About 90% of the time when Midjourney seems broken, the problem isn't Midjourney.
It's Discord. Or a queue backup. Or a server incident that started 20 minutes ago and nobody's checked yet. I've watched people spend an hour debugging their prompts when the real issue was a Discord outage that cleared up on its own while they were troubleshooting.
That's where this guide starts. Not with prompt syntax -- with the infrastructure.
Here's how to actually diagnose and fix Midjourney when it's not working, in the order that covers most problems first.
Check Midjourney Server Status First
Before anything else: go to status.midjourney.com.
Takes ten seconds. Either something is broken on their end or it isn't. If there's an active incident, your only real option is to wait it out. No amount of prompt tweaking or Discord channel-hopping will fix a backend outage.
What you're looking for: any component showing "Degraded Performance" or "Partial Outage." Image generation issues usually show up under the "Generation Service" or "API" component. If those are down, that's your answer.
Also worth checking: the Midjourney Discord server itself has a #status channel. It often has more granular updates than the status page during active incidents, especially for stuff like slow generation speeds that doesn't always trigger an official status update.
If everything on the status page is green and you're still having problems -- now we're actually troubleshooting.
Midjourney Bot Not Responding in Discord
The bot isn't responding. You typed /imagine and nothing happened. Or you got an error about the bot being offline.
First check: type /info in the channel. This is a basic bot command. If it doesn't respond, the bot isn't active in that channel or server. If it does respond and shows your account info, the bot is functional -- your issue is something else.
The bot shows offline in the member list. This sometimes happens during Discord's own maintenance windows or when Midjourney is pushing an update. Give it 5-10 minutes. If the bot is showing offline for longer than 30 minutes and the Midjourney status page shows everything green, join the official Midjourney Discord (discord.gg/midjourney) and check if the bot is active in the public channels. If it is, the issue is your server.
You added Midjourney Bot to your own server and it stopped working. The most common cause is missing permissions. The bot needs: Send Messages, Embed Links, Attach Files, Read Message History, and Add Reactions. In your server settings, go to the channel where you want to use Midjourney, open the channel permissions, find the Midjourney Bot entry, and verify these permissions are enabled. If the permissions look correct but it still doesn't work, try removing and re-adding the bot.
Bot responds with "You don't have permission." This means your Discord account was restricted in that specific channel or server, not that your Midjourney subscription is broken. Check with the server admin.
You're trying to use Midjourney via DM. Direct messages to the bot require that you've previously interacted with the bot in a server where it's present. If you've never used Midjourney in a server, DMs won't work. Start in one of Midjourney's public channels or add the bot to your own server first.
Midjourney Job Queue Errors (Queue Full, Slow Generation)
"Job queue full." One of the more frustrating errors because it feels like a hard stop when it isn't.
Midjourney uses a concurrent job system. Depending on your plan, you can run a certain number of jobs simultaneously:
- Free / Basic plan: 3 concurrent fast jobs
- Standard plan: 3 concurrent fast jobs, unlimited in Relax mode
- Pro plan: 12 concurrent fast jobs
- Mega plan: 12 concurrent fast jobs
If you're hitting queue limits constantly on Standard, switch to Relax mode. Relax mode has no concurrent limit -- jobs take longer (usually 0-10 minutes instead of seconds), but you can submit as many as you want. Type /settings and toggle to Relax mode. For exploratory work where speed doesn't matter, it's the right default.
Generation is taking forever. Not a queue error, but related. Midjourney's speed varies significantly by time of day. Peak hours -- weekday afternoons US Eastern time, roughly 12pm to 8pm -- are noticeably slower. I've had generations that take 45 seconds at 2am take 4-5 minutes at 3pm. That's not broken, it's just load.
If speed is important, use Fast mode and consider the time of day. If you're burning through Fast hours faster than you'd like, Relax mode is there for a reason.
You ran out of Fast GPU hours. This happens on Standard plan if you're generating a lot. Check your usage with /info. Your remaining Fast hours are listed there. Once you're out of Fast hours, you automatically drop to Relax mode -- you don't lose access entirely, but generation will be slow until your monthly hours reset. You can also buy additional Fast hours from your Midjourney account settings.
Image Generation Failed / Invalid Parameter Errors
The job ran, the progress bar hit 100%, and then... nothing. Or you got a "job failed" notice.
Prompt content policy violation. Midjourney has content filters that block certain prompts -- violence, explicit content, certain real people, specific banned terms. If your prompt touches any of these areas, the job silently fails or gives a brief content policy error. This isn't a bug, it's intentional. Rephrase the prompt.
Invalid parameter errors. These happen when you use a flag incorrectly. Common mistakes I see:
-
--araspect ratio format: use colons, not x.--ar 16:9works.--ar 16x9does not. -
--stylize(or--s) range: 0 to 1000 only. Values outside that range will error. -
--chaosrange: 0 to 100. -
--quality(or--q): valid values are .25, .5, 1, and 2 only.--q 3will fail. -
--version(or--v): check current valid versions. Using--v 3may error depending on what Midjourney has deprecated.
