Quest Link / Air Link suddenly stopped working today – session never starts
Device: Meta Quest 3
OS: Windows 11
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5080
Connection: Air Link and USB Link (same behavior)
Quest Link (both Air Link and USB Link) was working normally for months and was working earlier today.
After ending a session and starting another one, Link stopped working completely.
The headset is detected, the session initializes, but it freezes on the grey/purple Link screen and never reaches VR Home. Eventually the session drops or returns to the headset home.
This is not a USB issue, not a network issue, and not a headset pairing issue.
Important facts
- Same hardware and setup working for ~4 months
- Worked earlier today
- No hardware change
- No Windows reinstall
- No BIOS change
- No GPU change
What I already tried
- Reinstalled Meta Quest Link multiple times
- Factory reset the Quest 3
- Removed all Oculus / Meta registry entries
- Clean GPU driver reinstall with DDU
- Downgraded NVIDIA driver
- Tested both Air Link and USB Link
- Repair installation
- Restarted all Meta/Oculus services
- Reconfigured the headset from scratch
None of the above resolved the issue.
Observed behavior
- PC app detects the headset
- Session enters VR mode
- Streaming loop starts
- Grey / purple Link screen appears
- No image is ever presented
- Session freezes or terminates
This indicates the session is created, but the compositor never presents a valid frame.
Relevant log behavior
From Service.log and LinkClient.log (same timestamps):
- VR session initializes
- Streaming starts
- Frames may briefly decode
- Compositor or transport fails shortly after
- Errors such as:
- Failed to read display driver information
- Graphics adapter state UNKNOWN
- Elevated Shared Memory failed to initialize
- Error -1002
- Registry/config access failures after reinstall
This points to a runtime or compositor state failure, not user configuration.
Key point
This did not degrade gradually. It stopped working suddenly today after previously working normally.
That strongly suggests a silent Meta runtime update or a runtime state corruption that reinstall does not fully reset.
Request to Meta
- Please confirm whether there was a Quest Link / runtime update today
- Clarify how to perform a true clean runtime reset (not just reinstall)
- Confirm if there is a known issue with Link compositor initialization
- Provide a way to roll back the Quest Link runtime
At the moment, Quest Link is completely unusable despite supported hardware and exhaustive troubleshooting.
I can provide full Service and LinkClient logs with timestamps if needed.
For anyone using their Quest over Wi-Fi, I’ve found a temporary workaround that should get it working until Meta fixes the issue.
You’ll need to modify your firewall’s outbound rules to block two specific connections. I’ve attached an image below highlighting exactly which two connections need to be set to Block.
Make sure to allow the connections again before shutting down or restarting.
