Midjourney FAQ: Can’t Generate Images, Insufficient Permissions, and Unresponsive Commands

This article compiles the most common issues you’re likely to run into with Midjourney: commands not responding, failed image generation, insufficient permissions, and the queue getting stuck. Follow the troubleshooting order below—usually you can get back to generating images normally without too much hassle.

No response after entering a command: first confirm the channel and bot status

Midjourney only works in Discord channels that support it. The most common reason is that you sent the command in a disallowed channel or a private channel. It’s recommended to test once in the server’s newcomer channel with /imagine to confirm it isn’t a channel-permission issue.

If the command shows “Application did not respond” or there’s no prompt at all, check first whether Discord is lagging or reconnecting. You can also try reopening Discord, switching networks, or sending the command again on another device to verify.

Shows insufficient permissions: usually channel permissions or the bot isn’t authorized

When you see “Missing Permissions / 权限不足,” it’s usually not a Midjourney account issue; it’s that the current channel doesn’t allow you to run commands or doesn’t allow the bot to send messages. Ask the server admin to check your permission to speak in that channel, and the Midjourney Bot’s permissions to send messages and embed links.

If you’re using Midjourney in your own server, make sure you granted the necessary permissions when you originally invited the bot. After adjusting permissions, return to the same channel and send /imagine again to avoid mistaking it for a system outage.

You can send commands but no images are generated: focus on the queue, quota, and mode

Midjourney generation is queued. If your network is fine but there’s no result for a long time, use /info to check whether you’re in the queue or have been placed in a slow queue. If it says Fast Hours are used up or you’re in Relax mode, the wait time will be noticeably longer—this is normal.

Also, if the image link referenced in your prompt is invalid, the job can fail. This often happens when you copy a cloud-storage link that requires permissions or an expired link. Use a publicly accessible image URL instead, and before sending, open it in a browser’s incognito/private window to confirm it loads directly.

Stuck at “Waiting/Processing”: do this to save time

If Midjourney is stuck at Waiting/Processing for a long time, don’t keep spamming retries—it can pile up even more jobs. A more reliable approach is to wait a bit, then use /info to confirm whether the job is still in the queue; if needed, cancel only the earliest stuck job and resend.

If many jobs are slow during the same time window, it may be overall congestion or an issue on Discord’s side. Testing in an official newcomer channel can help you determine the scope faster; if it’s also generally slow there, it’s usually more cost-effective to wait a while and generate again later.