dedicated-server

[shrewd gale]

hmmm

ok let me look

[shrewd gale]

hey man running into an issue with this here

@torpid owl for some reason when i close the cmd it crashes the game

what can i do to have it run without me having the cmd open? so my mates can play the game

[torpid owl]

I assume your running the server locally on your pc. the cmd is the process that runs the server. close it and you shut down the server instantly.

(Without saving)

You could try nssm

That way you could run it as a windows service in the background

[dense crypt]

anyone got a fun server with a few people or more?

[fresh raft]

We are starting a new public server on February 1st, "Islands of Magic"
But its nomap noportal and heavily adjusted 🙁 Very niche jajajaja

What kinds of things do you like to do in Valheim @dense crypt ?
I think this chat is for issues with dedicated servers. You might have better luck making a post here: https://discord.com/channels/391142601740517377/1024264966712340510
Make sure to give some context. Say what you like about Valheim and what kind of group you are looking for 🙂 It helps !

[sage nexus]

..and where you are located

[shrewd gale]

Don’t know what nssm is man

[final current]

Well, it comes down to knowing your options in your operating system for running a program. The screenshots you showed us look like Microsoft Windows so we're assuming the program you want to run is your customized batch script. You pretty much have no choice but to run a batch script with a shell program like CMD. If you do this manually, just make sure you exit the server by pressing Ctrl+C in the console window in order to trigger Valheim Dedicated server's graceful shutdown+save behavior. You could launch it with Steam or another app launcher if it's the launch pattern you don't like, but that will still leave you with a CMD console window in the foreground you'll need to Ctrl+C in.

If you want the command shell to be open in the background, you can have the NT kernel's service manager (WSC) run it for you, and this is the core of @torpid owl's suggestion. nssm is a 3rd-party program that makes running arbitrary programs and scripts as an Windows Service (formerly NT Service) easy—or at least easier than it would be if doing it from scratch. You can learn more about it here:
https://nssm.cc/
and usage instructions: https://nssm.cc/usage
If you do, just make sure to adjust AppStopMethodConsole long enough for the world to save after nssm issues a Ctrl+C to the backgrounded console. I would recommend 45000ms or higher.

For deeper background on Windows Services:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/services/services
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Control_Manager

[solar kelp]

Im trying to make a dedicated server for the first time but I don’t understand how im supposed to make one. How do I make a dedicated server? I downloaded Valheim Dedicated Server

[sage nexus]

theres a pdf in the folder you can follow

[solar kelp]

Ok thanks

[fallen grove]

So I am running a server using the docker method, and according to the default docker launch script, the game files directory is mounted at ./valheim_server_data. So far so good. I can load the world and play in it, but I can't find the actual world save location. According to the doc it should also be inside that mounted volume directory, as this points to /root/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim inside the container. But this directory only contains the files

app.info*
boot.config*
globalgamemanagers*
globalgamemanagers.assets*
level0*
Managed/
MonoBleedingEdge/
Plugins/
Resources/
resources.assets*
RuntimeInitializeOnLoads.json*
ScriptingAssemblies.json*
sharedassets0.assets*
StreamingAssets/

According to the internet, there should be a "world" folder or somethig similar.

Also I did not specify a different world save location in the startup script

never mind, I somehow missed that the docker script does bind to a volume, not a mounted directory. Now it works

[quartz hull]

Anyone know if enabling -console on a server will make everyone able to use devcommands or just those on the adminlist?

[final current]

-console on the dedicated server launch doesn't have a noticeable effect. Performed on the clients of admin-listed players, the main set of commands enabled are the admin commands, which don't use the devcommands context:
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Developer_console#Admin_commands (click Show Commands)

There will be a couple of devcommands available to admins of a dedicated server like setkey, but if you're wanting more, the Server devcommands mod is a popular choice to enable more of the original set.

[quartz hull]

Thank you. It doesn't appear that the player based raids is functioning

[final current]

How was it set? Does it show up as a named modifier when you press F2 while in game?

[quartz hull]

Show as player based raides

raids* We also have fulings in the meadows now

[final current]

Unfortunately, Player-based Raids does not isolate the progression of night-spawning creatures.

You could vote on the suggestion if you like the idea: #suggestions message

[quartz hull]

Ah. That's not great for new players to a server

[main hollow]

Hello, who knows what the problem might be, my ip is static and ports are forwarded 2456-2458, but the server without crossplay is not working, only over the local network. I also checked the port for minecraft 25565 is working and opening, the connection is there, but in the case of Valheim, the port is still closed.

[torpid owl]

valheim needs udp, you probably opened up tcp. which is why minecraft works and valheim is not

[main hollow]

2456-2458 UDP & TCP

[torpid owl]

ok interesting. does it work with crossplay?

[main hollow]

yes

[torpid owl]

do you have a real public ipv4?

[main hollow]

yes

[torpid owl]

huh......

[echo crystal]

There's a bug in Valheim where once someone has connected to a crossplay server it gets cached as being crossplay enabled so when you disable crossplay you won't be able to connect.

You can either wait a few hours for the cache to clear or change your server to a different port to bypass it.

[main hollow]

Can I just delete the server and download it for free to bypass the waiting?

or maybe this cache is stored somewhere on a PC?

[echo crystal]

It is stored on some irongate server you can't do anything about it

[main hollow]

is it enough for me to turn on the server and wait for the cache to clear?

[echo crystal]

If you have access to the Unity console you can see it "looking up server type... type PlayFab.." etc

Leaving it running or not doesn't matter

I'd just change to a different port

[main hollow]

Which range of ports is better to use?

[echo crystal]

Doesn't matter

[main hollow]

Okay, I'll try and write later.

[frozen crest]

@quaint tapir @clear rose can i join yall

[clear rose]

Yea I’ll pm you

[wise barn]

can anyone tell me why I'm getting these (and waiting forever for it to time out) starting my linux server despite not having -crossplay in the startup script?

01/05/2026 19:37:41: Sending PlayFab login request (attempt 1)
01/05/2026 19:37:41: Login postponed until ID has been set.```

[wise barn]

valheim cuisine mod. unfreakingreal. remove it and my server starts in 2.5 minutes instead of 12

[frozen crest]

@quaint tapir

can i join yall

[quick oracle]

Same, can I join as well

[hot mica]

Cuisine is pretty big so takes a little time to load, but the long delay with the postponed login is not related. I started seeing this delay, typically 10-15mins when Valheim switched to Microsoft Playfab for authentication. I’ve been meaning to do packet capture/analysis to dig deeper for a cause, but haven’t yet. It happens on servers without Cuisine. 🐸

[topaz vine]

Is there a way to increase player count on a server ?

[wise barn]

I did a capture. 0 network traffic happening while it's hung up. Also no idea why it's trying playfab when it's not enabled! What a pain. Thanks for the feedback homie 😀

[hot mica]

interesting. my unconfirmed understanding is that even with crossplay disabled they still use playfab for authentication. otherwise why would it show up when we’ve removed crossplay from the startup script. i need to do more research. been putting it off.

[wise barn]

yeah must be what's happening. it's really annoying 😬

I don't know why that mod + this playfab thing = 💣

[analog sonnet]

hey, i have bought a dedicated server from a service and I want to use devcommands on said server but it doesnt allow me as im not admin, what is the fix ?

[paper shadow]

I'm hoping someone here has some experience with migrating existing servers from a Windows VM to a Lubuntu VM. When I try, it keeps telling me "The WorldGenerator instance was null" then shuts down. I've made sure the password meets requirements, I've tried installing necessary packages, I've tried running it with/without Steam running, and I've tried replacing the steamclient.so file with the one in the Linux64 folder. Anyone have any ideas what else I could try, or have possibly run into this issue before?

[paper shadow]

do you have access to the server's files? if so, just add your steamid in the adminlist file

[final current]

Running it in a container in the Lubuntu VM, or just with a regular install and a customized copy of the shell script?

You are welcome to attach the entire server log here if you want another pair of eyes on it. Also let us know if this was direct/Steam backend or Crossplay and if you're running any mods.

[paper shadow]

It was just a regular install. I honestly gave up and tried instead to use regular Ubuntu, thinking I was probably just missing some packages not included with Lubuntu. Lo and behold, that seems to be the issue, as I followed almost the exact same procedure as Lubuntu, with the only difference being running it via SteamCMD instead of the Steam client, and now it works great.

[final current]

Alrighty. Glad you got it working. If you're using Crossplay, it needs libatomic1, libpulse0, and libpulse-mainloop-glib0.

[sonic helm]

Trying to remove raids. Is this the line correct for doing so?

Tried -modifier raids:none first

[gilded sedge]

-modifier raids=none

[final current]

The way you have it in the screenshot is correct.

[sonic helm]

Yeah seems to work! Cheers

[analog sonnet]

is it possible to change world difficulty on a dedicated server?

[earnest turtle]

Same thing is with another game, for some reason

[final current]

Yes, you can either use command line arguments (see -preset in the manual that comes with the dedicated server) or if you're an admin-listed player, you can setworldpreset <Normal|Casual|Easy|Hard|Hardcore|Immersive|Hammer> in the console.

Just note that setting a preset will reset any other customer modifiers or server config global keys you've set.

[heady depot]

Is there a solution for Linux Dedicated Servers running on 0.221.6 and Client being on 0.221.4, I cannot connect 🙁

Version missmatch error.

[rich forge]

does anyone have any repo/doc recs on how to set up a gcp ce vm dedicated server and then a discord bot that has slash commands to see if the server is running, see what players are in it, and start or stop the server? i found a few from general searching but they are all a few years out of date rip

[plain trellis]

I also have 0.221.6 on server, and v 0.221.4 on PC client. But I don't have any issues.

[covert jewel]

Had that happen in the past. Fix for me:

Shut down client.
Delete a game file/folder.
Re-verify (to pull down/re-sync).

