How to fix “Umbrella merge conflict” error in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer

There may just be a way to salvage this weekend after all.
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War cover art, showing a soldier wearing a helmet.
Image via Treyarch

The PlayStation 5 event on Sept. 16 unveiled a huge surprise for the Call of Duty fans. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was expected to make an appearance, but an exclusive alpha test surely wasn’t on any gamer’s agenda.

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The first alpha test went live of CoD: Black Ops Cold War for PS4 owners, only, on Sept. 18, and there has been a couple of hiccups that proved to be a nuisance for players that were trying to get a taste of the new CoD title. No matter the game mode, an error called “Umbrella merge conflict.” has been appearing on players’ screens, preventing them from joining lobbies.

Though the error doesn’t give a detailed explanation of what may have gone wrong, it looks like a server-related issue, which is a common problem for any game in its alpha period. Considering there is only so much time you can test out Black Ops Cold War during its alpha phase, simply waiting for Treyarch to roll a fix for the problem won’t be an option.

How to fix the Umbrella merge conflict error in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Based on the limited information we have, the error is strictly correlated with the game’s servers. The current triggers for the error are potential connectivity issues between you and the game server and the servers getting overrun by hordes of players.

Though the only thing you can do is to wait to fix the latter, restarting your game should be enough to fix any connection errors between you and CoD: Black Ops Cold War servers. Relaunching the game will force your console to establish a new connection to the server, which will hopefully better than your last session.

If the issue persists, however, you’ll need to reset your router to address any problems that may be related to your ISP. Resetting your router will let you re-configure the connection between you and your ISP, which also plays a vital role while you’re trying to connect to game servers.

You can also try using an Ethernet cable to connect your console to your router as a last-resort measure. Using an Ethernet cable will make sure that your Wi-Fi isn’t the cause of the error and will ensure a better connection overall.

If none of the fixes above do the trick for you, you’ll just need to wait for Treyarch to address this issue since it’s related to the servers. With four more alpha/beta stages scheduled for the upcoming weeks, this issue will likely be resolved during the downtime Treyarch will have after this week’s beta. 

The CoD: Black Ops Cold War will be making its return on the following dates before its release:

PlayStation exclusive:

  • Oct. 8 to 9: PS4 Early Access
  • Oct. 10 to 12: PS4 Open Beta

Cross-play beta:

  • Oct. 15 to 16: Xbox + PC Early Access / PS4 Open Beta
  • Oct. 17 to 19: Open on all platforms

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Author
Gökhan Çakır
Gökhan is a Staff Writer and Fortnite Lead at Dot Esports. Gökhan graduated as an industrial engineer in 2020 and has since been with Dot Esports. As a natural-born gamer, he honed his skills to a professional level in Dota 2. Upon giving up on the Aegis of Champions in 2019, Gökhan started his writing career, covering all things gaming, while his heart remains a lifetime defender of the Ancients.