Here’s Why You Can’t Fast Travel in Fallout 4 and How To Fix It

Fallout 4 is a vast open-world game that offers players a lot of freedom and exploration. However, not all players enjoy the benefits of the open world and primarily rely on fast traveling to get from one place to another. But what happens when fast travel just won’t work, and you really don’t have the time to walk across the map? This is what we’re going to solve today as we will be dealing with fast-travel-related problems and solutions.
Being unable to fast travel due to enemies or over-encumbrance
Most of the problems with fast travel in Fallout 4 stem from the most obvious issues. If you haven’t figured it out by now, fast travel is usually blocked when you’re carrying too many items than your weight capacity allows you to carry or while you are in the middle of combat.
The problem with over-encumbrance can be easily solved by dumping items you don’t need or simply storing them in a safe container until you can easily retrieve them when the chance arises. However, sometimes you can be near an enemy without realizing that the enemy is near due to bugs. For example, an enemy could have fallen through the textures into the “nether” below and or is stuck within some object blocking your fast travel.
In any case, try moving further from your current location on foot and look for the signs of combat being done (i.e., listening out for whether the combat music has stopped). When it comes to over-encumbrance, this can be solved later in the game by activating the fourth rank of Strong Back perk that allows you to fast travel while carrying way over your capacity.
If you are absolutely positive that you are in a safe area without enemies nearby and you still can’t fast travel, in that case, congratulations, you are affected by a bug.
Being unable to fast travel due to a glitch
Glitches or bugs that affect fast travel in Fallout 4 are generally rare, but they can happen for fast travel due to being disabled by the game accidentally due to the script not being executed on time or at all. In that case, the quick fix for the issue is available, sadly, only for PC players. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to resto your fast-travel via console commands:
- Open the console and type DumpInputEnableLayers
- A data dump should appear on your screen, with several lines indicating different layers and features that are disabled for whatever reason. Look for the fast travel layer, and if it’s disabled, instead of 1, the line should say 0.
- Now, use the following command ResetInputEnableLayer # where # corresponds to the number of the layer where fast travel is mentioned.
- Fast Travel should be working properly once again.
If you are playing console, however, or you don’t have the disabled fast travel in the data dump, like me, there is one more thing you can try. Players noticed that spam-clicking locations that you want to travel to quickly sometimes solves the issue. It’s kind of a desperate measure, but it’s worth a try. Besides, it’s easier than meddling with commands in any case.
Make sure that your current location allows fast travel in the first place
Only 5 interior locations in the game allow you to fast travel while you’re there, and those are the Railroad HQ, Home Plate, the Institute, the Mechanist’s lair, and Vault 88. Most other interior locations will return a “Can’t travel from this location” error message. So you’re problem might be actually related to the fact that you are in some location that the game technical considers to be “indoor” despite the locations being outside.
Fast travel is also disabled during cutscenes and dialogues, so pay attention to that as well.
Fast traveling while playing in Survival Mode
Survival Mode or “difficulty” was introduced much later and disabled plenty of features that were supposed to make the game easier in favor of making it harder and more realistic in terms of survival. And while players generally received the Survival Mode well, they were annoyed to find out that you have to basically walk everywhere except if you’re planning on using Vertibird.
So, the next time you are seemingly unable to fast travel, if you’re playing in Survival Mode, it’s not a bug. It’s a feature. There are mods, however, that allow you to fast travel even in Survival Mode, which completely defeats the purpose of the mode, in my humble opinion.
The mod in question is ‘Survival Mode Fast Travel Enabled” from NexusMods, and the installation is rather straightforward and easy. The mod doesn’t do anything fancy; it simply adds an additional line that makes Fast Travel permanently enabled in Survival Mode as well.
There’s also a mod called ‘Survival Options’ that allows you to enable / or disable several features present or not present in the Survival Mode, and fast travel is one of them. You can choose between toggling fast travel from the institute or fast travel in general.
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