Why Your Trade Copier Keeps Disconnecting: MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradeLocker

A copier that keeps showing disconnected is almost never one problem. It is one of a short list, and the list is mostly about the broker side of the link: a password that changed, a server that restarted, a demo account that ran out. This page ranks the causes by how often they are the answer, says how each looks on MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradeLocker, and ends with what to do when the link drops while a trade is open.

If the link is up but a trade did not appear on the follower, that is a different list: see trade copier not copying: the six reasons.

1. The login changed at the broker

The most common cause by a distance is the dullest: the details the copier saved no longer work. A password was reset in the broker's portal, a trading password was regenerated, or the account was moved to a new server. The copier keeps trying the old details and the broker keeps refusing them, so it looks like a flaky connection when it is a refused one. Log in to that account yourself with the same details. If you cannot get in either, the copier never could.

• MetaTrader 4 and 5. Re-enter the login on the account in Trepeat. Make sure it is the master password and not the read-only investor one, which connects but cannot place an order.
• cTrader. There is no password to change on the copier's side: you sign in on cTrader's own site, and the copier holds an authorisation. That authorisation is renewed automatically, and when renewal stops working Trepeat shows a reconnect-by date and keeps copying until the current one expires. Each new sign-in replaces the one before, so tick every account you still want connected when you sign in again.
• TradeLocker. The copier holds the password you gave it. If TradeLocker stops accepting it, usually because you changed it, copying has already stopped on that login's accounts, with no grace period. One Re-enter password restores every account on the login.

2. The broker restarted or is under maintenance

Brokers restart servers, demo servers in particular, and run maintenance windows. During one, every client connection to that server drops, yours included, and comes back when it does. A drop that fixes itself within minutes, at the same hour on the same days, is this. A copier cannot prevent it; what separates copiers is whether they reconnect on their own and whether they tell you when they have not.

A freshly opened connection is also slower than a resumed one. The first connection to a quiet MetaTrader demo account can take a few minutes to finish syncing with the broker, so a brief Connecting after you press Run is normal and not a drop.

3. The demo account expired or was removed

Demo and evaluation accounts have end dates, and a broker can remove one once it has passed. The platform then reports the account as unreachable in the same way as a broker outage, with no reason attached, so a copier cannot tell the two apart. The tell is time: an outage ends, an expired account does not. If an account has been unreachable for hours, log in to it yourself before waiting any longer, and if the broker no longer knows it, create a new account and add that one.

4. The copier's own link to the broker dropped

A cloud copier sits between you and the broker, and that middle part can drop too. On MetaTrader the connection runs through a hosted terminal; on cTrader and TradeLocker it is the platform's own interface for outside applications. A dropped connection there can take several accounts down together, so the sign is accounts at different brokers disconnecting at the same minute. That points toward the copier or its provider, not at your brokers, and a good copier says so on a status page or banner instead of leaving you to work it out.

5. Local copiers: the machine went to sleep

If the copier runs on your own PC or a rented VPS, add the machine itself: Windows restarting for updates, the terminal closing, the PC sleeping, the VPS provider having its own outage. Each looks like a disconnect and each stops copying with no message, because the program that would send one is the thing that stopped. The pattern is a clean cut: copying normally, then nothing at all from one moment, across every account. A cloud copier removes this cause rather than managing it; see cloud vs local trade copier for the trade-offs.

What a copier should do when the link drops

Dropped links will happen whatever you pick, so the useful question is what the copier does about it. Four things are worth checking before you rely on one, and all four are things you can test on a demo account with the steps in how to test a trade copier on demo accounts.

• Does it reconnect without being asked? Most drops end on their own. Trepeat keeps trying in the background; on MetaTrader it also makes three further automatic attempts over about an hour before it gives up and tells you.
• Does it tell you, and soon enough to act? Trepeat shows Unstable after about five minutes of trying and Can't reach after about two hours, and raises an alert once an account has been unreachable for about thirty minutes. A source account that drops to an error raises one straight away.
• Does one broken account take the rest down? On Trepeat a follower that drops is paused and the other followers carry on; once it reconnects you unpause it. If the source drops, every repeater copying from it stops and its followers go to standby. Open positions are left open in both cases.
• What happens to a trade made during the gap? Honest answers differ. On Trepeat, a trade the source opened while the link was down is not copied afterwards, because a copy placed minutes late is an entry at a price you never chose. A close the source made during the gap is the other way round: on MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradeLocker it is repeated on the follower as soon as Trepeat catches up, because a position the source has left should not stay open on the follower.

A five-step check when it disconnects again

1. Write down the time and the exact wording the copier shows for that account.
2. Log in to the account yourself, on the broker's own platform, with the same details.
3. If you cannot, the cause is on the broker side: a changed password, an expired demo, a server that moved. Ask the broker, with the time from step 1.
4. If you can, look at whether other accounts dropped at the same minute. Several at once points at the copier's link, one alone points at that account.
5. Re-enter the login (or sign in again on cTrader) rather than waiting. A saved login the broker refuses does not fix itself.

None of this is a promise that a link never drops. It is how to tell which of the five it is, quickly, and how to choose a copier whose answer to a drop is a notification and not a gap you find at the end of the week.