There are numerous errors that can occur in World of Warcraft, or any online game for that matter, and one of the more common ones that players will stumble upon is the “error retrieving character list” message.
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If you’ve played the game long enough, you’ve probably had this happen to you at least once or twice, and sometimes the solution to your problem is as simple as logging off and logging back in, but sometimes it’s a little bit more complicated. So in this piece we’ll run you through a few different tricks for figuring out why you’re getting that error and how you can handle it.
How to fix the ‘error retrieving character list’ in World of Warcraft
As previously stated, I highly recommend starting with the age old IT advice of “unplug it and plug it back in.” Turning off your game and making sure that your internet connection is stable should always be your first step in troubleshooting any technical issue.
While you’re attempting to reboot back into the game, I’d also advise that you take a moment to check with Blizzard’s customer service social media pages. Sometimes these errors are not your fault and are on Blizzard’s end, and you can get updates from them by going to the BlizzardCS Twitter account.
Add-Ons
Add-ons are one of the best ways to enhance your gaming experience in WoW, but sometimes they can cause trouble because they’re effectively mods for the game that can cause technical issues.
If you’re getting this error message, one of the first things you should do after restarting your game, and maybe even your computer or router, is to disable your add-ons to see if one of them is potentially causing the problem. If that’s the issue, you can start manually turning each back on individually until you find the problem child among them.
Cache Folder
Considering this requires you to go through your computer files and is a little bit more intrusive, I would recommend saving this as a last resort.
Some players have noted that issues with your cache folder for the game can cause this issue. I personally haven’t had this particular issue, so I’m going based off of what I’ve heard and read on the topic.
You can find your cache folder by opening your World of Warcraft file on your computer. You should be able to find a cache folder inside the larger WoW folder. If you open it up, and delete everything inside it, that can often resolve the issue.
Usually, this error is due to internet connection issues or it’s on Blizzard’s end and will be resolved within a couple hours. In either of those instances, the solution is significantly more simple than navigating through your computer files. Being someone that isn’t the most tech savvy person in the world, I’m also terrified that I’d accidentally delete the wrong thing and mess up my game, but maybe that’s just my paranoia speaking.
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