I tried re installing battlenet to see if it would force an update, and the “check for updates” is greyed out. its been like this since wednesday 3rd september… didnt bother fixing it cuz i was preoccupied with some real life stuff. but servers were still red today.
other posts said i should update wow, but it wont let me update
Red realms would indeed mean that your client is out of date, and needs to be updated. If you’re having issues doing so, please visit the following page, which should help with your issue.
As you see WoW/battle-net app doesn’t delete/update/reset their cache files
and when you uninstall battle-net app, it doesn’t delete the cache/settings, you need to delete those folders/files after uninstall.
Follow Deleting cache/setting for Battle.net app/program part of my guide below https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/comprehensive-guide-for-blzbntagt00000bb8-scan-loop-for-low-bandwidth-internet/416779