7 Days to Die Server Not Showing or Will Not Connect
Work through it in this order: is it running, is it still generating, are you on the same game version, is it listed, is the name searchable.
4 min read · Updated Oct 25, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
Try the address before anything else. Open the game, choose Join a Game, click Connect to IP, and type the IP and port from your server page. If that works, your server is fine and the problem is the server list. If it does not, the problem is the server, and the checks below are in the order that finds it fastest.
1. Is it actually running?
Open your server in the panel. The status at the top should say running. If it is stopped, press Start and watch the Console tab.
If it starts and then stops again within a minute, read the last twenty lines of the console. A server that cannot start says so there.
2. Is it still generating the world?
This is the most common false alarm. On the first start after you change the world, the seed or the map size, the game generates the whole map before it accepts anybody. The console goes quiet for several minutes, longer on a 10240 map, and the server looks hung. It is not. Leave it.
3. Are you and the server on the same version?
The game refuses a client on a different build, and this is the second most common cause.
Steam updates your own copy whenever it feels like it. Your server updates itself each time it starts, so restart the server and it will come up on the current release. If you have pinned a Steam branch for a mod, your players have to switch to that branch too.
4. Can you reach it by address but not find it by name?
Then the server is working and the listing is the issue.
- Check the name. A server called "My Game Host" is sharing that name with hundreds of others and will not come up in a search. Set something distinctive in Server name on the Server settings page.
- Check it is public. On the same page, Who can see it in the browser has three values. 2 is public, 1 shows it to your friends only and 0 keeps it off the list entirely.
- Give it a few minutes. A server registers with the list after it finishes starting, not before.
5. Console players cannot see it
That is a different problem with its own list of causes, all of them settings. Letting console players join has the six conditions a server has to meet, and failing any one of them removes it from console search silently.
6. Nobody can join, including you, but the panel says running
If the server is up, the version matches, and connecting by address times out, the usual cause is ports: the game needs four and most of them are invisible. Yours are set up for you, so this is only a candidate if something has been changed. The four ports a 7 Days to Die server uses explains what to look for, and support can check your allocation in a minute.
7. One player cannot join and everybody else can
Almost always their end.
- Have them restart the game, then Steam.
- Check they are on the same version, and the same branch if you have pinned one.
- If you run mods with their own code, they need exactly the same files and must launch without anti-cheat.
- If they were banned,
ban listin the Console tab will say so.
Common questions
Why does my server take so long to start?
A fresh random world is generated on the first start, which takes minutes. After that, loading an existing world is quick, but a long lived save with a lot of explored land takes longer than a new one. If every start is slow and the world is old, that is why.
The console is full of warnings. Is it broken?
Not necessarily. This game logs a great deal at normal levels, including plenty of warnings on a perfectly healthy server. What matters is whether it reaches the point of accepting players, and whether the last lines before a stop say anything specific.
I changed a setting and now nobody can join
Change it back and restart. The settings most likely to do this are Who can see it in the browser, the crossplay group, and anything to do with the world. If you are not sure which, restore the backup you took before the change from the Backups tab.
Where do I look if none of this helps?
Open a ticket with the last fifty lines of your console and what you have already tried. Say whether connecting by address works, because that one answer halves the number of possible causes.
- 7 days to die
- troubleshooting
- connecting
- server list
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