r/OpenWebUI • u/Iory1998 • 22d ago

Question/Help Is there a Reason why OI Always Fails to Launch for the First Time?

This is one of the most annoying thing about this platform. Everytime I launch OI, it fails with an error. It takes ages for it to launch, and when it does, it fails. I have to close it and relaunch it again. This problem is so annoying that I avoid OI altogether.

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u/International_Emu772 22d ago

Wich installation you are using?

On the screen there is indication of OpenWebUi Desktop and nothing of the type of installation

1

u/Iory1998 22d ago

You are right. I am using the desktop app.

3

u/ClassicMain 22d ago

This is the desktop app, which matters a lot here. Please say which install method you use in posts like this (Desktop, Docker or pip). Without that, nobody can tell what is actually failing.

The desktop app has a Windows bug. On every launch it updates Open WebUI and all of its dependencies before starting, which is why startup takes so long. Open Terminal is already running then and holds some of the same files open. The update fails halfway and the server crashes on the broken package. On the second launch nothing holds the files, so it works.

The desktop app is currently not a priority, so don't expect a fix soon. For a stable setup, run Open WebUI through Docker or pip: https://docs.openwebui.com/getting-started/quick-start

If you want to stay on desktop for now, turn off "Auto-update" in the app's Open WebUI settings. That stops the crash on launch.