If you're getting an invalid parameter error and you're not sure which flag is causing it, strip all parameters from your prompt and run it plain. If it works, add parameters back one at a time.
Image generation ran but the output is blank or corrupted. Rare, but it happens during periods of instability. Use /info to check if the job registered. If it shows as completed but the image is missing or broken, click the job and use the "Re-run" option. If the issue persists across multiple attempts, it's a backend problem -- check status.midjourney.com.
For a deeper look at how Midjourney's parameters work and what you can actually do with them, the Midjourney beginner's guide covers the full prompt syntax in more detail.
Midjourney Subscription / Payment Issues
Your subscription lapsed and you can't figure out why, or a payment failed and you're locked out.
Subscription shows as active but you can't generate. Check /info in Discord. It'll show your plan, renewal date, and remaining usage. Sometimes there's a mismatch between what the website shows and what the bot reports. The bot's /info is the ground truth for generation.
Payment failed. Midjourney uses Stripe. When a payment fails, they'll typically retry 2-3 times before suspending the account. Check the email address associated with your Midjourney account -- the notification email goes there, not necessarily to your Discord-connected email. You can update payment info at midjourney.com/account.
Subscription auto-renewed and you weren't expecting it. Midjourney subscriptions are monthly or yearly and auto-renew by default. If you want to cancel, go to midjourney.com/account and turn off auto-renewal. The subscription stays active until the end of the current period, it doesn't cancel immediately.
Wrong tier. If you downgraded from Pro to Basic and your concurrent job slots dropped, that's expected behavior. The tier change takes effect immediately, not at the next billing cycle.
If your billing looks completely wrong -- charged twice, charged for the wrong tier -- that's a support ticket situation. See the section at the end on how to reach them.
Discord-Specific Fixes (Permissions, DMs, Channel Access)
Midjourney runs entirely inside Discord, which means Discord-specific weirdness can break things in ways that look like Midjourney problems.
Midjourney isn't working in your own server but works in the official server. Permissions, almost always. Beyond the basic bot permissions mentioned earlier, check whether your server has Community mode enabled. Some Community server settings restrict bots in ways that aren't obvious. Also check if you have any AutoMod rules that might be blocking Midjourney's bot messages.
DMs aren't working. Go to Discord's user settings, find the Privacy & Safety section, and check that "Allow direct messages from server members" is enabled for the Midjourney Discord server. If you have DMs locked down, the bot can't reach you.
The Midjourney bot is in the server but only works in some channels. This is almost always a channel-specific permission override. In Discord, channel permissions can override server-wide permissions. Someone may have set the channel to deny bot access without realizing it. Check the channel's specific permission overrides (channel settings > Permissions tab).
Notification settings. If you're using Midjourney in large servers and missing when your generations complete, check your notification settings. You can set Midjourney's specific channel to notify you on all messages, which helps you catch completed jobs quickly.
One underused feature: Midjourney's web interface at midjourney.com lets you manage jobs, view history, and access account settings without being in Discord. It doesn't replace Discord for generation, but it's useful for account management.
Worth reading if you're evaluating whether Midjourney is the right tool: the Midjourney vs DALL-E vs Ideogram comparison covers the practical differences, and the Midjourney vs Stable Diffusion comparison is useful if you're considering a local/open-source alternative. Our best AI image generators roundup has the full landscape if you're still deciding.
When to Contact Midjourney Support
Midjourney doesn't have a traditional support email. Everything goes through Discord.
For general issues and account questions: join the official Midjourney Discord (discord.gg/midjourney) and navigate to the #support channel. Submit a request there. Response time varies -- during busy periods, it can take 24-48 hours.
For billing disputes specifically: these are handled more urgently but still through Discord support. Include your Midjourney account email, the date of the charge in question, and the amount. Screenshots help.
What support can actually help with:
- Billing errors and duplicate charges
- Account access issues (locked out, subscription not reflecting correctly)
- Reports of consistently broken generation that affects your account specifically
- Requests related to content policy (if you believe a prompt was incorrectly blocked)
What support can't help with:
- Prompt quality or style outcomes -- that's on you to experiment
- Discord server configuration on servers you manage
- Feature requests or timeline questions about upcoming releases
- Third-party integrations using the Midjourney API
If something is broken site-wide, support already knows -- they're dealing with it. In those cases, patience is genuinely the right answer. The team's active and usually resolves outages within a few hours.
If you've worked through this list and something is still broken, it's likely either a billing issue (check /info and your account page at midjourney.com) or an active incident that hasn't been posted to the status page yet. Give it time and check the official Discord.
When it's working correctly, Midjourney is one of the best image generators available -- our Midjourney review covers the full picture of what it can do. And for anyone still building their prompting skills, the guide to writing better AI image prompts is worth a read regardless of which tool you're using.
You can access Midjourney directly at midjourney.com.
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