VAN 46 is a Vanguard authorization denial that goes beyond just not having Vanguard running. It can appear when your hardware has been flagged by Vanguard, when your account has an active restriction, or when Vanguard detects an environment it considers unsafe.
What does Valorant VAN 46 mean?
Unlike VAN 1 which is simply Vanguard-not-running, VAN 46 is an explicit denial of authorization. Vanguard is running but has made a judgment that your session should not proceed — this can be due to a detected cheat environment, a hardware ban, or a detected software conflict that Vanguard flags as a risk.
Hardware bans and VAN 46
If you or a previous user of your hardware received a hardware ban from Riot, VAN 46 will block any Valorant account on that machine. Hardware bans are rare and severe — they are typically issued after confirmed cheating. If you purchased a used PC, a prior owner's ban may carry over.
Legitimate software conflicts
VAN 46 also appears when virtualization software (VMware, Hyper-V), certain debugging tools, or kernel-modifying software is active. These are not bans — disabling the conflicting software and restarting resolves the error.
How to fix step by step
- 1Restart your PC without any virtualization, overclocking, or debugging tools active.
- 2Disable Hyper-V if enabled: run bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off in an admin command prompt, then restart.
- 3Close any software that injects into game processes (streaming overlays, RGB software, fps counters).
- 4Check your Riot account at account.riotgames.com for any active restrictions.
- 5If you believe a hardware ban was applied in error, contact Riot Player Support with your machine details.
- 6Reinstall Vanguard after closing all conflicting software.
How VAN-46 differs from related codes
- Error VAN-1: Vanguard, Valorant's anti-cheat system, is not running or failed to initialize, so your client is not authorized to launch a match. (user-side)
- Error VAN-21: Valorant could not authorize your session. You may have launched Valorant directly instead of through the Riot Client, or Vanguard is not active. (user-side)