FiveM stuck on downloading assets: causes and fixes

Before a player can join, FiveM downloads every resource the server streams: maps, vehicles, clothing and scripts. When that download stalls, players sit on the loading screen or get dropped. Here is why it happens and what to do.

By the Nodewave team · Updated 1 November 2026

Why downloads get stuck

• Very large resources. Custom maps, vehicle packs and clothing packs can add up to many gigabytes, and a first-time player downloads all of it.
• Many players at once. Right after a restart, everyone joins together and shares the server's upload bandwidth.
• A slow or distant route. Every file travels from the server to the player. A long or lossy route makes large downloads crawl.
• A damaged client cache. A broken file in the player's cache can make the same download fail again and again.
• Long downloads time out. If the download takes many minutes, the join can fail and the player has to connect again.

Fixes for players

1. Let the first download finish. The first join to a big server can take a while. Later joins only download what changed.
2. Clear the FiveM cache. Delete the cache, server-cache and server-cache-priv folders in %localappdata%\FiveM\FiveM.app\data, but keep game-storage.
3. Use a wired connection and turn off any VPN.
4. Free up disk space and add the FiveM folder to your antivirus exclusions, so files are not scanned one by one as they arrive.

Fixes for server owners

Make resources smaller

Most stalls come down to size. Compress textures (large .ytd files are the usual culprits), remove resources you no longer use, and split huge clothing or vehicle packs so players do not download everything at once.

Put the server close to your players

Download speed depends on the route between the server and the player. A server in Singapore gives players in India, Malaysia and Indonesia far shorter routes than one in Europe or the US.

Plan for the restart rush

After a restart, every player downloads at the same time. Make sure your host's network can serve that rush, and schedule restarts away from peak hours.

Exclude the server folder from antivirus on Windows

On Windows servers, real-time antivirus scanning can slow FXServer down while it reads and sends files. Excluding the server folder and the database from scanning often makes restarts and downloads noticeably faster.

Offload downloads on very large servers

FiveM can serve resource files from a separate web server or CDN with the fileserver_add command. This takes load off the game server, but it needs careful setup, so test it before your players depend on it.

Stuck on “Loading content manifest”?

That step comes before any download: the client is asking the server for its list of resources. If it hangs there, treat it as a connection problem and follow our guide to the “Failed to connect after 3 attempts” error.