Your FiveM loading screen isn’t showing
In most cases two loading-screen resources are enabled at once. FiveM only allows one resource with a loadscreen directive, and when two are ensured neither renders. Disable every loading screen resource except the one you want, then restart the server.
Players connect and see the default FiveM screen, a black screen, or nothing at all. Almost always one of six causes — work through them in order.
Work through these in order
- 01
Check you only have one loadscreen resource enabled
This is the cause roughly nine times out of ten. FiveM permits exactly one resource declaring a loadscreen. Frameworks ship their own — qb-loadingscreen on QBCore, esx_loadingscreen on ESX — and enabling a second one silently breaks both. Search your server.cfg for every ensure line that starts a loading screen and comment out all but one.
# server.cfg # ensure qb-loadingscreen <- disable the old one # ensure esx_loadingscreen ensure pityus_yourslug # keep only this - 02
Confirm the resource actually started
Watch the server console on boot, or run the resource state command in your server console. If it did not start, the folder name and the ensure line do not match, or the folder is nested one level too deep (a folder inside a folder after unzipping).
ensure pityus_yourslug # then in the server console: # > refresh # > ensure pityus_yourslug - 03
Check the folder structure after unzipping
The fxmanifest.lua must sit directly inside the resource folder — resources/pityus_yourslug/fxmanifest.lua. If unzipping produced resources/pityus_yourslug/pityus_yourslug/fxmanifest.lua, FiveM will not see it. Move the inner folder up one level.
- 04
Make sure the server can reach the internet
A hosted loading screen is fetched over HTTPS by the game client, not by the server, so client-side blocking matters too. Open the screen URL in a normal browser first. If it loads there but not in game, the player’s network or an aggressive DNS filter is the likely culprit.
- 05
Clear the FiveM client cache
FiveM caches loading screens aggressively. If you changed something and still see the old version — or a blank screen after a change — have the player delete the cache folder in their FiveM application data, or run refresh on the server.
- 06
Check for a syntax error in fxmanifest.lua
If you hand-edited the manifest, a missing quote or a stray comma stops the resource from starting with no obvious error on screen. The server console prints the parse error on boot — read the first error, not the last.
Common questions
Why do I see the default FiveM loading screen instead of mine?
The default screen appears when no loadscreen resource started successfully. Either your resource failed to start, or two loading screen resources conflicted and FiveM fell back to the default.
Can I have two loading screens on one server?
No. FiveM allows a single active loadscreen resource. If you want to alternate designs, change the design itself rather than enabling two resources.
Do I need to restart the whole server?
A full restart is the reliable option. In many cases refresh followed by ensure on the resource is enough, but the loading screen is read at client-connect time, so a restart removes all doubt.
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