How do you fix “A character with that name already exists” error in World of Warcraft?

As players are waiting for the full release of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight an old bug has started to rear its head again. As players are trying to log in with some of their characters they are getting an error that says that a character with that name already exists. This can be quite annoying because after you make your character, your name is locked in and can’t be taken unless you delete your character. Let’s go over how you can fix this character error in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.

How to Fix “A Character With That Name Already Exists” Error in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

This error occurs because you exit the game without properly logging out of your character. When you either force quit the game in some way or it crashes, the game will keep the character that you were logged in on in the world for a little bit of time. If you try to log back in with the character that you were last using, you will get the “A character with that name already exists” error.

There are a few fixes for this issue that you can employ before you have to waste your time going through a support ticket. The first fix is just waiting a few minutes before trying to log back in. This can be a bit annoying if you were trying out the new Evoker class and want to experience more of it. But if you just wait a bit of time, your character should automatically log out and you will be able to log back in with them.

If you have waited for a few minutes and are still receiving the error when trying to log back in with your character you might want to try logging in with a different character. Since only one character can be logged in at a time from a WoW account, logging in with a different character can force the game to log out your other character.

The final fix you can employ is to try resetting your interface settings and verifying the files for your add-ons. Broken add-ons can create weird problems with WoW so it wouldn’t shock anyone to find out that an issue with one is what is preventing them from logging in. The odds of one of your add-ons being broken at the moment are even higher with the recent pre-patch for Dragonflight that reworked a lot of aspects of the game.

If you have noticed any of your add-ons acting weird as you are using them to get ready for the full release of Dragonflight, you might want to give them a quick reinstall or just disable them outright until they get updated.

If all else fails you will just need to wait around 30 minutes for the game to automatically kick your logged-in character for being inactive for too long. If you have waited more than 30 minutes and you are still getting that error you will want to contact support as there might be some deeper issue at play there.

World of Warcraft Dragonflight is set to release on November 28.