How to install an EA on MT4 and MT5
Installing an Expert Advisor takes about two minutes. Most of the time people lose is spent on the same four or five things going wrong afterwards, so this guide covers the install first and then every failure worth knowing about.
Before you start
You need the compiled EA file, MetaTrader on Windows, and the account you intend to trade. The file is .ex4 for MetaTrader 4 or .ex5 for MetaTrader 5, and they are not interchangeable. An .ex5 in an MT4 folder will never appear, and nothing tells you why.
For Forex Success AI the file is ForexSuccessAI.ex4 or ForexSuccessAI.ex5. There is no licence key to type. It reads the account number the terminal is logged into and asks the licence server about that number, so register the account on your dashboard first.
Step 1: File › Open Data Folder
Do not go looking in Program Files. Click File, then Open Data Folder. The path ends in a long hexadecimal string unique to that installation, so if you run several terminals, open it from the one you will actually trade on.
Step 2: Put the file in MQL4\Experts or MQL5\Experts
Inside the data folder is MQL4 on MetaTrader 4 or MQL5 on MetaTrader 5. Open it, open Experts, and drop the file there. Not Indicators, not Scripts, not Files. An EA in any of those is invisible to the terminal.
Step 3: Refresh the Navigator
Open the Navigator panel (View › Navigator, or Ctrl+N), right-click inside it and choose Refresh. The EA appears under Expert Advisors.
Refresh is enough for a new file. Restart the terminal when replacing a version, because it holds the loaded copy in memory and keeps running the old code. Remove the old EA from every chart, copy the new file in, then restart.
Step 4: Allow DLL imports, before you attach anything
Forex Success AI does not use MetaTrader's WebRequest function. It imports wininet.dll and calls Windows networking directly for the licence check and for the ForexFactory calendar behind the news filter, plus rpcrt4.dll to read a machine identifier. Those are DLL imports, not web requests, so the WebRequest whitelist does nothing here.
Do this before you drag anything onto a chart, because the per-EA checkbox is greyed out while the terminal-wide setting is off: open Tools › Options, go to the Expert Advisors tab, tick Allow DLL imports, press OK.
With DLL imports off, the EA alerts that it cannot validate its licence and removes itself from the chart. That is the only condition that makes it remove itself. A failed licence check or an unreachable server does not: there it holds its open trades and keeps retrying.
Step 5: Drag it onto a chart
Drag the EA from the Navigator onto the chart you want. Double-clicking the name attaches it to whichever chart is active, which is a good way to attach it to the wrong one.
The settings dialog opens. Do the Common tab first, because this is where installs go wrong.
- On MT4, tick Allow live trading. Leave Ask manual confirmation unticked unless you want a dialog on every order.
- On MT5, tick Allow Algo Trading.
- If your build also shows Allow DLL imports here, tick it. It is available now the terminal-wide option is on.
Then the Inputs tab. Lot_mode chooses fixed lots, which is the value 2 and the default (1 is compound, and it starts far larger than most people expect). Fix_lot is the size it trades every time and it never resizes itself, so set it from the lot size calculator and revisit it when your balance moves up a step.
Running two charts? Change Magic on the second. Four baskets are derived from it, at +9, +99, +999 and +9999, so two charts sharing a Magic read each other's trades as their own.
Step 6: The AutoTrading button
The per-EA permission is only half of it. The terminal has a master switch in the toolbar, labelled AutoTrading on MT4 and Algo Trading on MT5. It has to be green; if it is red or grey, click it once. MetaTrader can switch it off by itself after an account, profile or chart change, if the matching option is ticked under Tools › Options › Expert Advisors.
Step 7: How to tell it is running
Look at the top right corner of the chart. On MT4 a smiling face beside the EA name means attached and allowed to trade, a sad face means blocked. On MT5 a crossed-out circle beside the name means algo trading is off.
Then open the Experts tab at the bottom of the screen, in the Terminal window on MT4 or the Toolbox on MT5 (Ctrl+T opens either). Anything the EA prints goes there; load failures go to Journal next to it.
Forex Success AI draws its own panels too. The Trading row at the bottom of the ACCOUNT panel is the fastest diagnosis you have: ACTIVE, CHECKING..., PAUSED - by client, PAUSED - licence or PAUSED - monthly cap.
When it does not work
It does not appear in the Navigator
Almost always the wrong folder: check the file is in Experts rather than Indicators, that you opened the data folder from that terminal, and that the extension matches the platform. If all three are right, restart the terminal rather than refreshing.
Sad face on MT4
Loaded but not permitted to trade: either AutoTrading is off, or Allow live trading was not ticked. Press F7 on the chart, or right-click and choose Expert Advisors › Properties, tick the box on the Common tab and press OK.
It loads but never opens a trade
PAUSED - by client means trading is switched off for that account on the dashboard, and pressing Resume EA there is picked up within seconds. PAUSED - monthly cap means the plan's monthly profit ceiling has been reached and new positions resume on the 1st. Open trades are left alone in both cases. PAUSED - licence means the account number is not registered, disabled or blocked.
If you registered the account only just now and it still says PAUSED - licence, the re-check runs on a server-set timer rather than on every tick. Remove the EA and attach it again to force it immediately.
If it says ACTIVE and nothing happens, that may simply be the strategy. Entries wait for the Moving Average and Stochastic to line up, so a quiet first hour is normal, and no ticks arrive at all when the market is closed.
It alerts and unloads itself
The alert names the reason, and two causes account for nearly all of it. DLL imports were not allowed, which is Step 4. Or, on MT5, the account is in netting or exchange mode: the grid holds several positions on one symbol in both directions at once and netting would merge them, so the EA alerts that it requires a hedging account and refuses to initialise. See hedging versus netting accounts for what to ask your broker. MT4 has no netting mode, so this cannot happen there.
It works on demo but not on live
The licence binds to an account number, and your demo number is not your live number, so register the live account before attaching the EA to a live chart. Two other differences catch people out: an MT5 live account may be netting where the demo was hedging, and live symbols sometimes carry a suffix such as EURUSD.m, so you may be on a different chart than you think.
One last thing
Install on demo first and leave it a few days. It proves the permissions are right and shows you what the panel looks like when everything is behaving. Nothing about an EA install is worth learning on live money.
If you are still deciding, the plans are a one-time licence with a set number of account slots, each binding to a MetaTrader account number you register yourself.