Can't Connect to a Palworld Dedicated Server? Fixes in Order

When Palworld can't reach a dedicated server it tells you almost nothing — usually it spins for a while and drops you back to the title screen. So troubleshooting has to run on order, not on error messages.

This list is sorted by how often each thing is actually the cause, not by network layer. Work down it and most people are done by section two.

Start here: which menu did you use

Highest-frequency cause, and it isn't a network problem at all.

Palworld's title screen offers two multiplayer routes that lead to different places:

• Join Multiplayer Game (Dedicated Server) — the only one that reaches a dedicated server
• Invite code / join a friend's world — this runs through the host's game client and cannot reach a dedicated server at all

The parenthetical is a branch point, not a description. Type a server address into the invite-code flow and the game won't tell you you're in the wrong place; it just fails.

Once you're in the right screen there is a single text field and a Connect button. If that's what you see, the entry point is right.

The address format

One field, address and port written together, one colon between them:

203.0.113.10:8211

Four ways people get it wrong:

That last one deserves its own sentence: people see 27015 quoted somewhere and assume it's the connection port. 27015 only gets your server listed. Players join on 8211.

A hostname works the same way (play.example.com:8211).

Ports

This section only matters if you're hosting it yourself. On a managed server the ports are already open — skip ahead. The step-by-step for the security group and OS firewall is in the setup guide; this section is about telling whether ports are the problem at all.

A Palworld dedicated server needs two UDP ports:

Note that it's UDP, not TCP. This is the single most common self-hosting misconfiguration — people open both ports out of habit on TCP, end up with both "open," and still can't connect.

On a cloud server you have to allow them in two places:

1. The provider's security group / firewall rules
2. The OS firewall itself (ufw / firewalld / Windows Firewall)

Opening only one of the two is the second most common cause. On home broadband you also need port forwarding on the router — and most residential connections no longer hand out a public IP, in which case forwarding won't help and you need to check whether you have one at all.

Version mismatch

Your client auto-updates. Your server does not. Palworld patches often, so for a few days after every release this jumps to the top of the list.

Symptoms: the connection attempt takes longer than usual, then drops you back to the title screen — sometimes with a version notice, sometimes not.

To confirm, compare the version in your server's startup log against the one in the corner of the game's main menu. If they differ, run SteamCMD again:

steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit

Restart the server process afterward. Nobody can connect while the server updates, so don't start this when everyone is waiting to play.

When the server just is not in the community list

Separate two things first: "can't find it in the list" and "can't connect" are different problems, and people routinely debug them as one.

The community server list is not a reliable signal:

• It refreshes with a delay; a new server can take several minutes to appear
• It caps how many entries it shows, so on a busy day yours may simply not be rendered
• Search matches on name, and if you never changed ServerName yours is a default string nobody can search for

So verify by direct connect first. Go through Join Multiplayer Game (Dedicated Server), type the address, and see if you get in. If you do, the server is fine and only the listing is missing — which doesn't stop you and your friends from playing. Send them the address.

If you do want the listing: confirm 27015/UDP is open, set ServerName to something searchable, and wait.

Common questions

Which port goes in the address, 8211 or 27015? 8211. 27015 only gets the server listed; players join on 8211.

Should the ports be open on TCP or UDP? UDP. Both 8211 and 27015 are UDP — open them on TCP only and they'll look open while the game still can't connect.

My server isn't in the community list. What now? Verify by direct connect first; if that works, the server is fine. To be listed, open 27015/UDP, set ServerName to something searchable, and wait for the list to refresh.

Still stuck

If you're this far down, the remaining possibilities are few:

• The server process isn't actually running (check the log, not your memory of starting it)
• It ran out of memory and the OS killed it, so it vanished silently (dmesg will show it)
• The public IP changed — common after rebooting a cloud instance
• You set a ServerPassword and didn't tell anyone

Most of this list exists because the server and the client are two things somebody has to keep in step by hand — version, ports, address, password, each one a manual sync that can go wrong.

A managed Palworld server from KeepWorlds stays on the current build with the ports already open, and the address you hand your friends doesn't change. If you want to understand the settings themselves, every option explained is here.