Valheim Server

Fix a Valheim Server Missing From the Server List

A Valheim server that runs fine but never appears in the community browser is almost always one of four things: it isn’t flagged public, the query port isn’t reachable, the browser is filtering it out for you, or the server and the players are on different networks (crossplay versus Steam-only). Direct connection by IP usually still works while this is broken, which is the useful clue — it tells you the game port is fine and only the advertising path is failing.

First, prove the server itself is healthy

Check the console output. A dedicated server prints its startup sequence and eventually reports that the game server is connected and the world is loaded. If you never see that, you don’t have a listing problem, you have a startup problem — the world is still generating, the password was rejected, or the process died. Read the log to the end before touching anything else.

Try a direct join. Have someone use Join Game → Join IP with your address and game port. If that works, the server, the world, and the game port are all fine and you can focus entirely on discovery.

Set the public flag

The server only advertises itself when you ask it to. On a script-launched server that’s the -public 1 argument; with -public 0 the server is deliberately invisible and join-by-IP only. On the Docker image it’s the public environment variable in your Compose file. It’s an easy one to lose: people copy a start script from a guide, edit the name and password, and never notice the flag was set to 0.

Restart after changing it. This value is read at launch, not live.

The query port is the usual culprit

Valheim answers browser queries on the port one above your game port — 2457 if you’re on the default 2456. If you forwarded only 2456, direct joins work and the listing never appears, which is exactly the symptom people report.

Forward and firewall the pair (or the whole 2456–2458 range), as UDP:

sudo ufw allow 2456:2458/udp

If you moved the game port with -port, the query port moved with it. Forward what you configured. The full walk-through is in How to Port Forward a Valheim Server.

In Docker, check the published range. A mapping that publishes a single port has the same effect as a single-port forward:

ports:
  - "2456-2457:2456-2457/udp"

Crossplay changes which list you’re in

Enabling crossplay switches the server onto the cross-platform network so players on other platforms can join. That also changes how the server is found: crossplay servers surface through the cross-platform browser and a join code rather than behaving like a plain Steam-network entry. A Steam-only player looking in the wrong tab may genuinely not see a server that’s working perfectly for everyone else.

Decide which you want and be consistent:

  • Steam-only group — leave crossplay off and search the community list normally.
  • Mixed platforms — turn crossplay on and distribute the join code, and tell people which tab to look in.

Don’t diagnose a listing problem while half the group is searching one network and the server is on the other. Details in How to Enable Crossplay on a Valheim Server.

The browser itself lies to you

Even a correctly advertising server can be hard to find in the community list:

  • The list is paged and enormous. Type part of your server name into the filter rather than scrolling. Search on a distinctive word, not “server”.
  • Filters persist. A leftover filter from a previous session — or a crossplay/Steam toggle — hides entries silently.
  • Listings take a few minutes to propagate. A server you started thirty seconds ago may not be indexed yet. Wait, then refresh.
  • Favourites are more reliable than search. Once one person joins by IP, have everyone add the server to favourites. From then on discovery stops mattering at all — which for a small friend-group server is the pragmatic end state.

Name and password rules can stop a launch outright

Two constraints trip up new servers, and both look like a listing failure because the process exits before it ever advertises:

  • The password must be at least five characters.
  • The password must not appear inside the server name.

Break either and the server refuses to start. Scroll back through the console output for the complaint instead of assuming the network is at fault.

Duplicate or stale entries

If your server shows up twice, or shows an old name, you’re usually looking at cached listings — one from the current process and one from a recently killed instance that hadn’t timed out yet. Stop everything, confirm no orphaned server process is still bound to the port, and start once:

ps aux | grep -i valheim

On Windows, check Task Manager for a leftover server process before starting a second one. Two processes fighting over 2456 produces genuinely baffling behaviour.

Work it in this order

  1. Server logs show a fully loaded world.
  2. Direct IP join works.
  3. Public flag is on, and the server was restarted after you set it.
  4. UDP game and query ports forwarded and allowed through the host firewall.
  5. Everyone is looking at the same network (crossplay on or off, consistently).
  6. Search by a distinctive name fragment, then have everyone favourite it.

Step 4 resolves the majority of cases, and step 6 makes the problem stop mattering for good.

troubleshootingnetworkingconfiguration