TeamViewer is one of the most useful utilities you can get. Like anything else, though, sometimes TeamViewer stops working.  This can be caused by several different things. Finding the correct one is crucial.

Teamviewer not working is usually since the host file is corrupted or due to a problem with your antivirus or firewall settings.

You could have issues with your Winsock or DNS settings. Also, ipv6 has been known to cause issues with TeamViewer. In this guide, we will take you through every step of the process to fix this issue. You can check the list below to see some common causes for this problem.

• There could be an issue with the hosts’ file – In Windows, there is a ‘hosts’ file that has important information about how programs connect to the Internet. Malware or misconfiguration in one of these entries can cause a problem for TeamViewer. Also, more simply, the file could have become corrupted for a variety of reasons. Deleting any entry you see for TeamViewer would cause Windows to recreate it. That may fix your problem.
• Check for Antivirus or firewall issues – If TeamViewer’s internet access is being blocked by a firewall or antivirus, it won’t be able to make a connection. Try making an exception (add a new rule) for its main executable file to allow TeamViewer to have internet access.
• You could have Winsock or DNS problems – You can change DNS addresses and you can reset Winsock. In a lot of cases, this is all it takes. So, try that!
• IPv6 address issues – TeamViewer is known to be unreliable on IPv6-only networks. So, you can just disable ipv6 altogether to see if that’s the issue. It may be that simple to get TeamViewer running again!

The TeamViewer entry in your ‘hosts’ file may be corrupt. It might have incorrect addresses so you should delete any entry you see for TeamViewer. Once you relaunch the program, the entry will be recreated, so it is worth deleting to try to fix the issue.

Step 1: Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc in the File Explorer.

Step 2: If you are unable to see some of the files or folders mentioned, then you will need to turn on the option that lets you see hidden files and folders. To do this, click the ‘View’ tab in the top menu in File Explorer. Then click the ‘Hidden items’ checkbox in the Show/hide File Explorer.

Enabling the view of hidden files

Step 3 : You will see the host’s file in the Etc folder, it does not have a file extension, so you will have to right-click on the file and choose ‘Open with…’ Here you can choose your favorite text editor to open the file. If you don’t have a favorite text editor, you can just use Notepad. Press CTRL + F to search for ‘teamviewer’.

Step 4 : Find anything that says TeamViewer in the file. The section you are looking for starts with ‘#Teamviewer’. Select everything in that area and delete it.

Step 5 : Then close the file. It will ask you if you want to save changes, click yes. You could also just press Ctrl + S before closing, then it won’t ask you. After that, restart your PC. Then, check to see if that fixed the problem.

Solution 2: Change Your DNS Addresses

People have been able to fix this problem with TeamViewer by switching from their ISP-provided DNS servers to different ones. Many people simply use Google’s free DNS servers to resolve the issue. Check out the steps below to change the DNS address on your machine.

Step 1: Hold the Windows key and press R on the keyboard. This will launch the Run dialog. Here, you can type ‘ncpa.cpl’ (without quotes) and click OK to open the Internet Connection Settings entry in the Control Panel.

Step 2: You can also just open the Control Panel and then switch the ‘View by‘ option in the upper-right corner of the window to ‘Category‘, then click on Network and Internet. After that, click the Network and Sharing Center‘ button. Then, click the ‘Change adapter settings‘ button on the left.

Edit the Hosts file

Step 3: Right-click your active network adapter and then click properties.

Step 4: Look for ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)‘ on the list. Once you find it, click on that and then click ‘Properties‘ Opening IPv4 Properties

Step 5: In the General tab, select the button that says ‘Use the following DNS server addresses‘

Step 6: Then, set your Preferred DNS server to be 8.8.8.8 and the Alternate DNS needs to be set to 8.8.4.4.

Setting the DNS address

Step 7: Click OK to apply the changes and then see if the TeamViewer “Not ready. Check your connection” error message is gone.

Solution 3: Reset Winsock

There is a command you can use to reset your Winsock. The command is ‘netsh Winsock reset‘ and it can be very helpful that can be used in the Command Prompt to reset Winsock Catalog back to the default setting. Try this if you are still experiencing problems connecting with TeamViewer.

Step 1: Search for ‘Command Prompt’ by beginning to type it into the Start Menu search box. You can get to this search box by either clicking the Start Menu or pressing the Windows key on your keyboard. Once you see the command prompt show up in the search, right-click it and choose ‘Run as administrator‘.

Step 2: Also, you can access the command prompt by using the run dialog. Just hold the Windows key and press R. Then, type cmd in the box. If you press enter or click OK, it will launch the command prompt, but it won’t launch it in administrator mode.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          To launch an item from the Run dialog in administrator mode, simply hold CTRL and SHIFT before clicking OK or pressing enter. This will run the Command Prompt with administrator privileges.

Running Command Prompt

Step 3: Type these commands in the command prompt and press Enter after typing each command. Also, wait to see the ‘Winsock reset completed successfully‘ message before continuing. Check to see if the issue persists.