Should be back on latest-greatest (presuming you didn't set any BETA channel to hard-lock to version {X} != latest)

No MODs here to dork up the works too

[frozen crest]

yo @bronze jacinth

wanna join my world

[low crystal]

Dude I’d have to reinstall haven’t played valheim in forever

[frozen crest]

oh wait wtf

wrong person mbad LMAO

@bronze jacinth

[frozen crest]

@vague raptor wanna join my world

[vague raptor]

yea i can are you playing vanilla

[frozen crest]

yep

i haven't killed elder yet btw

173124 is the join code @vague raptor
Password is 12345

[frozen crest]

@vague raptor where'd you go 🙁

[vague raptor]

I dont think im actually going to play tonight 😕

[frozen crest]

damn, i'll leave you a plot of land to build on then

[frozen crest]

@unreal shore yo

wuts your progress in the game?

[unreal shore]

Ashlands. Haven't killed last boss yet

[final current]

I recommend taking this to #1024264966712340510
We try to keep this channel for help on running or maintaining the Valheim Dedicated Server program

[spark zinc]

ok, quite a specific problem I'm having with the dedicated server. I'm only playing with 1 other person currently, and we've been having weird slowdown / desync issues for a while now. Got to the point where we went to the trouble of disabling all mods (really wasn't running anything elaborate but to troubleshoot). Even with no mods at all, and no bepinex running, the second person to connect to the server experiences extremely slow world load in and heavy desync issues with doors / chests / kilns /cooking stations etc

upstream bandwidth on the server link is ~90mbps so more than adequate. 64gb ram, 13th gen intel i7 CPU. ample storage.

just want to hopefully fix, as it makes using the main base properly impossible for second player thus making multiplayer difficult and unfun and it's king of killing this play through :/ main base is a somewhat elaborate but nothing crazy build.

[final current]

Here are my recommended things to check: #dedicated-server message
That first one will be the most impactful. If all of the players are on the Steam version of the game and the server operator has some network savvy, disabling Crossplay to enable direct connectivity makes a huge difference.

[spark zinc]

Appreciate the pointer. I have disabled crossplay already. Both players are on steam. Neither users internet link or hardware are at fault - whoever connects second to the server experiences the slow load in / desync issues (example - they add some meat to cook over a fire. the game allows them, but they do not see the meat on the cooker.. but the other player does. they never see the meat on the cooker, or hear any related sound cues etc )

server is clearly not working hard, while this sort of thing is happening it is at maybe 5-10% cpu utilisation max

if someone connects and plays solo they have no issues

only if someone already online and then the person who connects second will get the extremely slow load in / desync

[final current]

Yeah, the first person to enter a zone's PC ends up responsible for the objects of that zone, including combat/interaction simulation. The server doesn't do much beyond network relay, auth, and storage.

[gilded sedge]

This is something that wouldn't be too hard to build

Which dedicated server tooling are you using?

[native raptor]

I'm using Bisect Hosting for my dedicated server and got this message. It's not a mod issue, as I can play on a local world just fine, but might anyone have insight on how to correct the Bisect game version? I'm looking at that "l-0.221.6" with some trepidation

[final current]

You might ask in #mods-issues. Everything there looks compatible to me. From a vanilla perspective, l-0.221.6 is the correct Linux dedicated server version to pair with 0.221.4 clients.

[celest anvil]

trying to figure out modifiers running a dedicated server:

./valheim_server.x86_64 -name testseed -world testseed -password testing -port 2456 -public 1 -seed testseed -worldmodifier nomap

^ should that essentially work, and if so does it need to be a fresh seed no db/fwl on first launch, for nomap to work?

[final current]

That won't work. Where did you see that syntax? The manual should have what you need for that one.

e.g. -setkey nomap

[celest anvil]

some article seemed to show alot of the modifiers I wanted to use, but yeah I just checked back on your site directly and that seems to reflect what you're saying.

do you need a fresh world for that to work properly?

guessing so because that just worked.

[final current]

The PDF manual that comes with the dedicated server is a good reference for the various command line arguments. You don't need a fresh world, but note that setting presets, modifiers, and keys from the command line will result in that modifier being stored in the world, so it will stick around even if you later remove those arguments. You can use -preset Default on another launch later to remove those prior-stored modifiers.

[celest anvil]

thank you, thatt might come in handy. 🙂

[celest anvil]

@final current here is the article that pulled up earlier btw https://www.liquidweb.com/dedicated-server/valheim-world-modifiers/ thanks again for redirecting me back to official documentation. 🙂

[hot sphinx]

Hello
I'm hosting a Valheim server on Debian.

For the past two weeks, there haven't been any problems, but today when I tried to connect, I got a "Failed to connect" error.

When I add "-crossplay," the server is listed and theoretically online. When I remove -crossplay, the server appears offline in-game.

The server version is "l-0.221.6 (network version 35)"

Command:

./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "Pawiu" -port 2456 -world "Pawiu_s1" -password "PASSWORD" -public 1

When I start the server, I see communication, but when the server is "up," I don't see any network communication on any of Valheim's ports.

UNCONN 0 0 0.0.0.0:2457 0.0.0.0:* users:(("valheim_server.",pid=988817,fd=46))
UNCONN 0 0 *:2456 *:* users:(("valheim_server.",pid=988817,fd=5))

I was wondering if there was an auto-update from Steam, but when I restored the entire the server folder from the backup nothing has changed

*I don't use any mods
*no errors in console

Any ideas what might be causing this?

[rich forge]

wdym? i assumed just running the dedicated server tool on steamcrm in the vm if i am understanding correctly?

[nimble cave]

Hello i've been wondering, how much ram is needed to host a 4-5 players server ? In the past I ran a two players server on a 4 GB rasperry pi and it was fine.

[final current]

How are you connecting to the server? Crossplay join/invite code? LAN IPv4 address? WAN IPv4 address? Domain name pointing to WAN IPv4 address?

[hot sphinx]

by searching server name in community tab

[final current]

That should still be fine if you don't have a GUI OS running. Terrain modifications, dropped items and mods will often be more impactful to RAM than a couple extra players joining. The players' clients do much of the heavy lifting.

[hot sphinx]

*i have like 10% cpu usage with 8players so power is not the ishue

i played with the server and in theory it works but it stoped registering on servers list with steam

[final current]

Ahh, well, when you switch from Crossplay to direct connectivity there will be some overlap when your Crossplay registration for your external IP still hasn't expired and players will try (unsuccessfully) to connect to that until that registration expires from Microsoft's server.

If you're not showing up in the community tab in direct mode after waiting for the old Crossplay registration to expire then also take a look back at your router's UDP port forwarding rules and ensure that the 2456 and 2457 UDP ports are still being forwarded to the correct LAN IP address. If you haven't set up a DHCP reservation for your ethernet adapter's MAC address then it might have a new LAN IP address from the one it had when you set up the forwarding rules in the first place. A DHCP reservation for the MAC is highly recommended.

You will also want to double-check to make sure that your router's WAN IP according to its admin portal matches the external IP address you see on sites like https://checkip.amazonaws.com/ If it no longer matches or starts with 100… then your ISP has likely switched to CGNAT recently and unfortunately the use of a Crossplay relay will be required.

[hot sphinx]

well i just love my isp
first they bricked my routher with update
then ghosted me when i wanted to replace their 5$ terminal
and now they switched to CGNAT

Enabling crossplay creates some kind of tunnel or do I have to play with something additional?

From what I've seen, I don't think it's possible for me to run the server on Cloudflare Tunnel?

[final current]

Yes, Crossplay spins up a relay server in a Microsoft Azure cloud, then the server and players connect to it instead of connecting to your server directly, even if they use your external IP address. It adds some roundtrip latency and is only as reliable as he relay itself but is quite convenient.

Connecting via the Community tab or your join/invite code from the logs is recommended over external IP anyhow when in Crossplay mode

[hot sphinx]

maybe I'm doing something wrong, but when I use the join code I still can't connect to the server the same way as via IP.

and there is no network trafic when traying to connect using join code

pawiu@debian:~$ sudo tcpdump -ni any 'udp port 2456 or udp port 2457 or udp port 2458'
tcpdump: data link type LINUX_SLL2
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v[v]... for full protocol decode
listening on any, link-type LINUX_SLL2 (Linux cooked v2), snapshot length 262144 bytes

I've run out of ideas why it doesn't work with crossplay

[final current]

There won't be any traffic on those ports on your server as your connectivity with Crossplay is outbound-only and those ports are never listened on. You should be able to find the local and remote ports with sudo ss --udp --processes

As for the Failed to connect, is there any hint in your Player.log? Any activity that happens in your server log as you attempt to connect?

It's also possible that if your ISP has CGNAT that you're competing with another Valheim server in the same customer group. If this happens, you can use something like -instanceid 94201 or something else random in there to ensure you're given a unique ID. Sometimes you'll need to pick a different "port" when that happens, though note that port is still not listened on.

That kind of failure will usually show in the server log somewhere.

[hot sphinx]

ZRpc timeout detected

Player.log

01/11/2026 10:43:58: Joining server 'Pawiu' at PlayFab network a49bb591-b339-41ba-a075-11502db8a4b0|AwBM3v+26nTBKRVKDZhZw4EB3fvEwldlc3RFdXJvcGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAO3ZhtFmwm2+5xoip1gMQZO0ZPAJr9HsbOYa1hNGP3Va8FU9kbnMtaXIwLTgxZTUtM2UxOGQ5ZmYtMzhkZC00OTdlLWJkMDQtNDc1MDkzMTM2NGNhLndlc3RldXJvcGUuY2xvdWRhcHAuYXp1cmUuY29t from lobby 1b58f27f-27d4-4617-9896-623b6a5be8f4.r-20230509
01/11/2026 10:44:24: ZRpc timeout detected
ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CONNECTING
ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. leave lobby. LobbyId: 1b58f27f-27d4-4617-9896-623b6a5be8f4.r-20230509
ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CLOSED
ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CLOSED
01/11/2026 10:44:24: Lost connection to server:ErrorConnectFailed
01/11/2026 10:44:24: Available space to current user: 123653144576. Saving is blocked if below: 209895956 bytes. Warnings are given if below: 419791912
01/11/2026 10:44:24: Shutting down
01/11/2026 10:44:24: Considering autobackup. World time: 29,97999, short time: 7200, long time: 43200, backup count: 4
01/11/2026 10:44:24: Skipping backup. World session not long enough.
01/11/2026 10:44:24: ZNet Shutdown
01/11/2026 10:44:24: Unloading unused assets
Unloading 2 Unused Serialized files (Serialized files now loaded: 17)
01/11/2026 10:44:24: Sending disconnect msg
ZPlayFabMatchmaking::UnregisterServer - unregistering server now. State: Uninitialized
Unloading 21 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 204993.
Total: 136.056100 ms (FindLiveObjects: 13.211000 ms CreateObjectMapping: 37.693200 ms MarkObjects: 84.414100 ms  DeleteObjects: 0.737500 ms)

[acoustic vigil]

@final current starting a new server, and I have some experience with k8s and docker. Which image would you recommend if we eventually want mods? Or should we DIY

[nimble cave]

Is it possible to configure the server so that when nobody is on the server for like 10 minutes the server automatically shuts down ?

