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Players Can't Connect to My Server: How to Fix It

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.

Updated August 10, 2026
General

"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 is the tab-by-tab tour.

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 for restoring one, and How to Upload Files via SFTP if you want to pull a copy down and compare.

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.

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.

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