Does your latest Midjourney job seem to be stuck?
One of the minor annoyances of using Midjourney is that rather frequently, a random job will seemingly refuse to start processing.
So why is Midjourney waiting to start in the first place and how can you get it to start processing your command?
In this guide, I’ll explain why you’re encountering this issue, how you can fix it, and where you can find more information about Midjourney’s average waiting times.
Let’s dive right in.
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[SOLVED] Why is Midjourney Waiting to Start?
www.tokenizedhq.com
Here’s the answer. Great article by @ChrisHeidorn right here: https://tokenizedhq.com/midjourney-waiting-to-start/
Why is Midjourney Waiting to Start?
Whenever you enter a command in Midjourney, your job is added to the queue of requests to the Midjourney API (the internal one).
Remember, potentially millions of people are using Midjourney at the very same time, so there’s got to be some kind of queue.
Even though you can increase how many requests can be processed by scaling your server infrastructure, you also don’t necessarily want to have more capacity than you need.
After all, cloud infrastructure is quite expensive for this sort of stuff.
Depending on whether you are using Fast Mode or Relax Mode, your request will either be added to a high-priority queue or a low-priority queue.
Low priority is for free but it might take a while until it gets processed.
So, if you use Relax mode quite frequently, then it’s pretty normal to see the “Waiting to start” message behind your jobs before they eventually start processing.
Unfortunately, every now and then a random job will seem to get stuck.
This is even more obvious when you’ve added additional jobs to the queue and they end up processing much quicker than the one that’s stuck.
It’s a pretty frustrating experience, especially when you may have entered your commands in a particular sequence for a reason.
So why is Midjourney waiting to start for such a long time?
Well, I can only imagine that your job’s position in the queue somehow got messed up.
Most of these jobs eventually do get processed but depending on demand, it can range from a few minutes to several hours.
That’s really not a great situation, so obviously, you’ll want to find some sort of solution to this.
Key Points (tl;dr)
- Midjourney displays the “Waiting to start” message on every job once it enters the processing queue.
- However, sometimes certain jobs seem to get stuck in the queue and take ages to eventually start processing.
- The simplest solution to this is to just cancel the job and enter the command one more time.
- You can also check average waiting times for various different operations on Midjourney’s official status page.
How to Fix a Midjourney Job That is Stuck
The only relatively straightforward solution to this problem is also the most pragmatic one.
Simply cancel the old job and enter the command one more time.
I know it sounds silly, but let’s face it, the world of technology is full of some of the most mundane solutions to seemingly complex problems.
If you’re old enough to have owned a real desktop computer, then you’ve most definitely hit your computer at least a couple of times.
Don’t lie! We’ve all done it.
Because, of course, if you hit the case of a computer then it will suddenly just fix itself. LOL!
Anyway, so the way to fix this is to simply react to the job in question with a big red X emoji.
You can do this either by clicking the “Add reaction” button or if you use it frequently, right-clicking and selecting it from the context menu will usually suffice.
Then simply enter the same command one more time (don’t forget to copy it first!) and usually, it will process just fine.
And over are the days of wondering why is Midjourney waiting to start.
Keep it simple, stupid!
How to See Average Wait Times for Midjourney
While researching this video, I actually bumped into a really interesting page that not many people know about.
And that’s mainly because it’s mostly hidden way and not promoted by Midjourney very much.
Guess what: It’s the official server status page.
That’s right, Midjourney has a server status page that is primarily meant to provide real-time status of their Discord server, the Discord Bot, and their website.
However, it also provides a very useful bit of info that can be quite relevant if you’re faced with the Midjourney Waiting to Start message quite often.
It’s especially useful if you use Relax Mode a lot.
The page actually shows the average wait times for Fast and Relax jobs per component.
In other words, each model and upscaler has its own job queue.
That also means that if processing jobs via one Midjourney algorithm might be really slow, this doesn’t necessarily also apply to a different one.
Here’s a list of the different queues it shows:
- V4 Model
- V4 Upscaler
- V5 Model
- Niji V4
- Niji V4 Upscaler
- Njii V5
These numbers will obviously fluctuate throughout the day and it gives you some insight into whether it might be a bad time to be using Relax Mode.
If you have the option of switching to Fast Mode when you’re running to constant Midjourney Waiting to Start messages, then the average wait times will help you make that choice.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Before we close off this guide, let’s quickly address some of the most common questions related to why Midjourney is waiting to start.
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Why are my prompts getting stuck midway?
If you are using Midjourney during peak times then your job might take longer to process. However, if your job seems like it might be “stuck”, then it’s possible that it isn’t advancing in the queue. This occasionally happens.
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Why is Midjourney not working?
There are many potential reasons why Midjoureny might not be working. Most of them are server-related issues. For the most up-to-date information on technical issues, check the #status channel within the official Midjourney Discord.
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How long is the wait for Midjourney?
On average, a job will process within about a minute in Midjourney. However, different operations take varying degrees of time. Times of peak demand may also increase your waiting times, especially if you are using Relax Mode.
Conclusion
We’ve all experienced the dreaded message before and have asked ourselves: Why is Midjourney waiting to start for so long?!
Rest assured, you are not alone and while there is no perfect solution to this issue, there is a quick fix and it’s as good as it gets.
So next time, don’t wait, just cancel the job and enter it again and your problems will mostly disappear.
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