[low sentinel]

I turned crossplay off on my server and now it doesnt show up as online in the in-games server browser
edit for clarification: It is a self-hosted on windows pc.

[gilded sedge]

Discord rich presence with server control requires the bot to be running on the same sytem as the host without crossplay enabled steamcmd status doesnt respond well to api

If you are running on a hosting provider without shell access it would require custom integrations with the provider

I have a pretty generic bot i built you are welcome to try, you just configure the start/stop and host/port for the commands https://github.com/mbround18/ignite

[tiny grove]

cause it is something to do with playfab. without crossplay enabled it will not register online in the server browser

[low sentinel]

interesting, so itll show as offline but i can still connect to it?

[tiny grove]

yes

[low sentinel]

cool, thank you.

[final current]

The two most popular images are all-in-one style, in that they handle upgrades, backups, and running the server. This makes them a little overblown for Kubernetes where you'd expect separate CronJobs and whatnot for some of those tasks, but nothing should stop them from working in that environment.
https://github.com/mbround18/valheim-docker?tab=readme-ov-file#running-with-docker
https://github.com/community-valheim-tools/valheim-server-docker
Their READMEs offer some good starting points. Both of their maintainers are in here, so feel free to ask away if you run into issues. I don't have a strong recommendation of one over the other.

[final current]

Everything looks good there (except for the timeout). How's the server log looking?

[acoustic vigil]

thanks. they seem to be a mix of python, golang, shell, etc

do I need a SRV record(s) for the UDP if I just wanted a connection via a subdomain+domain? it works at home butg friend tried and it was no joy on a conenction with just the URL

crossplay would be off

[spark zinc]

makes sense I suppose, even if it doesn't explain why the problem is as bad as it is? as it is this playthrough is stalled, and probably dead, if I can't fix the issue somehow. Was fine until a certain point in game. Not clear if base just contains too many items / is too large or if some other aspect of progressing the world is causing it. But it basically makes our primary base unusable for person #2.

[final current]

Valheim ignores SRV records, so if you want port-free addressing, you'd have to stick with the default port. The client uses the OS' name resolution stack so the basics work (host file, A DNS record, CNAME to an A record, etc.)

[gilded sedge]

You are welcome to run mine with multiple cron jobs with a statefulset for the game, Odin the cli tool bundled in that image doesn't mind where its run

How i run it in my cluster is exactly that, I have cron jobs instead of running with cron in container

I actually publish the cli as a separate container for this purpose 🙂

https://hub.docker.com/r/mbround18/odin

[fallen grove]

on a dedicated server, what exactly happens when the last player logs off? Like does teh day night cicle continue, do enemies spawn/despawn, does teh weather continue, wood get used up in fires etc?

[final current]

It effectively pauses all of those things. As a side note, you still get some idle CPU usage while it's in this state.

[edgy solar]

Did you end up getting this resolved? If not, reach out to our support team and we can take a look!

[native raptor]

I did get it resolved, but thank you! It was just Jotunn being out of date and pitching a tantrum.

But if I HAD had to put in a ticket, I know from experience it would have been handled like a dream!

[nimble cave]

hum when you set the server as public 1 is it supposed to show up in the community section in the game lol ?

[modern hatch]

Hey there, I have a weird issue that's propped up on my dedicated server, we came back after a couple of months break to find that when we logged in all the terrain on the server is deleted (the trees are legit floating above water and fall in).

I migrated the .db and .fwl to my local machine and when I start game it all works.

no mods on server / client

no weird logs on the server when starting it from a fresh save. I do get a lto of Destroying abandoned non persistent zdo 3252215522:117 owner 3252215522 however

[final current]

Was it last played before the Ashlands update? Trees floating on water is a sign of terraforming oceans near a new biome during world upgrade. The deletion of abandoned ZDOs is normal.

[modern hatch]

It was post ashlands

we made it during the weapon rework (public beta branch) that came out, did the content and logged off since erm, september / october ish? after clearing the game

I migrated it off public beta to release branch when it came out without issue

[final current]

Yes. If you're not using Crossplay, Valve's servers need to have been able to reach you (e.g. via UDP port forwarding over your router's NAT) for it to show up.

[final current]

Hm, if this area hadn't previously been modified like that during either the Mistlands or Ashlands upgrades then it definitely sounds like something got out of sync. Your <savedir>/worlds_local/<world name>.fwl and <savedir>/worlds_local/<world name>.db match the current value of -world <world name>? You can post us the server start command line to double-check (obfuscating password if you'd like)

[modern hatch]

yeah, should do

I tried rehosting the container (moved to odin to see if it was the last image I was using)

[final current]

Cool, if using a container image, you can let us know which one and what folders you've bind-mounted or volume-mounted to and how you supplied the world name to the container.

[modern hatch]

Sooo it;s on k8s I'll throw you the file as the password is secreted out

world name matches the .db / .fwl

tbf I did throw this together in like 5 mins just to check it wasn't something with the hosting (was using lloesche's but that completely fail cascaded at some point late last year and I didnt see it, im thinking it was due to that)

[final current]

But if that prior failure caused this, you'd expect it to also be bad when running locally, right?

The manifests you supplied look OK at first glance. You copied the <world name>.fwl and <world name>.db to <valheim-saves-pvc Longhorn volume>/worlds_local before starting the pod?

[modern hatch]

yeah exactly

I did copy over before ye, had an init container on the PVC, copied fiels to correct location and sent

can nuke it all, repeat and post the entire logfile if you want

[final current]

Cool, and they are named Valhalla.fwl and Valhalla.db?

[modern hatch]

I checked the basics before coming over 😄 the fact SP works and the server doesnt on the same file is insane to me

[final current]

Definitely welcome to post the log file, whether from a past session or a fresh one.

[modern hatch]

I swear to god the same steps worked this time

thanks Justin for the rubber duck

[final current]

Looks like lloesche is active today

[acoustic vigil]

if he is holding a bat that says "Merge This" run

[gilded sedge]

I also have a chart for valheim if yall need it https://github.com/mbround18/helm-charts

Side note, I do have docs and info to not use the :latest tag for mbround18/valheim

I do recommend pinning likembround18/valheim:3

[nimble cave]

hello how do you kick someone with a space in their name xd

[final current]

Your best bet is to kick them using their platform player ID. You should be able to find it in the server logs or in the F2 overlay when connected to the server yourself.

[indigo portal]

Could the blank space in the name be overcome by usind doublequotes?
Like in Windows - CD D:\Games"path with blanks"

[final current]

Unfortunately I don't think the in-game console has character grouping support. If I recall, it's a simple .split(" ") kind of operation

[sage nexus]

autocompletion might do that if you just type a few letters and hit tab.

[granite escarp]

Hey guys i have a question about my dedicated server, recently when we play with friends everything seems normal, until a certain guy from our group joins the server. When he joins, the server starts to experience lags (slow response when i try to strike or when i try to gather vegetables, etc.) Also mobs teleport from time to time. What can be the reason? Is he doing something? The dedicated server is hosted on a machine with a gigabit LAN (not by wi-fi), with Ryzen 9 5950X and RTX 4080, 64 gigs of RAM.

[torpid owl]

Could be a connection problem on his end.

[granite escarp]

is it possible his connection to trash our gameplay?

[torpid owl]

if a single player has high latency, packet loss or an unstable connection, all players in that area may experience lag

its possible

[granite escarp]

i see, thanks

[final current]

It'll matter the most if they are the first player to enter an area, at which point they become what we call the "chunk leader" and are responsible for object/creature management and running the simulations/behaviors for interactions. #dedicated-server message for a lag checklist with some of the typical culprits.

[coral helm]

loooking to play with someone or a a group

[brisk geyser]

I Could play with ya (:

[glad needle]

Me too depending on time and settings

[coral helm]

create then im from asia i hope its not lag

[glad needle]

opp I'm from US East, I think I'll look for others. But also I just noticed the servers-and-lfg chat that's probably where this should happen

[brisk geyser]

Dm's

[fringe solstice]

good morning everyone! I'm here looking for help on how to host my Valheim game onto a server? I just need to figure out how to download the current game on an uploadable file. Any help would be awesome!

[indigo portal]

Where do you host, please? Have you rented something in the cloud or is there hardware on a shelf at your place?

I found that hosting a Valheim server - or actually 3 in parallen - on a measly HPE Microserver with a sub-optimal 2-core or so Xeon over 16GB RAM with 1TB SSD

[tender oriole]

I am running a private server on LinuxGSM v25.2.0, but am now having issue with the playfab crossplay where I can't have all my friends join my server. has anyone found a work around for this?

[harsh crescent]

Any tips for reducing lag when in the same zone as other people on a subscription based server? Currently i pay for a 6GB dedicated server through BisectHosting, and when alone, the server runs perfectly (as expected), but when venturing into other areas with my friend, there is major lag. I recently started doing daily restarts for the server. Any advice would be helpful!

[bleak glen]

hi so i increased my upload rate to the server did i hear something about increasing the client side?

