How to fix “The application could not start because no Qt platform plugins could be initialized” error on Windows?

Question

Problem: How to fix “The application could not start because no Qt platform plugins could be initialized” error on Windows?

Hello. Recently, after updating Windows, I have been unable to get OneDrive to work. Every time my PC boots, I get an error “The application could not start because no Qt platform plug-in could be initialized.” Thanks in advance.

Resolved answer

Windows operating systems consist of many components – some of them are pre-installed while others need to be implemented manually. For instance, Node.js it is a third party component that you could see on almost all Windows computers.

Qt is a C ++-based framework that is designed to create applications on Windows, Android, Linux, and other platforms. Although it is not a programming language in itself, applications based on it need this framework to be installed on their computers in order to run. Unfortunately, these dependencies can create certain problems due to one reason or another.

Although sometimes something goes wrong with the Wt platform, users may get the error “The application could not start because no plugins for the Qt platform could be initialized.”

Various applications could be affected by this bug, including games like Apex Legends, Solitary Components (Dllhost), or commonly used apps like OneDrive. The latter resides on every Windows computer and is an extremely useful application used for backing up system and files or for additional storage of user files.

Here is the complete message that users receive when encountering the error (the error message may vary in some cases):

This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Available platform plugins are: minimal, offscreen, windows.

Although it may appear that enabling or installing the Qt platform could fix the error “The application could not start because no Qt platform plug-in could be initialized”, this is not the case. Reinstalling the app that is having difficulty detecting the plugin can still work.

Unfortunately, this is not always possible, as users reported getting the “Can’t be found” error while trying to do so. The reason for this is that new version of the app may already be present on the device, so uninstalling is not possible. There is a temporary solution for it.

In some cases, the reasons for the error may be related to those mentioned above. For example, system file corruption can also cause this error, so we recommend that you run a check with repair software ReimageMac Washing Machine X9as you can fix this error successfully.

Method 1. Copy the relevant folders to a different location

• Press the keys Win + E on your keyboard to open the File Browser
• In the left of the window, select This team
• In the search bar at the top right, type pyqt5_tools and press Enter
• When the search is done, right click on the pyqt5_tools folder and select Open folder location.
• Go to PyQt5> Qt> file plugins
• Right click on platforms and select Copy or press Ctrl + C
• Now go back to the folder site-packages (the folder you initially opened)
• Go to pyqt5_tools> Qt> bin
• Right click on some empty space and select Paste or just press Ctrl + V
• When you receive an alert, select Replace the files at the destination.

Method 2. Check for system file corruption

• Writes cmd in Windows search
• Right click on the Symbol of the system and select Execute as an administrator
• Here, write sfc / scannow and press Enter.
• Wait for the check to finish and reboot your computer
• if the SFC returned a error telling it that it was unable to repair the corrupted files, it runs the following commands, pressing Enter every time:
• DISM / Online / Cleanup-Image / CheckHealth
  DISM / Online / Cleanup-Image / ScanHealth
  DISM / Online / Cleanup-Image / RestoreHealth

Method 3. Try Clean Boot

• Writes msconfig in Windows search, press Enter
• Go to the tab Services
• Check the box Hide all Microsoft services and select Disable all
• Go to the tab Beginning and choose Open Task Manager
• Here, right click on each entry and select To disable and close the Task Manager
• Go to the tab start, Choose Safe Start and then select Apply and Accept

Once back in Windows, try running the app you were having trouble with. If this fixes the problem, it means there is a third-party app that was the bug. In order to fix the error “The application could not start because no Qt platform plugins could be initialized”, you should uninstall all recently installed applications and see if this solves your problem in a normal way.

Method 4. Reinstall the application in question

You should try uninstalling the app you are having problems with and then installing it again. If you are dealing with OneDrive, you should do the following

• Press the keys Win + R on your keyboard
• In the dialogue of Run, copy and paste the following:
  % userprofile% \ AppData \ Local \ Microsoft \ OneDrive \ Update \ OneDriveSetup.exe
• Go to the installation steps and reboot your pc
• If Windows cannot find the specified file, you should download the configuration file from the official website [enlace directo].

If this method doesn’t work for you and you get the error, proceed to the next method and then repeat this step.

Method 5. Uninstall the problematic application via Command Prompt

Uninstalling a program that does not want to uninstall might be difficult, although it is possible via PowerShell, as you can launch it as an administrator. Keep in mind that the below example is for the OneDrive application, and the command would differ depending on the app name and its location.

• Open the Command Prompt as administrator as explained above
• Copy and paste the following commands, pressing Enter every time:
• taskkill / f / im OneDrive.exe
  % SystemRoot% \ SysWOW64 \ OneDriveSetup.exe / uninstall
• Note: if you are using a 32-bit Windows operating system use the following command to uninstall OneDrive:
  % SystemRoot% \ System32 \ OneDriveSetup.exe / uninstall
• This should force you to uninstall the app.

Fix your Errors automatically

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