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset

Resetting Winsock

Solution 4: Add an Firewall rule for Teamviewer_Service.exe

Some antivirus programs see TeamViewer’s effort to connect to the Internet as potentially harmful. If this happens, TeamViewer will not work. To make sure your antivirus software doesn’t block TeamViewer, you have to add it to your Exceptions/Exclusions/Rules.

Step 1: Open your antivirus by either clicking its icon on your desktop, opening it from your start menu, or by double-clicking on its icon in the system tray if there is one.

Step 2: Depending on the software that you use, the location of the Exceptions or Exclusions can be in different areas. It’s usually pretty easy to find without having to dig around too much because it’s a fairly common thing to access.

Solution 5: Allow TeamViewer in Windows Defender Firewall

For TeamViewer’s features to work correctly, the program needs to have access to the Internet and its servers. Windows Defender Firewall can often cause interference with TeamViewer and other programs. So, you should create an exception in Windows Defender Firewall for Teamviewer_Service.exe.

Step 1: Open the Control Panel. You can do this by clicking the Start button and searching for ‘control panel.’

Step 2: In the Control Panel, change the view to either Small or Large icons. After that, navigate to the Windows Defender Firewall icon.

Step 3: Click Windows Defender Firewall and then click on ‘Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall.’ You will see this on the left side. After that, a list of installed apps will open. Click ‘Change settings‘ at the top and then enter the administrator password if it asks for it. If you don’t see your program on the list, then click ‘Allow another app.’

Allowing an app through

Step 4: Navigate to the TeamViewer installation path. This is usually C:\Program Files (x86)\TeamViewer. Then, choose the Teamviewer_Service.exe executable.

Step 5: After you find it, click ‘Network types‘ and make sure that both Private and Public boxes are selected and then click OK.

Network types

Step 6: Then, click OK and restart your machine. When your computer boots back up, check to see if the TeamViewer ‘Not ready. Check your connection’s error message is gone.

Solution 6: Disable the IPv6 Protocol

Turning off IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) on your PC just may solve your TeamViewer connection problem. It won’t hurt anything and it’s simple enough to do, so you definitely shouldn’t skip this step.

Step 1: Hold the Windows key and press R to open the Run dialog. There, you can enter ‘ncpa.cpl’ and then click OK. This will open the Internet Connection settings.

Step 2: You can also do this by opening the Control Panel, switching the view to small or large icons, and clicking on Network and Internet at the top. After that, you can click Network and Sharing and open it. Finally, click Change adapter settings top to open the network adapter’s properties.

Run this command

Step 3: After the window opens, select your Network Adapter.

Step 4: Once you do that, click Properties and then find the Internet Protocol Version 6 entry. Uncheck the box next to ipv6 and then click OK. After that is done, restart your PC and try to see if TeamViewer is working again.

Disabling IPv6

Solution 7: Restart the TeamViewer Service

Stopping and starting the TeamViewer service has helped a lot of users clear out little hiccups that may leave your TeamViewer not working. If this can resolve your problem, it will only take a few minutes to get TeamViewer to work again.

Before you begin, make sure that TeamViewer is closed.

Step 1: Open the Run dialog by using the Windows Key + R keyboard shortcut. Then, type ‘services.msc‘ in the box. Like this:

Step 2: Find the listing for ‘TeamViewer Service‘ and then right-click it and choose Properties.

Step 3: If the service is started then make sure to press the Stop button in the middle of the dialog box. If it happens to be stopped already, just leave it stopped for now.

TeamViewer service properties

Step 4: Set the startup type for the TeamViewer service to Automatic. Press OK, or otherwise, confirm any dialogue boxes that appear when you change the startup type. Then, click on the Start button.

Solution 8: Reinstall TeamViewer

If all else fails, you could always just reinstall TeamViewer. This process should be a relatively painless one. All you have to do is follow the steps properly. In doing this, you also end up with the latest version of TeamViewer, and the update alone may just fix your issue.

Step 1: Open the Control Panel by either searching for it in the Start Menu search bar. You could also just click the gear icon in the lower-left corner of the Start Menu. This will open the Settings app for Windows 10 users.

Opening Settings in Start menu

Step 2: In Control Panel, make sure to change the view to ‘Category‘ in the upper right corner of the Control Panel. Then, click on Uninstall a Program‘ in the Programs section.

Step 3: If you are using the Settings app rather than the control panel, when you click on ‘Apps‘ it will open a list of all currently installed programs. So, depending on your software configuration, it might take a while to load.

Step 4: Then, find TeamViewer in the Control Panel or Settings app and then click ‘Uninstall/Repair.’ Then click Next or OK and follow the instructions on the screen.

Uninstalling TeamViewer

Step 5: You can download the latest version of TeamViewer by clicking this link. Then, you can download the setup file and run it. Then, just follow the on-screen instructions to complete the reinstall. Hopefully, that fixes your issue!

Conclusion

Due to the complex nature of the relationship between programs and the operating systems that they run on, sometimes things just stop working. TeamViewer, unfortunately, is no exception to this rule. We hoped this article helped you troubleshoot your TeamViewer connection issues.

If you have tried everything in this article and you still can’t get TeamViewer to work, then you may have a more serious problem with your operating system in general. If that’s the case, reinstalling Windows will resolve the issue most of the time.

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