[granite current]

Server started crashing today. Self hosted on Ubuntu Server

[hazy geode]

Anyone ever fix an crossplay issue where xbox player tries to join a SteamCMD dedicated server the load in and it causes a disconnect symbol to pop up in the left top of the screen then kicks the xbox player out of the server? my .bat file has -crossplay at the end like it should and server been reset multiple times.

[final current]

What operating system? And have you upgraded vhserver recently? There were some fixes for Crossplay about a month ago.

[final current]

Let us know what operating system you're on and if you're using cloud-syncing or local management for your world.

[tender oriole]

Ubuntu Server 24.04 and yes we have updated vhserver.

[final current]

Then you'll want to make sure to install the libatomic1, libpulse0, and libpulse-mainloop-glib0 packages. Should be available in Ubuntu's main repos.

They're required for Crossplay

[tender oriole]

great thank you so much

[obtuse silo]

Anyone have a guide to hosting a windows server?

[undone talon]

Any issues with playfab right now? I have been running a server on Ubuntu 25.10 and as of last night my server can no longer connect to playfab, just keeps showing servername begin Playfab create and join network for server in logs

[spark zinc]

For what it's worth, my game-breaking lag / desync issue was immediately and completely solved by using the betternetworking mod.

[sage nexus]

given that valheim_server.x86_64 uses PhysX, and that's an Nvidia thing, what are the implications of using it on a headless server with no video card whatsoever? Does the valheim dedicated even do physics simulation? Would mods like https://thunderstore.io/c/valheim/p/mvp/Serverside_Simulations/ and https://thunderstore.io/c/valheim/p/Smoothbrain/DedicatedServer/ benefit from the presence of a GPU?

[Physics::Module] Selected backend.
[Physics::Module] Name: PhysX
[Physics::Module] Id: 0xf2b8ea05
[Physics::Module] SDK Version: 4.1.2
[Physics::Module] Integration Version: 1.0.0
[Physics::Module] Threading Mode: Multi-Threaded

[formal owl]

Dedicated server does not do physics calculations, and its unlikely that either of those mods would benefit unless someone went and added physics calculations not already existing.

Both of those mods are almost exclusively concerned with the ZDO handling and ownership of objects to reduce the number of network hops that might need to occur for a given player (and as such ideally massively reduce latency)

[sage nexus]

so then why would it (the unmodded server) be runnng pyhsX?

[formal owl]

Its just the default selected physics engine available, doesnt mean its used at all

[sage nexus]

gotcha

[wide cipher]

@cerulean vale don't use # to markup text please

[cerulean vale]

Hey everyone,

I’ve got a question that I’ve been struggling to solve for a while.
My friends and I hosted a Valheim server using Discord’s new server hosting feature, and we’re running into a couple of issues:

---

1) Raids won’t turn off (main issue)

We prefer a slow and relaxed playstyle (I know Valheim isn’t really made for that), so we want to disable raids completely.

In our config we set Raid Modifier = None, but raids still happen anyway.
We also tried installing a mod to disable raids, but it didn’t help either.

---

2) Massive lag / FPS drops in Swamp biome

The server lags really hard in the Swamp biome, even when the server runtime is less than 10 minutes.

What’s weird is that the FPS drops happen locally on my PC too — my FPS goes from around 170 down to ~34.

Laptop specs:

AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS
32GB DDR5 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (Laptop)
Game installed on SSD

In older versions, I never had this kind of performance issue in solo, and I could even lower graphics more and play comfortably without being plugged into power.
(FPS still drops badly even on these settings.)

My graphics settings:

Resolution: 2560x1600
Mode: Fullscreen
Framerate limit: 240
VSync: Off
Graphic mode: Custom
Vegetation quality: Low
Draw distance / level of detail: High
Particle lights: Low
Shadow quality: Medium
Active point lights: Low (4)
Active point light shadows: Low (0)
Render scale: Native
Distant shadows: Off
Bloom: On
Chromatic aberration: Off
Anti-aliasing: On
Tessellation: Off
Depth of field (DOF): Off
Sun shafts: On
SSAO: Off
Motion blur: Off
Soft particles: Off

[final current]

Does this Discord feature give you access to the launch command line arguments for the Dedicated Server? That's where the raids modifier settings would be applied if anywhere.

For the server lag, you can take a look through this checklist to see if any apply to you: #dedicated-server message

For the swamp FPS issue, may have better luck in #valheim-help, but pay close attention to the instance count reported in the F2 dialog as well as looking out for too many light sources in that area for FPS.

[golden veldt]

Discord’s hosting uses a stripped‑down config layer that does NOT override world settings.

[royal latch]

Hello everyone!

Before I get into details I'll list basic specs here (feel free to ask for further specifications):
Debian
i7 3rd gen
16gb ram

I am currently running a dedicated server and have been experiencing a lot of issues lately. I have specifically noticed moderate to severe lag constantly (even when it's just me and my roommate playing on it via LAN) with things like driving boats, enemy animations (the lag delays hits and makes it hard to predict parries), as well as cooking, smelting, and opening chests.

I occasionally have 6-8 people on at once and it is now completely unplayable. Fighting just isn't fair at this point and it is a struggle to do tasks around the base as everything must be spammed on to work.

I have BetterNetworking installed, I had Serverside Simulations at one point as well but I think that might've increased lag.

I'm at a complete loss. What do I do? I heard crossplay enabled can add some lag, however when I try to disable it, it just becomes completely impossible to connect to my server via IP or join code (even though it was working before with crossplay enabled). I have ports 2456-2458 enabled through Xfinity as well and haven't had issues in the past with people attempting to connect to my public IP for minecraft servers.

I've done a bit of research online and have seen things like modifying send/receive limits and was curious to see what things others have done to increase server efficiency.

I am also very disappointed in the developers because there is a sad lack of modifiable dedicated server options.

Do I just give up and not use dedicated servers anymore? Should I just host it regularly via the game?

[sage nexus]

for non-crossplay, ie: steam play, you need to either:
1 ) open network ports on your router for valheim and steam
2) get people to connect to the server via steam friends. But assuming it works on a dedicated, i'm sure you will need to be in the server before they will have the option to join you.

...so just open the ports

[torpid owl]

Do the lags happen wenn you are alone on the server? Are they getting worse with more players? Where exactly do those lags happen (everywhere?Only in Base?)

Looking at the hardware stats: i7 3rd gen has much lower single-core performance and higher latency than modern CPUs, so i could see the server tick not keeping up (which causes hit delays, interaction lag, and rubberbanding even with few players.)

[royal latch]

Ok I have ports 2456-2458 open. Are you saying I should open 27015 & 27036 as well?

[royal latch]

The lag doesn’t happen when I’m alone, but it definitely increases with player count. Whenever there’s more than one person on the server the lag will happen everywhere even when players are spread out.

And yeah you could be right about the single core performance. I wish there was a way to allow more cores to be used.

[torpid owl]

Do you have any server metrics? You should check cpu usage per core and server fps.

[plucky hemlock]

Can I manual adjust the ram allocation for my server in the .bat file?

[frail ocean]

looking for a dedicated server to with friends

[final current]

#1024264966712340510

[sage nexus]

possibly ... https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.0/Documentation/Manual/EditorCommandLineArguments.html

[sage nexus]

from the console when you start a dedicated

why? are you running the dedicated on the same machine you play on and trying to pretend you dont? }:]

[plucky hemlock]

I am running it on the same machine, I just prefer not having valheim open when I leave my pc on.

[sage nexus]

the dedicated uses very little resources, i seriously doubt you would need ot limit it

[plucky hemlock]

Oh I didn't know if raising the limit would improve performance but that could be mostly network

[sage nexus]

network is similarly tiny - dont even bother

theres also a second empty server running there, using that memory at the same time, so half that
i5, 16Gb

if yours isnt performing its entirely becasue you are runing it on a machine that has a gui and user also using it, and probably getting higher priority than the dedicated

[sage nexus]

its been a decade+ since i used windows, but you might find you can just give the dedicated service equal priority to the user, if it doesnt already have that.
valheim-server will run on a toaster though, so assuming its baremetal just find an old pc

even a medium-old laptop on a short RJ45 cable to the router would probably be fine
...on linux

[opaque ridge]

Okay so I followed Rockuzza's video and have successfully got the world to load via the batch file but I cant find it in the server list to save my life. What the hell am I doing wrong? I have port forwarding setup in my router and have the ports open via the firewall in Windows

[final current]

Are you using Crossplay networking or direct/Steam networking? How are you trying to connect to it? loopback IP address, LAN IP address, external IP address, domain name, or Crossplay join/invite code?

[opaque ridge]

So I set it as public and removed crossplay in the batch file

Setup using steamcmd

[opaque ridge]

I can’t think of any reason why I wouldn’t be able to connect other than maybe port forwarding in my router as it’s a crappy deco from my apartment building

[opaque ridge]

ive opened ports for both steam and valheim. Ports 2456-2458, 27015, 27031-27036

[opaque ridge]

In both my router and firewall

[final current]

How are you trying to connect to it? loopback IP address, LAN IP address, external IP address, domain name, or Crossplay join/invite code? Or Community tab?

[opaque ridge]

Community tab

[final current]

I would try the easy way first, with your loopback IP if you are hosting the server on the same PC or Mac you play the game on. If that works, move on to trying the LAN IP, if that works, external IP. If one of those fails, you know where to start troubleshooting.

If you can't connect to your own server directly, then Valve certainly won't be able to in order to populate the Community tab

[opaque ridge]

I’m hosting on a separate pc that’s on the same network. I’d assume I just use the devices IP and the 2456/2457 port?

[final current]

The (LAN) IPv4 address of the server's ethernet adapter. For example, 192.168.1.something if you're using a typical residential router DHCP setup. You can use the IPv4 address of its Wi-fi adapter instead if it does not have ethernet networking.

[opaque ridge]

So I was able to connect via the ipv4 address:2456

[final current]

Nice, next try your external. https://checkip.amazonaws.com/ to get your external IP address if you don't know it, then try to connect to:
<external ip address>:<port you forward to the LAN IP's 2456>

Ideally the port you forward is also UDP port 2456.

