--- title: "Players Can't Connect to My Server: How to Fix It" description: "Work through it by symptom: offline in the panel, missing from the in-game browser, direct connect failing, or only you being unable to join." url: "https://www.gameserverkings.com/knowledge-base/general/players-cant-connect/" category: "General" category_url: "https://www.gameserverkings.com/knowledge-base/general/" published: "2026-08-10T09:37:01.318Z" updated: "2026-08-10T09:37:01.318Z" source_format: "markdown" site: "GameServerKings" --- # Players Can't Connect to My Server: How to Fix It "Players can't connect" is five different problems wearing the same shirt. A server that never started, a server that is running fine but missing from the in-game browser, and a server only *you* cannot reach all produce the same complaint in Discord. This guide works through them by what you can actually see, so you can stop guessing. ## Start Here: What the Panel Tells You Open your server's **Console** tab before changing anything. Two things on that screen answer most connection problems on their own: - **Is it running?** The **Start**, **Stop** and **Restart** buttons and the live output tell you whether the server is up, still booting, or stopped. - **The Address.** Top left of the Console tab is your server's IP and port — the thing players actually need. Copy it from there rather than from memory. If you are new to the panel, [How to Use Your Server Panel](/knowledge-base/general/how-to-use-your-server-panel/) is the tab-by-tab tour. > [!TIP] Read the Console output first > Nine times out of ten the error is printed right there, and it is the first thing our support team will ask you about. ## Symptom: The Server Shows Offline in the Panel Nobody can connect because there is nothing to connect to. The question is whether it never started or started and then died. Press **Start** and watch the Console. If the server exits, the last lines before it stops are the reason. The usual causes: - **A bad value on the Startup tab.** Those variables apply on the next start, so a typo in a world name, slot count or password can stop a boot that worked yesterday. - **A config file edited by hand** that no longer parses. One missing quote or brace is enough. - **A mod or plugin that does not match the current game build.** After a game update, the framework and plugins usually need updating too. If you edited files just before it broke, the fastest fix is to put them back — see [How to Create a Backup](/knowledge-base/general/how-to-create-a-backup/) for restoring one, and [How to Upload Files via SFTP](/knowledge-base/general/how-to-upload-files-via-sftp/) if you want to pull a copy down and compare. > [!CAUTION] Reinstall is the last resort > The **Settings** tab can reinstall the server from scratch, but it wipes your server files. Take a backup first, and only reach for it once you have read the Console output. ## Symptom: The Server Runs but Does Not Appear in the In-Game Browser This one panics people unnecessarily. **The in-game browser is not a reliable test of whether your server is up.** Many games list only a subset of servers, filter hard by version, region or ping, and can take several minutes to refresh a newly started server. Work through it in this order: 1. **Check your filters.** Game version, region, "hide full", "hide empty" and modded/vanilla filters routinely hide a server that is running perfectly. Empty servers in particular are hidden by default in several games. 2. **Try a direct connect instead.** If direct connect works, your server is fine and you have a listing problem, not a connection problem. That single test splits this section from the next one. 3. **Give it a few minutes.** A server that has just started may not have registered with the game's master list yet. 4. **Check the query port.** Some games use more than one port — a game port, plus separate query and RCON ports. Server browsers talk to the **query** port, not the game port. All of your allocated ports are listed on the panel's **Network** tab. > [!NOTE] Sharing an IP changes how your server is listed > Without a dedicated IPv4 address your server shares an IP with other servers and runs on its own port rather than the game's default one. It works exactly the same, but in-game browsers behave differently for servers that share an IP, and a dedicated IP puts you on the game's default port so players can connect by typing just the address. It is an optional add-on, not a requirement. ## Symptom: Direct Connect by IP Fails - **Use the exact Address from the Console tab**, IP and port together. Copy and paste it rather than typing it out — a single wrong digit produces exactly this symptom. - **Do not drop the port.** Unless you have a dedicated IP on the game's default port, the port is part of the address, not an optional extra. - **Connect to the game port, not the query or RCON port.** If your game allocates several, the **Network** tab lists them all. - **Wait for it to finish loading.** A server accepts connections only once it is fully up. On a large world that can take a while — watch the Console for the line where it reports it is ready. ### "Timed out" and "refused" mean different things The wording of the failure is a genuine diagnostic, and it is worth reading carefully: | The client says | What it means | Where to look | |---|---|---| | **Connection timed out** | Nothing answered at all | Wrong IP or port, or the server is not running | | **Connection refused** | Something answered and actively said no | Usually nothing is listening on that port — right IP, wrong port, or the server is stopped | A refusal is the more useful of the two: it tells you packets are reaching the right machine and the port is the thing to check. ## Symptom: Friends Can Connect but I Cannot If anyone else can get in, the server is working and the problem is on your side. - **Prove it.** Try connecting from another network — a phone hotspot is the quickest test. If it works there, it is your home network, ISP or VPN. - **Check your game version.** A client on a different build than the server is a very common cause, especially in the days after an update. - **VPNs and firewalls.** Both routinely block game traffic. Turn them off for one attempt to rule them out. ## Symptom: It Rejects Me at the Password or Slot Stage These read as connection failures in several games even though the connection itself succeeded: - **A wrong or recently changed password.** Server passwords live on the **Startup** tab, and a change applies on the next start — so the server may be running the old one until you restart it. - **A whitelist or allowlist** that does not include the player. - **The server is full.** Check the player count in the panel before assuming anything is broken. ## What to Send Support If you have worked through the above and it is still down, open a ticket with these five things and you will skip a round trip: 1. The **Address** from your Console tab. 2. The **exact error** the client shows, word for word. 3. **When it last worked.** 4. **What changed** in between — a config edit, a plugin, a game update. 5. The **Console output** from around the failure. ## What to Read Next - [How to Use Your Server Panel](/knowledge-base/general/how-to-use-your-server-panel/) — where the Console, Network and Startup tabs are - [How to Create a Backup](/knowledge-base/general/how-to-create-a-backup/) — take one before any risky change, and restore one after a bad edit - [How to Upload Files via SFTP](/knowledge-base/general/how-to-upload-files-via-sftp/) — for comparing or replacing config files - [How to Setup Schedules](/knowledge-base/general/how-to-setup-schedules/) — automated restarts prevent a good share of these --- Made with 💜 by GameServerKings