1. First, how are your players joining?
Pocketpair's server documentation describes two kinds of server. A dedicated server is joined by address: "Use an IP address and port number to join the server." A community server is "no different from a dedicated server, with the difference being whether or not it appears on the server list within the game client." The two ways in look like this in the game:
- By address. Pocketpair: "Input IP address and port number to form below the server list."
- From the list. "select
Community serverfrom the left side of the server list, find the target server in the list displayed and click on it."
Pocketpair sends console players down the second route. Its about-server page says: "If you want to join the server from the Xbox version or the PS5 version, you need to deploy it as a community server." Its older Xbox page was blunter: "on Xbox, you cannot connect by entering an IP address." So a server that Steam friends reach by address can still be unreachable for a PS5 player if it is not listed.
| What players see | Usual cause | Section |
|---|---|---|
| The server is not in the Community server list | Not started as a community server, a name nobody searched for, the version filter, or a wrong public address | 2 |
| Nobody can connect by address and port | The UDP game port does not reach the server, or the server is not up | 3 |
| A version mismatch error | The server and the player are on different Palworld builds | 4 |
| Asked for a password, or the password is refused | ServerPassword is set, or players were given the admin password | 4 |
| One player is always refused | A ban, a platform left out of CrossplayPlatforms, or client mods | 4 |
| Players outside your home get in, you do not | Your router lacks Hairpin NAT | 2 |
2. Missing from the Community server list
Start it as a community server
Listing takes one launch option. Pocketpair's arguments table describes -publiclobby as "Setup server as a community server", and its community-server page gives the two command lines, PalServer.exe -publiclobby on Windows and ./PalServer.sh -publiclobby on Linux, with the warning that "The PalServer part must not be changed." If you start the server from the Steam client instead, "You need to choose Open and start as a community server." Pocketpair treats listing as optional for a private server; without it, the address is the only way in.
Search for the right name, on the right version
In practice players find the server by the name set in ServerName in PalWorldSettings.ini. The shipped default is Default Palworld Server, so a server nobody renamed shares its name with every other server nobody renamed. Pocketpair does not say how the list sorts or how long a new server takes to appear, so search for the exact name rather than scrolling.
The list also has an option to show only servers on a matching version; Pocketpair's v0.6.0 notes fixed "a bug where the option to display servers with matching versions was not working." With that option on, a server one patch behind the player does not show at all. Check the version first (section 4) before you suspect the listing.
Public address and port
A listed server tells the list where to find it. Pocketpair says the server works out its public address and port itself, and that you can state them by hand with -publicip= and -publicport= (or the PublicIP and PublicPort keys) if detection fails: "If it does not work well, try manual configuration." Both apply to community servers only, and -publicport "does not change the port number itself that the server uses for listening." If you run the server on a custom -port, a wrong public port in the listing is the first thing to rule out.
Players in the same house as the server
"If your router does not support Hairpin NAT, you will not be able to connect to community servers hosted within the same network." Pocketpair calls this a limit of the router, not the server. Players outside your network are not affected, and a server hosted somewhere else does not run into it at all.
3. Nobody can connect by address
The game port is UDP. Pocketpair's requirements page lists exactly one network rule: "UDP Port 8211 (Default, Changeable) Be able to port forwarding by router configuration." The port changes with -port=, and every firewall and router rule has to follow it. Pocketpair adds that "Separate Windows firewall settings and router settings are required" on Windows, and on Linux "Separate router configuration is required", with security settings sometimes needing a change too.
- UDP, not TCP. A forward or firewall rule for TCP alone does nothing for the game port, and a TCP-only port check tells you nothing about it.
- No other port is needed to join. Pocketpair's own container setup on GitHub publishes only
8211:8211/udp. RCON and the REST API are admin tools, and Pocketpair warns that "These APIs are not designed to be exposed directly to the Internet." - Make sure the server is up. In our test the Linux server printed
Running Palworld dedicated server on :8212once it was listening, with the port it was given. Until that line appears there is nothing to connect to. - Type the address and the port. Pocketpair's form takes both. Give players the port every time, since a server is not always on 8211.
The port forwarding guide covers the router side, including connections that cannot accept incoming traffic at all.
4. Turned away while joining
Pocketpair does not publish the exact text of its join errors, so work from the cause.
Version mismatch
Since v1.0.4, "Version mismatch errors now show the version of the connection target", so the player can read the server's version off the message. Update the server with the same SteamCMD line that installed it and restart it:
steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quitTo read the version on the server side, the admin command Info answers with it; on our test server it returned Welcome to Pal Server[v1.0.5.102999] followed by the server name. Pocketpair marks the patches that do not break crossplay, as with v1.0.2.100993: "This patch is applied to the PC version only, but will not negatively affect crossplay with other versions of the game." Treat any patch without such a line as one the server needs too.
Password
Two passwords live in the settings file and they do different jobs. ServerPassword is the "Password required to log in to the server". AdminPassword is the "Password used to obtain administrative privileges on the server", entered in game with /AdminPassword. Give players the first one only.
Server full
The player limit is ServerPlayerMaxNum in the settings file, and the -players= launch option also changes "the maximum number of participants on the server." When every slot is taken, the next player is refused until someone leaves.
Bans, platforms and mods
- Bans. The admin commands are
/BanPlayer <SteamID>and/UnBanPlayer <SteamID>, and the REST API has ban and unban endpoints that take the player's user ID. In our test a ban was written toPal/Saved/SaveGames/banlist.txtas one line,steam_<id>,<player uid>, andUnBanPlayerremoved it. - Platforms.
CrossplayPlatformsis the "Allowed platform to connect the server",(Steam,Xbox,PS5,Mac)by default. A platform left out of it cannot join. The olderAllowConnectPlatformkey is "Not available in this version", so a config that still relies on it does nothing. - Mods.
bAllowClientModcontrols whether to "Allow players with mods enabled to join the server". The default file the server ships with sets it toTrue, so it turns modded players away only if someone set it toFalse.
A settings change that did nothing
Change PalWorldSettings.ini with the server stopped, then start it. In our test of the Linux server, every stop wrote the file back as the server had read it at start, so an edit made while it ran was lost. Edit PalWorldSettings.ini itself, not the template: Pocketpair notes that "editing DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini will not affect the changes." The Palworld settings reference lists every key.
Where ForgeWorld Gaming fits
Every ForgeWorld Gaming Palworld server starts with -publiclobby, so it is a community server from the first start, and our own logs show PS5 players joining one; Pocketpair says PS5 and Xbox players need a community server. The address and port are on the Console tab of your control panel; the port is not always 8211, and the panel passes the same port to -port and -publicport, so the listing carries it. Nothing needs opening: in our test, UDP packets sent from outside to a server's port reached it.
A new server is named ForgeWorld Gaming, so rename it before friends search the list for it. Server Name, Server Password and Crossplay Platforms are on the Startup tab, and the server writes them into PalWorldSettings.ini at every start. That has a catch we tested: a password typed straight into the file is wiped at the next start unless it is also on the Startup tab, and the panel accepts only letters, numbers, dashes and underscores in it. The player limit comes from your plan's slot count.
The Console tab takes admin commands such as Info, BanPlayer and UnBanPlayer, and banlist.txt is under Pal/Saved/SaveGames on the Files tab. While the Auto Update variable is on, each start installs the newest Palworld server build first, so a restart after a patch brings the server up to date; our test server reported v1.0.5.102999. Last checked 2026-10-20.
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