[opaque ridge]

The external is where I fail to connect

[opaque ridge]

I would assume that’s why it’s not showing in the community tab

[opaque ridge]

@final currentCould it be my aparment buildings internet setup? My deco router they provided plugs in via ethernet straight into a wall port.

[final current]

First thing I would check is whether your router admin controls' reported WAN IPv4 address matches the external address you see on that site.

If the one reported by your router starts with 100, you most likely have an ISP with CGNAT. If it doesn't match the external and the WAN IPv4 starts with 192, 10, or 172, you likely have double-NAT from sub-leasing the real ISP's connection.

Then I would make sure your forwarding rules are for UDP and not TCP. You only need 2456 and 2457 technically. Next I would make sure your adapter's LAN IPv4 address hasn't changed since you created the forwarding rules. It's generally recommended to use a DHCP reservation for your server's ethernet adapter's MAC address so it is always assigned the same LAN IPv4 address every time, keeping your forwarding rules stable

[opaque ridge]

my external and reported IP on my router are different. External starts with 69 and on the router login it shows it starting with a 10. Ive double checked and my IP has not changed on the server PC

[final current]

That sounds like Double NAT then. Your WAN is just another LAN. Your apartment complex or whoever you're subleasing Internet connection from likely has their own router terminating the connection to the real ISP. You can contact whoever that is to see if getting a real IP is a possibility assuming they aren't behind CGNAT themselves.

Your other alternatives are:

• Use Crossplay and make sure to pick a port that others in your same connection to the Internet aren't using. You can use 2456 if your the only Valheimer with this kind of connection in your apt complex probably. Crossplay will have everyone connect to a Microsoft-hosted relay instead of your server directly.
• Use the in-game server and Steam invites, which can sometimes traverse double-NAT to establish a working direct connection path.
• Pick someone else from your crew to host the server or a 3rd-party.

@royal latch I recommend you trying out the same steps we went through in the testing path: #dedicated-server message

[opaque ridge]

Damn, well thats a bummer to find out. I'll likely just have my buddy run the server at his place since he lives close to me.

[final current]

Yeah, sorry to hear it :<

Just to be sure, it's definitely the WAN IP that says "10…"?

[opaque ridge]

Yeah 😭

my LAN starts with a 192

[royal latch]

I appreciate it. Thank you!

[torpid owl]

can someone explain to me how to parse the IDs in banlist/permitlist on crossplay/playfab? One google search says you just use the SteamID or the Playfab ID, another google search says you should use the plattformID, another says you should use ID + Prefix for steam....im comfused😭 I know the adminlist works with just SteamID without the prefix...

[sage nexus]

i imagine they are both the obvious looking series that the handshake/auth response prints on a dedicated's console, ie:
10/04/2025 13:56:08: Got handshake from client 76561197977100993 (steam)
01/10/2026 16:22:54: Got handshake from client playfab/BBAC6862D7D1843D (playfab)
in the case of steam you use exactly what shown here; just the digits, and not the SteamId_ part that you may see on various steam pages.
for playfab i dont know, but until i confirmed it one way or the other i would enter both
BBAC6862D7D1843D
playfab/BBAC6862D7D1843D
I'm betting its the former though...and that slash might be a problem too, given that // is a comment

[lunar cairn]

why do i get so many graphical errors and warnings?

[mystic patrol]

I'm trying to run a modded version of valheim dedicated server on Linux Mint, using r2modman

but I'm having issues innitiating the server from r2modman when I click 'start modded'. I can however, go directly into steam and start valheim dedicated server from steam and it does start.

I've tried several things but nothing I seem to do is fixing this, does anyone have any ideas? Or could spare some time to help me trouble shoot?

r2modman also is able to start the server when I run it as vanilla. But not as modded. I feel like I'm missing something obvious here...

I got it to start as modded once. But now it won't start again... this is so damned confusing

[mystic patrol]

when selecting 'locate valheim dedicated server executable, It doesn't show me a start_server.sh file

even though I know its in that folder

However when I select 'change steam folder' it does show me steam.sh files

so I have NO idea what the difference is between each folder but I made sure both of their permissions were the same.... is anyone there?

[torpid owl]

Did you really make the start_server.sh file executable?

[sage nexus]

they wouldnt be seeing a console if they didnt
@mystic patrol could be that your mods are a bunch of the extra weapon/magic/equip/etc mods that use the wrong material settings for anything except windows. It's quite common for older mods with lots of texture/material assets. I avoid those, but as an outsider it feels like they dont care about fixing it/dont have enough people get in their face about it/have essentially abandoned their mods.
That said, a dedicated uses no GPU, so I guess some mods forget about that and do stuff that tries to load that kind of asset anyway.... maybe?
If the server serves you probably dont need to care.

permissions arent something you usually need to mess with aside from chmod +x <the script>

it kinda sounds like you have steam/the game installed in a non default place, andf that just needs to be corrected somewhere

[mystic patrol]

I reinstalled bepinex and thay seemed to work

So the server starts

From start modded

But when I try to connect to it from my PC it lets me

But it shouldnt

Since bepinex isn't working on the modded version of valheim on my pc

[sage nexus]

it'll say what mods are loading early in the console text

[mystic patrol]

That's what I'm sayjng

It shows nothing on the top left

[sage nexus]

doesnt starting it from steam like this require a launch options parameter referring to the bep script?

[mystic patrol]

No I mean

I'm starting both the server and the game from r2modman

[sage nexus]

i can only guess at how some of that works

[mystic patrol]

And the server starts but I have no way to know if it's working beyond rendering a world

Since if it had mods it should preclude me from joining it on my game ubless my kids are the same right?

[sage nexus]

you look at the console, see if bep and mods are initiating

[mystic patrol]

When you say consile

Console

Do you mean main menu?

When you first start the game

[sage nexus]

i speak fluent typonese

[mystic patrol]

Lol

[sage nexus]

console/terminal/tty/cmd

[mystic patrol]

Ill have to try that

But if bepinex was active

[mystic patrol]

Wouldn't I see it on the top left of the main menu?

[sage nexus]

focus on getting the server saying its loading what you expect - first
then worry about the client

[mystic patrol]

Ok

[sage nexus]

and no, the bep packaging changedd, it doesnt diplay x mods loaded any more unless you explicitly install a second mod]

[mystic patrol]

Guess I was trying to use to client to verify the server was working

I'm out right now but I'll try that when I get back home

Thank you for the suggestion

I may message you directly to pick your brain some more later

Apologies in advance

[sage nexus]

ping me here

[mystic patrol]

Ok

How do I do that? Haha

Reply?

[sage nexus]

i start my servers directly from the command line, others here will probably be better suited to assist in your particular case

@mystic patrol

yeah, reply too

[mystic patrol]

Yeah I use a gui

I'm such a noob

[sage nexus]

everyoines a noob at some point

im a noob

[mystic patrol]

It's pretty complex in my mind

Lots of things that can go wrong

And lots of ways to do it depending on the environment

[torpid owl]

Dont worry too much about the things that could go wrong. Theres nothing wrong with trying out stuff from the getgo and learning along the way.

I mean honestly what could go wrong. During testing the worst thing that could happen is you brick an empty test server.

[sage nexus]

i forgot to say, but locate LogOutput.log, thats the terminal output, if its being rewritten each time you start the server then you know you have at least bepinex running, and can more easily check what mods are loading/failing.
find /home/$USER -type f -name "LogOutput.log" should do it
I guess you can expect to find one for the server and one for the client if you run both on the same machine

[torpid owl]

and can we stop shaming the word noob? It just means being an beginner theres nothing wrong with that. Everyone has started somewhere🫡

[mystic patrol]

I have a great idea for a server

And I just built a media PC that would be great for self hosting

I've also done something equivalent before on windows

But it was so long ago I basically forget everything I did

But essentially the idea behind the server is to make certain items cost different materials than the base game

To give the game more of an MMO type experience

Where building a portal would be a substantial investment of resources

Like 20 iron, 100 fine wood, 3 dragon eggs, and various rare trophies etc

And this logic would apply to certain classes of items

Like crafting tables and their upgrades

Most things involved in crafting. Boats would cost more, it would be map with cartography table only and the cartography would be substantially more expensive too

[torpid owl]

There are plugins for that so yeah you could do that

[mystic patrol]

Hey Betlog, I did that command but I didn't see anything

are you saying to do it in the server console? The dos like screen that comes up and tells you what the join code is and all that?

[sage nexus]

didnt you say you use linux? its a terminal command to find the log file, which you can then open in a text editor so you arent trying to scroll through the terminal output....and can save them if need be
The valheim terminal doesnt accept any STDIN (keyboard) input

[mystic patrol]

well its linux mint

so its a visual interface

and I'm using r2modman much in the same way I would in windows

is it possible the bepinex file is specific to windows?

and I need to download one for linux?

[sage nexus]

no. becaseu windowes natively loads dlls, but linux needs to be instructed to do it, and how, thats why start_game_bepinex.sh and start_server_bepinex.sh exist and are installed when you install the thunderstore bepinex... if you used any other its not going to work

also mint is linux, it has a terminal

[quartz hull]

Anyone have recommendations for limiting night time spawns to their respective biomes?

[mystic patrol]

so if I download bepinex from r2modman it won't work?

[mystic patrol]

at betlog

[sage nexus]

it will

but the master version on github wont

[mystic patrol]

I think I see another issue

my mod config files aren't showing up where they should

there's two different locations, inside valheim dedicated server

and inside r2modmanplus-local

and the only one I see in both folders is bepinex.cfg

when I check the equivalent to these folders on my windows install of valheim, they're both populated with the config files for each of the mods I have

it looks like the original permissions wouldn't allow them to be written as it was 'access only'

but I changed it to read and write, but they're still not populatin g

I uninstalled and reinstalled the mods just now and I'm running the server to see if they populate

but I don't see a bepinex screen pop up along with the start_server.sh

so I don't think any of these are initializing, which is probably why the config files aren't populating

so I'm not sure what's happening but it doesn't appear like the bepinex I'm downloading on r2modman is working

[silver cedar]

Hello, I'm trying to run my dedicated server. I haven't used it in a few months. I've updated the game on steam and when I run the server then try to connect it is giving the failed to connect error. Has something changed and is there something I need to fix to get it to work again?

