What Is Error Code ESP-DIST-001 in Fortnite & How to Fix It

If you’ve been experiencing error code ESP-DIST-001 in Fortnite, there’s a big reason that might be happening, so in this article, I’m going to break down what it is and how to fix it.

What Error Code ESP-DIST-001 Is in Fortnite

When trying to connect to Fortnite, you may end up getting error code ESP-DIST-001, which is accompanied by a red screen and the text “an error occurred while connecting to Epic servers. Please try again later.” The problem is thus related to Fortnite‘s servers and a player’s ability to access them. That means the error can either be with your ability to connect to the servers for Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, or with the servers themselves. That’s going to affect how you fix the problem.

How to Fix Error Code ESP-DIST-001 in Fortnite

The first thing you’re going to want to do is check out the server status for Epic Games to make sure there aren’t any outages. You can find a link to that site here. Please note that you may have to search around a bit and open up some of the tabs to see the exact status of everything. I also recommend consulting DownDetector, as that’ll give you a good snapshot of if people are reporting errors.

You should also check the various social media accounts for Fortnite. The main one I check is X. Epic Games noted on Dec. 22, 2023, for example, that players were having trouble logging in and matchmaking, but that they’ve since fixed that problem. In the event of server trouble, it’s worth checking all those places periodically to see if the issue has been resolved.

If the issue isn’t on Epic Games’ end, then you should check the steps the company has provided for troubleshooting connection issues on your end. I’ll just add to those that you should also, if nothing on there works, try deleting and re-installing the game. You should also try disabling your anti-virus protection or Windows Firewall temporarily to see if that fixes things, as I’ve seen reports that helps.

After all of those steps, if the game still doesn’t work, consider reaching out to the support team for Epic Games and Fortnite directly and respectfully, as they may have some more steps to try.

Hopefully that’s helped fix your problem with error code ESP-DIST-001 in Fortnite, and you know more about what it is! If you’re looking for more, here’s what you need to know about the game’s John Wick skin.