Fixes · 7 min read
Can't connect to your 7 Days to Die server? Check these eight things
Not in the list, no answer on Connect to IP, a version or anti-cheat mismatch, a wrong password: eight checks for a 7 Days to Die dedicated server.
Last checked
Short answer
What's going wrong, and which check deals with it
| What happens | Usual cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Connect to IP gets no answer, or says it could not retrieve the server's information | Usual causeStill starting, a wrong address or port, or a port that doesn't reach it | FixChecks 1, 2 and 4 |
| The server isn't in the list | Usual causeIts visibility, its region, or a filter in the browser | FixCheck 3 |
| Refused for its version, often right after an update | Usual causeThe game and the server are on different versions or branches | FixCheck 5 |
| Refused with an EasyAntiCheat message | Usual causeAnti-cheat is on at one end and off at the other | FixCheck 6 |
| Asked for a password, told the server is full, or turned away at once | Usual causeThe join password, the player cap, or the allowed and banned lists | FixCheck 7 |
| A friend on PlayStation or Xbox can't find it | Usual causeCrossplay is off, as it is by default | FixCheck 8 |
1. It's still starting
Nobody can join until the server's log prints StartGame done. That took about 80 seconds in our tests on the stock Navezgane map. It takes longer the first time the server builds a generated world, and after a game update while it downloads.
On our servers, the panel marks the server Running once that line appears. Until then the status reads Starting; wait for Running before anyone tries to join.
2. The address or the port is wrong
Connect to IP takes an address and a port. On a home server the address is your public address and the port is 26900, unless you changed ServerPort. Players on the same home network as the server use the server PC's local address instead: some routers won't connect you to your own public address from inside.
On our servers, the Join address box on the server's Overview tab shows the address, a colon, then the port, and its copy button copies all of it. The address is everything before the colon and the port is the number after it. Use the port shown there: each of our servers gets its own, so it may be a number other than 26900.
3. It isn't in the server list
Three settings in serverconfig.xml decide how the server is listed, and Connect to IP works whatever they say.
ServerVisibility:2is public and the default,0is not listed.1, friends only, doesn't suit a dedicated server: the file's own comment says you are never a friend of one, so it only works once the first player has connected by address.Region: the region the server lists under. Community guides describe a region filter in the server browser, so a player filtering by another region won't see it. The stock file saysNorthAmericaEast; set it to where your players are, such asEurope.ServerName: the name players search for. The same guides list filters for full, empty and passworded servers, so clear those before deciding the server is missing.
On our servers, all three are on one page, Game → All settings. Who can see the server is in Server settings, under Network. Server name is in Startup settings, and Region is on the same page under that name. Save, then restart: the server reads its settings when it starts.
4. The ports don't reach the server
On your own PC, forward TCP 26900 and UDP 26900 to 26903 to the server PC, give that PC a fixed address on your home network, and allow the server through its firewall. The stock file switches SteamNetworking off (ServerDisabledNetworkProtocols), which its comment recommends when port forwarding is set up correctly, so players connect straight to those ports and the forwarding has to be right. The full setup, with a table of the ports, is in how to host a 7 Days to Die dedicated server.
On our servers, the ports are open already. To test the server itself, open the Overview tab, find Can players reach it? and press Run the checks. The game port is tested twice: a connection over TCP, and a Steam query over UDP. Works on both means the server answered from the internet, and a friend who still can't connect most likely has the block on their side: a router, firewall or VPN. While the server is starting, The server is running reads Fails and every port reads Not tested: wait for Running (see 1) and run the checks again. The other UDP ports read Not tested even then, because they only answer the game itself. If the game port fails once the panel says Running, tell us, because that part is ours.
5. The game and the server are on different versions
Everyone has to be on the same version as the server. The current stable version is V3.4.0, and Steam updates players' games by itself, so after a patch the server is the one behind.
On your own PC, stop the server and run the SteamCMD install line again.
On our servers, the server checks for an update every time it starts (Update on start, in All settings → Startup settings, on by default), so after a patch press Restart. That start takes longer while it downloads.
Branches catch people out as well. A player who picked an older or experimental version in Steam's Betas tab can't join a server on the stable one; after V3.1.0, The Fun Pimps told players who couldn't reach a dedicated server to select “Default Public Version”. If your whole group plays another branch, move the server to it. On ours, open Settings → Game version, type the branch name, such as v3.3.0, and press Change version. The panel reinstalls the game on that branch. A world from a newer version may not load in an older one, so download your world first.
6. Anti-cheat is on at one end and off at the other
A server runs EasyAntiCheat unless you turn it off: EACEnabled is true in the stock file. Community guides agree that the player's game has to match. With anti-cheat on at the server, players start the game the normal way. With it off, they start the game without EasyAntiCheat, which Steam offers as a second way to launch it.
Most groups only turn it off for mods that add their own code. If you haven't installed any, leave it on and ask the player who can't join how they started the game. Leave it on as well if anyone joins from a console (see 8).
On our servers the switch is Anti-cheat, in Game → All settings → Server settings under Technical. It's on by default, and a change takes effect at the next start.
7. The password, the player cap or a list keeps them out
The password. At home it's ServerPassword in the file. On ours it's Join password on the Game tab, under Players: letters, numbers, dots, dashes and underscores, up to 32 characters. We hand it to the server at every start, so set it there and not in the file.
The player cap. The game's default is 8 (ServerMaxPlayerCount), and ours allow 8 to begin with. Raise it in the file at home, or with Maximum players on our Game tab, then restart. If you've set ServerReservedSlots, those places are held for players with a permission level, and everyone else sees a full server sooner.
The lists. Admins, allowed players and bans live in serveradmin.xml. As soon as anyone is on the allowed list, only they and admins can join, so one name added as a test locks out the rest of the group. On ours, check Allowed players and Banned players in Game → Player lists.
8. Your friend is on PlayStation or Xbox
Crossplay is a server setting, and the stock file has it off: ServerAllowCrossplay is false. The file's comment gives the game's conditions for a crossplay server: it is only found in searches and joinable if sanctions are not ignored, which means IgnoreEOSSanctions stays false, and if it has the default number of player slots or fewer, which is 8.
So set ServerAllowCrossplay to true, keep the player cap at 8 or under, and restart. On our servers the switch is Crossplay, in Game → All settings → Server settings under Technical, and the cap is Maximum players on the Game tab.
The community's crossplay guide adds three conditions the file doesn't mention: anti-cheat on (check 6), ServerVisibility at 2 (check 3), and no mods on the server. By its account a modded server still takes PC players and turns console players away.
Two things that look like a failed connection
The first join takes ages. A new player downloads the whole world before they spawn, at up to ServerMaxWorldTransferSpeedKiBs: 512 kiB a second by default, and the game caps it at about 1300. On a large generated world that can take minutes. On ours it's World download speed in All settings → Server settings, with Advanced switched on.
A Mac set to French. The Fun Pimps list two known issues in V3.4.0 that meet here. A Mac with French selected as the game's language can't join a server, and changing the language options on a Mac freezes the game until it is force quit. A player caught by the first has hit a fault in the game; your server is fine.
Still stuck?
On your own PC, read the server's log from the moment the player tries to join: it usually names the reason they were refused.
On our 7 Days to Die servers, press Copy the last 200 lines on the console, then press Contact a human on your Overview tab and paste them in, with what the player sees on screen. A person reads it, not a bot.
Game facts checked against 7 Days to Die V3.4.0 on 12 November 2026.