I checked my IP address, that hasn't changed. Not sure what else to check.

My last update for the dedicated server on steam was Oct 28, 2025, build 20460518
But steam doesn't say there is an update since then

[silver cedar]

Update: I am able to connect to a server but it's not the world that I want.

I've tried to edit the start_headless_server file and it looks like it's editing and saving, but when I run the dedicated server it's still starting a fresh world instead of the one I'm trying to get it to load.

[silver cedar]

Update again: It's working now but doesn't make much sense to me. I tried 5 or 6 times, then decided to just play that world in single player mode, then tried to start the dedicated server again and it worked. 🤷 So, it's working now.

[sage nexus]

@mystic patrol bepinex doesnt copy the mods to the games executable directory, it simply passes an argument that specifies an alternate path for where the plugins etc are... OR you can do it by putting them in the game's /BepInEx/ directory

and the latest bep doesnt open the terminal any more

[sage nexus]

have you even confirmed that by opening the log i specified earlier?

[mystic patrol]

no, I really don't know how to enter that into the termina

when I tried it just said no such file or directory

@sage nexus

console/terminal/tty/cmd right?

into the linux terminal?

[sage nexus]

/home/$USER/.steam/steamapps/common/Valheim/BepInEx/LogOutput.log

[mystic patrol]

no such file or directory

[sage nexus]

find /home -type f -name "LogOutput.log"

[mystic patrol]

find warning: '-name' matches against basenames only, but the given pattern contains a directory separator ('/'), thus the expression will evaluate to false all the time. Did you mean '-wholename'?

[sage nexus]

find . -type f -name LogOutput.log

either that or you are retyping what im writing, becasue that first line is correct

[mystic patrol]

find /home -type f -name "LogOutput.log" takes me back to the terminal prompt

but doesn't give me any sort of response

I got a permission denied response

find /home -type f -name "LogOutput.log" -< when I typed this without the quotes

[sage nexus]

if you have never made bepinex work the file wont exist

stop retyping and copy paste

[mystic patrol]

well, it's on a different PC

I guess let me login to discord on the server PC

brb

okay

I'll retry with copy paste

was I supposed to replace $USER with my actual user name?

or keep it as "USER"

well, either way the response is: No such file or directory

[sage nexus]

if you are having this much trouble finding and opening the file im talking about i dont have the patience to help you
and yes of course im typing exactly what i mean when its a command

xdg-open $(find /home/$USER/.steam -type f -name "LogOutput.log"|head -n1) &>/dev/null

[mystic patrol]

okay, well, I appreciate you trying to help me

[timid moss]

Anyone here have a good option for a free hosting service? I've seen at least 3 options but hear that some of them throttle your server trying to push you to pay for better service. Anyone got info?

[foggy laurel]

is lloesche/valheim-server-docker still mainained? I have been having absolutely zero luck trying to get it working. It used to run fine a year or so ago, now I am not able to connect to my server anymore. Nothing obvious in the logs, besides the 'game server connected' message now missing. But that might just be outdated docs?

I already tried deleting the container and updating to the latest image. Even made a new container with new volumes

[torpid owl]

im using parkervcp and it works like a charm

dunno bout lloesche

[foggy laurel]

where is that?

[torpid owl]

lookup parkervcp on github. But i just realized its pterodactyl specific idk if that helps you...

[foggy laurel]

idk what any of that means. But parkervcp has nothing on his profile about valheim

[foggy laurel]

giving https://github.com/mbround18/valheim-docker a shot now. So far so good

unfortunately no luck. Still a networking issue. Logs do not show any connection attempt and valheim just times out

[foggy laurel]

so really bizarre. But connecting through a tailnet does work

[golden veldt]

Public-facing ports are no longer reachable ?

[foggy laurel]

haven't even left the local network

trying to connect my PC to my server over the local router

networking setup works fine otherwise. Using home assistant, jellyfin etc just fine. Only valheim is unreachable 😅

[golden veldt]

If Tailnet works but LAN doesn’t, the problem is not Docker and not Valheim.
It is always one of these:

Tailnet bypasses all of these, which is why it works.

[foggy laurel]

if there's a magic linux command that can diagnose the problem 😅

[wide cipher]

@golden veldt be careful of using #

[harsh vector]

How do i join ??

Can i join any server from here ??

[torpid owl]

@harsh vector this is a help channel for dedicated servers. Look into #1024264966712340510 if you wanna play with other people

[harsh vector]

@torpid owl thanks 👍🏻

[hidden minnow]

Does anyone know of a way to force users to create new character and only use new character on the dedicated server? What I am tryong to do is create an experience that is online only rather than users connecting with characters from previous games.

I got a networking question as well; does anyone know if dedicated server uses more upload than download bandwidth?

[native raptor]

I believe there is a mod for that? I don’t know what it’s called but someone in #mods-discussion might

[final current]

How are you attempting to connect to the server? Loopback IP, LAN IP, external IP, Docker overlay network IP, Crossplay join/invite code, or Community tab? And is the server using the Crossplay backend or direct/Steam mode?

If direct/Steam mode and you're using Docker bridge networking, did you publish/forwardUDP ports 2456 and 2457 to the host? If using Docker macvlan or ipvlan networking, made sure the new IP doesn't conflict with one already assigned by your router's DHCP server elsehwere?

[foggy laurel]

lan IP using docker bridge network, via 'add server'. Same method I use for jellyfin and home assistant. I did forward all the right ports

[final current]

Can I see your compose config or run args for the port publish? And you're not using Crossplay?

[ionic comet]

when i want a server whit no portals, can i just add -portal none to the bat file?

ive added
-modifier raids none -modifier portal veryhard to my bat file and im guessing thats enough to turn them off

[hidden minnow]

Is the Admin list per Valheim character or steam user account?

[final current]

It is per game distribution platform identity. For a Steam-backend server, each entry in the admin list is a Steam64ID. For a Crossplay-backend server, these entries will be in the form <platform>_<player id> e.g. Steam_489107134093154289, Xbox_2ABCF30828, GameCenter_458971035904621

[foggy laurel]

sorry, here it is:

version: "3"
services:
  valheim:
    image: mbround18/valheim:latest
    stop_signal: SIGINT
    ports:
      - "2456:2456/udp"
      - "2457:2457/udp"
      - "2458:2458/udp"
    environment:
      PORT: 2456
      NAME: ""
      WORLD: ""
      PASSWORD: "*"
      TZ: "Europe/Berlin"
      PUBLIC: 1
      AUTO_UPDATE: 1
      AUTO_UPDATE_SCHEDULE: "0 1 * * *"
      AUTO_BACKUP: 1
      AUTO_BACKUP_SCHEDULE: "*/15 * * * *"
      AUTO_BACKUP_REMOVE_OLD: 1
      AUTO_BACKUP_DAYS_TO_LIVE: 3
      AUTO_BACKUP_ON_UPDATE: 1
      AUTO_BACKUP_ON_SHUTDOWN: 1
      UPDATE_ON_STARTUP: 1
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/valheim-mbround/saves:/home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim
      - /volume1/docker/valheim-mbround/server:/home/steam/valheim
      - /volume1/docker/valheim-mbround/backups:/home/steam/backups

I switched to mbround's version to see if it fixed the connectivity issues (it didn't haha)

[final current]

That looks good. You can't connect to it using the LAN IP in the game client? If not, any chance a firewall like iptables, nftables, ufw, or firewalld is up and preventing UDP connectivity? Do you see the port listening when you sudo ss -n -l -p?

[night geode]

ServerCharacters by SmoothBrain

[dense haven]

Any recommendations on what docker image I should use to run my dedicated server that can support mods and is actively or somewhat regularly maintained? I’m running a dedicated server using /lloesche right now and am having a hard time configuring it to use mods so if I can find an alternative I’m going to port my world over to that.

[lavish charm]

What kind of difficulties do you have when you try to configure mods for lloesche? Everything seems to be pretty easy there

[uncut sun]

Hello Everyone 👋 , I'm thinking to add VALEHIM dedicated server along side to my ICARUS dedicated setup, so any advice?

[floral jay]

that image doesnt work with the latest bepinex because the base linux image is extremely out of date. afaik its abandoned

[dense haven]

Yeah adding bepinix arg to the image wouldn’t work - the install would fail. Any recs on what image I should use?

[floral jay]

theres an updated fork at https://github.com/community-valheim-tools/valheim-server-docker

I have not used it, my server isnt in a docker container

[dense haven]

Thanks for sharing

[foggy laurel]

indeed, no connection through the LAN ip is possible. I did check firewall settings in synology, and I could see 2456-2458 in the ss overview

ps I saw your github repo here https://github.com/community-valheim-tools/valheim-server-docker

how is this one different from lloesche?

[final current]

Newer distro version base, so new system library versions, most important was a new glibc for BepInEx compatibility. Otherwise not much difference. Eventually lloesche and I will figure out where want to go on consolidating the efforts. Won't address any specific connection issues as far as I know though

[foggy laurel]

I see, thanks!

[normal solstice]

Is anyone experiencing issues with playfab?

If I have crossplay enabled, no one can connect to my server.

If I turn crossplay off, people can connect with no issues.

This was not an issue yesterday, it has just appeared today

To be clear - I can connect just fine with Crossplay turned off in the environment variables - however, I play with people who are on console

[final current]

I hadn't heard anything about the past couple days. https://status.playfab.com/ is the best place to check for global issues, though they aren't always clear about which issues affect PlayFab Party (the base relay infrastructure for Crossplay). In addition, look for PlayFab-specific messages in your server logs. If they're unclear, feel free to attach log snippets or whole logs here as a .txt or .log file after removing personal information.
The server in your screenshot isn't showing the ⤨ icon to indicate Crossplay. Is it possible the Favorite entry needs to be re-created following the switch back to Crossplay? Also make sure you don't have anything that would block outbound UDP connections to Microsoft's servers. If your router has UDP Flood Protection, you might consider disabling it. Also make sure to invite players using the Crossplay join/invite code as using your external IP address can be more fragile if it's subject to change. Even when your join/invite code changes, players' entries created for it should auto-update in their Select Server pages.

