
Corrupted Vanguard or game files, the rarest case and the reason reinstalls come last.
Expert insight
“VAN 185 is one of the few codes where I do not have to guess, Riot has written the causes down: a client that has quietly run for a week, or one account alive on two machines. So my first question is always how long since the client genuinely exited, and people are amazed to learn that closing the window does not close it, it sits in the tray for weeks. My second question is whether a laptop somewhere is still signed in, and the password change is the trick there, it boots every session at once. The service and network checks exist for the minority left over, but honestly, the tray exit and the password trick settle most of these before the kettle boils.”
Manager, Tech Support & Operations · 19+ years fixing Windows and system errors
Make sure this is the error you have
The connection family is crowded, so check the code. VAN 84 is the general drop-and-outage error, including Riot-side waves, in the VAN 84 guide. VAN 79 is the launch-time failure that is almost always client-side, in the VAN 79 guide. A plain Vanguard not initialized message belongs to the vgc guide, and login queue or platform codes VAN 0, 1 and 6 have the VAN 0 / 1 / 6 guide. This page is only for VAN 185, the session error with Riot's own explanation attached.
Frequently asked questions
What does Vanguard error VAN 185 mean?
It means Vanguard could not keep a healthy session for your account, and unusually, Riot names the cause in its own error guide: the client left running for longer than 7 days, or the same account signed in on multiple devices. A full client restart and signing in on one machine clears the vast majority of cases.
Is VAN 185 a ban or a cheating flag?
No. VAN 185 is a session and connection error with no relationship to your account standing. Bans arrive as their own clearly worded messages. Once the session is reset you sign in and play as normal.
Does VAN 185 happen in League of Legends too?
Yes, VAN 185 appears in both League of Legends and VALORANT, because both run on Vanguard and the Riot Client. Riot's guidance for the code sits in its League error documentation, and the fixes on this page apply identically to either game.
Why did I get VAN 185 after leaving my PC on for days?
Because the Riot Client quietly ran in the background the whole time, and Riot states the code appears when the client runs for longer than 7 days. The session goes stale and Vanguard refuses to carry it further. Fully exit the client from the system tray and relaunch it, and make that a habit every few days.
Why did VAN 185 kick me mid-match?
The session with Riot broke while you played, either the stale-session problem finally tipping over or a network interruption Vanguard could not survive. Get back in first, restart the client and rejoin, then reset the session properly after the match and check your connection's stability.
How do I sign out of the account everywhere?
Sign out on each machine you remember using, and for the ones you cannot reach, change your Riot account password, which forces every existing session to sign in again. That guarantees exactly one live login, which is the state Vanguard wants.
Will reinstalling the game delete my progress or settings?
No. Your progress and purchases live on your Riot account, not in the local install, so reinstalling League of Legends or VALORANT does not touch them, and VALORANT also syncs your in-game settings to your account. Reinstalling sits at the bottom of this page's ladder precisely because it is safe but rarely needed.
How do I stop VAN 185 coming back?
Exit the Riot Client fully every few days instead of leaving it running for weeks, and keep the account signed in on one machine at a time. Also keep Windows and your network drivers current. Those three habits remove both of Riot's named causes and the common local one.
Still not working?
If VAN 185 began right after a graphics driver update, roll back to the previous stable driver with a clean install, new driver versions have clashed with Vanguard before. And if it survives a fresh install and a guaranteed single session, treat it as a stability problem wearing a session error's name: test on a wired connection or a phone hotspot for a match to rule the network in or out, and check whether the vgc service stays running through a full game. Browse the full set of Riot Vanguard error guides for anything adjacent, or submit your error to us for a tailored fix.