Also note you will never be able to connect to a Crossplay server over loopback IP address nor LAN IP address.

[normal solstice]

Hey Justin

Quite a detailed response, It's appreciated!

In addition, look for PlayFab-specific messages in your server logs.

The only ones shown, are saying that it is connected and gives me a code, that does not work.

The server in your screenshot isn't showing the ⤨ icon to indicate Crossplay.

This is correct, however when I removed crossplay, I was able to connect and play just fine on my PC - With Crossplay, I am unable to connect and play

Is it possible the Favorite entry needs to be re-created following the switch back to Crossplay?

No, is the short answer - I was unable to connect before removing crossplay, and then connecting, and then re-adding crossplay, I was still unable to connect

Also make sure you don't have anything that would block outbound UDP connections to Microsoft's servers. If your router has UDP Flood Protection, you might consider disabling it.

Firewall is properly configured, It was working fine earlier in the day.

Also make sure to invite players using the Crossplay join/invite code as using your external IP address can be more fragile if it's subject to change.

The code isn't even working, logs show and provide a code, but when trying to use it, it doesn't work.

Also note you will never be able to connect to a Crossplay server over loopback IP address nor LAN IP address.

Again, It was working fine a few hours prior for crossplay

[final current]

Can you check Player.log from a client on one of the failed attempts? Should tell you the results of the eq query and if the end error is a timeout or something else.

[stable karma]

Hey, does anyone here use DatHost?

[blazing sandal]

How bad do y'all think dedicated server performance going to be if I host like 10 people across the US and I'm on US East?

• It'll be on the PC I'll play from.
• IIRC I have like a 5900x, 32gb
• Fiber 300mb symmetrical (ethernet tho)
  

[normal solstice]

When I tried connecting nothing appeared in the logs, which I found strange

Last two log lines:
Valheim | Jan 30 14:30:35 supervisord: valheim-server 01/30/2026 14:30:35: Connections 0 ZDOS:807483 sent:0 recv:0
Valheim | Jan 30 14:32:08 supervisord: valheim-server 01/30/2026 14:32:08: Update PlayFab entity token

I just get this...

And this is ONLY if I enable crossplay - which it was working perfectly fine before yesterday

I have the correct ports open:

• 2456:2458/udp ALLOW Anywhere
• 2456:2458/udp (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)

services:
valheim:
image: lloesche/valheim-server
container_name: Valheim
restart: unless-stopped
network_mode: host
cap_add:
- SYS_NICE
volumes:
- ./config:/config
- ./data:/opt/valheim
environment:
- SERVER_NAME=We live in hope
- WORLD_NAME=Vikings
- SERVER_PASS=******
- SERVER_PUBLIC=1
- CROSSPLAY=1
- SERVER_ARGS=-batchmode -nographics -crossplay
- STATUS_HTTP=1
- TZ=Europe/London
- SUPERVISOR_LOG_LEVEL=info
- UPDATE_CRON=0 2 * * *

That's my docker-compose.yml - But it wouldn't explain why it worked before and not now, and why I can only connect when crossplay is disabled

At my wits end now - It doesn't makes sense...

Literally Playfab screwing it up

[final current]

It's the Player.log you want to be looking at

[normal solstice]

Where would I find that?

I run it in a docker container, so for me I just check the container logs

[quasi tinsel]

Lf a heavy modded server

[final current]

On the client/game side. A ⁨Player.log⁩ is started for every session. You'll see it making the ⁨eq⁩ queries to PlayFab for your Favorite or Recent servers to see if any of them are registered with Microsoft as using Crossplay. You should see it perform a lookup when you try to add the server using the Crossplay join/invite code as well. Finally when you try to connect, you should see anything related to the failed to connect error. Usually it'll just be a timeout reported, but sometimes it'll give you clues as to exactly how it's trying to connect.

As for the ports, you won't need to forward them from the container or from your NATed LAN if you are using Crossplay (but it also won't hurt anything). If those ⁨ALLOW⁩ rules are from your firewall, make sure outbound UDP is allowed with stateful return tracking. Crossplay uses an outbound-initiated communication to a random port on Microsoft's servers. The "Valheim" ports are only used as part of your IP address as an identifier for your relay and not actually used for inbound connections.

Also note you will not be able to connect to a Crossplay relay from most Russian ISPs if that happens to apply.

[final current]

It'll be as bad as your players' worst connection and PC and double that if you're using Crossplay. The server just serves as a world terrain/drops/chest/locations/features database and a network relay for the players, but the players' PCs are responsible for creature/action simulations and objects in play.

[blazing sandal]

Thanks! That is super helpful.

[lavish charm]

Hello, I tried to install a Lloesche's fork from https://github.com/community-valheim-tools/valheim-server-docker. The vanilla version works fine, but if I try to set BEPINEX=true in the config (valheim.env), I get this error during the server startup:

supervisord: valheim-server /opt/valheim/bepinex/valheim_server.x86_64: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.33' not found (required by /opt/valheim/bepinex/doorstop_libs/libdoorstop_x64.so)
supervisord: valheim-server /opt/valheim/bepinex/valheim_server.x86_64: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by /opt/valheim/bepinex/doorstop_libs/libdoorstop_x64.so)

I double checked, I have libc6 exactly installed, and I definitely have this file in
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
What could be wrong?

[normal solstice]

Okay so this really is a strange one....

I don't know why but I uninstalled the game this morning, and then re-installed it...

And now I can connect to my server with Crossplay enabled...

However I am getting this icon:
Which shows a netowrk connection issue I guess?

And it disconnected me whilst typing this up

[final current]

That looks like logs from the old image. Sure your container is using the new fork's image?

[normal solstice]

Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:01 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 04:55:01: Failed to send, suspend TX on playfab/BC15C91B9FDEF186 while trying to reconnect
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:20 supervisord: valheim-server ResetParty
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:20 supervisord: valheim-server Task: LeaveNetworkTask
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:20 supervisord: valheim-server Task: CleanPartyTask
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:21 supervisord: valheim-server Task: InitPartyTask()
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:21 supervisord: valheim-server Task: JoinPartyTask
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:21 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 04:55:21: Joined PlayFab Party network with ID "2579caed-2dd2-4cb0-bc66-28cb4880e84e|AwB1TJHAVtHLse5IE4/n3mDKiJBARFdlc3RFdXJvcGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAXnhhtFmwm2+5xoip1gMQZO0ZPAJr9HsbOYa1hNGP3Va8FU9kbnMtaXIwLTgxZTUtOGQ0YTExNWMtZTBkMy00NWU5LTk5NGEtN2MxNDM0OTQ4M2Q2Lndlc3RldXJvcGUuY2xvdWRhcHAuYXp1cmUuY29t"
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:24 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 04:55:24: ZRpc timeout detected
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:24 supervisord: valheim-server ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CONNECTED
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:24 supervisord: valheim-server ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. leave lobby. LobbyId:
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:24 supervisord: valheim-server ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CLOSED
Valheim  | Jan 31 04:55:24 supervisord: valheim-server ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CLOSED

100% it's a playfab issue...

[final current]

Yep, looks like poor connectivity to the Crossplay relay. Are you on Wi-fi, VPN, or have an Internet security suite running? Also make sure UDP-related security features like UDP flood protection are disabled in the server's router. Also make sure no one else in your LAN is running a Crossplay server on the same "port"

[normal solstice]

It's on a dedicated external server, as I said before it worked completely fine for weeks before the other day.

I am not using a LAN

[final current]

ahh, as in hosted by a company? If so, I'd definitely let their Support dept know you're experience Crossplay connectivity issues.

[normal solstice]

Im being told to open these ports:
30000:65535 on UDP
As Playfab uses a broadrange of ports apparantly, but isn't this a security risk?

[normal solstice]

It's a barebones metal dedicated server, not a dedicated game server

I doubt they would know how to troubleshoot something related to a specific game

[lavish charm]

Oh, now I see, I copied the text from https://github.com/community-valheim-tools/valheim-server-docker/blob/main/docker-compose.yaml#L3 without looking, and there it is

image: ghcr.io/lloesche/valheim-server

I'll try to fix and check it later, thx.

Wait, I think there is an error in this file initially, because even if you take the file from the instructions, it refers to the old image.

[final current]

After some HTTPS communication with Microsoft, Valheim opens an ephemeral UDP port from your kernel's ephemeral port range for outbound-first conversation. It doesn't open for listening for new communications, only for accepting return messages across the established session with the PlayFab relay that is selected. What range that is is up to your kernel's configuration. If your kernel is Linux, you can find it in ⁨net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range⁩.

As long as your firewall is stateful, this shouldn't be an issue. If this is a kernel firewall like nftables, and you've customized it, you'd be using something like conntrack to ALLOW the return UDP datagrams for the outbound connection you've established. If your kernel is Linux, the ⁨net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_udp_timeout⁩ kernel variable would be worth looking at and potentially setting pretty high.

[final current]

Yep, this is a bug effectively, not your fault (it's mine actually). Grab the image repo/name from the ⁨README.md⁩ and I'll try to get that fixed up this weekend.

[normal solstice]

Yer, Ultimately opening those ports did not resolve the issue, so I'm continuing tests.

I find it highly strange though, that I am able to connect after a game re-install

[final current]

May I DM you a query relating to this, but to avoid privacy mishap?

[normal solstice]

Certainly

[normal solstice]

Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:04 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:04: Player joined server "We live in hope" that has join code 282678, now 1 player(s)
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:04 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:04: ZRpc timeout set to 90s
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:04 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:04: Muted PlayFab remote player BC15C91B9FDEF186
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:04 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:04: PlayFab socket with remote ID playfab/BC15C91B9FDEF186 received local Platform ID Steam_76561198024141218
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:04 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:04: Got handshake from client playfab/BC15C91B9FDEF186
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:10 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:10: Network version check, their:35, mine:35
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:10 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:10: Server: New peer connected,sending global keys
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:25 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:25: Got character ZDOID from Nightranger : 3720934399:

I can join the server just fine, but immediately after I lose connection, and eventually disconnect

Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:53 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:53: PlayFab network error in session 'We live in hope' and network b855f175-c965-459c-a271-7deee56002df|AwCZ1foEcIviJpZHhYR+9efAofoXvVdlc3RFdXJvcGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAfHVhtFmwm2+5xoip1gMQZO0ZPAJr9HsbOYa1hNGP3Va8FU9kbnMtaXIwLTgxZTUtNDAyYzZmM2UtODk2Ni00NjQ2LWExNzItZjdlNzgzZGMzMzMwLndlc3RldXJvcGUuY2xvdWRhcHAuYXp1cmUuY29t with type 'Error' and code '4098': the operation was called with an invalid handle
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:25:53 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:25:53: Failed to send, suspend TX on playfab/BC15C91B9FDEF186 while trying to reconnect

Like, it makes the handshake, but then doesn't want to converse, between my server and play-fab

Valheim  | Jan 31 06:26:56 supervisord: valheim-server Task: JoinPartyTask
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:26:57 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:26:57: Joined PlayFab Party network with ID "b855f175-c965-459c-a271-7deee56002df|AwCZ1foEcIviJpZHhYR+9efAofoXvVdlc3RFdXJvcGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAfHVhtFmwm2+5xoip1gMQZO0ZPAJr9HsbOYa1hNGP3Va8FU9kbnMtaXIwLTgxZTUtNDAyYzZmM2UtODk2Ni00NjQ2LWExNzItZjdlNzgzZGMzMzMwLndlc3RldXJvcGUuY2xvdWRhcHAuYXp1cmUuY29t"
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:27:01 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:27:01: ZRpc timeout detected
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:27:01 supervisord: valheim-server ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CONNECTED
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:27:01 supervisord: valheim-server ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. leave lobby. LobbyId:
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:27:01 supervisord: valheim-server 01/31/2026 06:27:01: Destroying abandoned non persistent zdo 3720934399:1 owner 3720934399
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:27:01 supervisord: valheim-server ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CLOSED
Valheim  | Jan 31 06:27:01 supervisord: valheim-server ZPlayFabSocket::Dispose. State: CLOSED

I have done everything possible on my end:

• Disabled ipv6
• Disabled firewalls
• Opened up all ports
• Cross referenced server time issues
• Added serverIp to arguments list
• explicitly forced ipv4
  ....

I think after three days, I'm just going to do away with this now...

It was working fine up until then, and now all of a sudden I get these issues

[lavish charm]

I have a similar issue only if I enable ValheimPlus on my server. It started a couple of days ago.

[normal solstice]

Whats ValheimPlus?

I keep getting this...
When I get this I am UNABLE too even connect to my server

To clarify - This ONLY happens with crossplay enabled.

If I disable crossplay, I can play just fine, but that's not an option as I would like to play this with my kids.

This shows that when Steam fails to sync - I can't even connect.

Uninstalling, then re-installing allows me to at least connect to my server.

Once connected, I start getting disconnected almost immediately, and it then proceeds to take a couple minutes to actually disconnect, but nothing is syncing across

[normal solstice]

So - I have two other players on the server currently, they get periodically "connection lost" issues, but are able to recover and continue playing.

Myself, I get almost instant "connection lost" and constant disconnects.

The ONLY thing I can trace it back too is that playfab connection for Crossplay

[normal solstice]

Update - Partially fixed!
I adjusted the MTU Package size from 1500 to 1400....

Now I can connect and stay connected for ~10 minutes, eventually I am still disconnected.

The logs get filled with Playfab issues:
⁨⁨⁨```
PlayFab network error in session 'We live in hope' and network (Network) with type 'Error' and code '4098': the operation was called with an invalid handle

This doesn't give me much to go off here, in order to further troubleshoot, but I am still staying connected - with massive lag spikes due to that error

[primal totem]

Hosting on gportal
Trying to use custom seed
Following written and video tutorials
The .dB and .fwl are not generating to be transferred to gportal server despite the world loading.
Cannot find help online for this issue.
DMs open.
Looking for any help. Thank you.
UPDATE:
Solution found in the bottom of a youtube comment section with no likes. I do not know why this important context is overlooked in all tutorials.

Following up to add context in 2025, if you follow these steps and do not see the .db/.fwl files, you likely have Steam autosave turned ON. Turn this OFF via Steam Settings, log into the server once, and then it should create a local save and generate the necessary files.

[final current]

The world files go in ⁨<savedir>/worlds_local⁩. If you're unsure of your ⁨savedir⁩ path, it's normally specified in whatever you use to launch the server executable (e.g. shell script, batch file, systemd unit, Windows NT service manager). If you haven't specified one there, you can let us know if the server is on Linux, macOS, or Windows, and we can probably help.

[gaunt forge]

Sorry i forgot to go back in the forums here and delete my old post. We managed to figure out the issue and create the dedicated world by looking through a reddit thread of people having similar concerns. It was weird, no video really addressed the possibility of the issue.

[normal solstice]

Okay so if anyone has similar issues to what I have had, or wants to know how I resolved it (As I have now resolved it)...

I had to reduce MTU (Maximum Transmission size) size down to 1400, on my network, my servers network, and also on the docker container.

I also had to add ⁨"userland-proxy": false⁩ - to ensure that my valheim docker container was not handling the UDP Packets as it struggles with fragmentation.

I also disabled IPV6, as Playfab don't get on well with these apparantly.

The issue is that Playfab and Valheim appear too "Dox" the server with huge repeated UDP Packets, a lot of these get fragmented or broken, causing connection issues, desync etc...

Doing the above has resolved this, so maybe Valheim devs may be able to sort this on their end to handle and utilise the UDP Packets better?

[final current]

Thanks for sharing your solution, @normal solstice, it may indeed help others. It's a strange one. Don't know whether to blame your kernel, router, ISP, PlayFab, or Crossplay integration, but glad you found a solution either way.

[normal solstice]

It doesn't have anything to do with the kernel, router or ISP.

It is explicitly Playfab and Valheim sending repeat UDP Packets that are large, and constant.

By default your MTU is set too 1500, to handle large packets, but due to the amount and size sent repeatedly from Playfab/Valheim - It causes fragmentation, so you have to reduce them, to effectively handle them properly, and reduce the risk of them getting lost.

It's like a motorway, everyone speeds, and the majority are okay, however sometimes there is an accident, which varies in severity

[final current]

Fragmentation is part of the game with IP, but it's up to the routes in between whether to drop a fragment. Consider that setting MTU lower actually causes more fragmentation.

[normal solstice]

It's actually the opposite.

Setting it lower, prevents Fragmentation, but it forces the application to send smaller packets.

The issue is that unlike TCP, UDP Packets don't "Check" if all pieces of data have been received, so if a large packet gets fragmented, and gets lost, or arrives out of order, the whole packet itself gets discarded.

The only downside to actually reducing the MTU, is that it potentially uses more bandwidth, due to having to use more headers, for more packets, and the CPU has to process more.

But this has not only eliminated my connection issues, My server is also relatively lag free now

[mellow pecan]

Hi, I'm trying to host a server on my ubuntu server, but when I connect I get kicked out after a few seconds only with this error:
⁨```
01/31/2026 20:59:00: PlayFab network error in session 'aaaaa' and network 95eb9060-cdc2-4273-99cb-9c5dd746418d|AwAxTxqTZJa5+ZdBOq9ac0Q07xfh/ldlc3RFdXJvcGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAD3lhtFmwm2+5xoip1gMQZO0ZPAJr9HsbOYa1hNGP3Va8FU9kbnMtaXIwLTgxZTUtZjIwMmIzODctYzQzMi00ZWU4LThkNzctMDRiZjJjZmMxOTQ1Lndlc3RldXJvcGUuY2xvdWRhcHAuYXp1cmUuY29t with type 'Error' and code '4098': the operation was called with an invalid handle
01/31/2026 20:59:00: Failed to send, suspend TX on playfab/B01AEAC69DF4493D while trying to reconnect

I've tried disabling playfab by removing the -crossplay flag but then the server won't even start !

I'm able to host it on my windows computer and it works fine so it doesn't come from the clients

I will give nightranger solution a shot

[plush apex]

Hey everyone I have a quick question about a dedicated server I'm hosting locally. We had a snafu and lost a boatful of items to a network issue, so decided to enable items through portals with -modifier portals casual but now that we have done that and want to go back to the default mode, the server will not reflect the change of removing that modifier. Has anyone seen this before and knows how to resolve it?

[mellow pecan]

when I remove the crossplay flag it seems the server startup hangs (can't use console, can't type help for instance) :
⁨⁨```
The shader Hidden/Dof/DepthOfFieldHdr (UnityEngine.Shader) on effect Main Camera (UnityStandardAssets.ImageEffects.DepthOfField) is not supported on this platform!
The image effect Main Camera (UnityStandardAssets.ImageEffects.DepthOfField) has been disabled as it's not supported on the current platform.
The shader Hidden/SunShaftsComposite (UnityEngine.Shader) on effect Main Camera (UnityStandardAssets.ImageEffects.SunShafts) is not supported on this platform!
The shader Hidden/SimpleClear (UnityEngine.Shader) on effect Main Camera (UnityStandardAssets.ImageEffects.SunShafts) is not supported on this platform!
The image effect Main Camera (UnityStandardAssets.ImageEffects.SunShafts) has been disabled as it's not supported on the current platform.
ERROR: Shader TextMeshPro/Sprite shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader UI/Default shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
Unloading 92484 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 206675.
Total: 197.411649 ms (FindLiveObjects: 17.853932 ms CreateObjectMapping: 21.779405 ms MarkObjects: 127.386079 ms DeleteObjects: 30.391313 ms)

I can't connect to it even though the ports are forwarded

[mellow pecan]

I've fixed it, it works without the crossplay flag and the server started once I ran the script with sudo, I think I messed up my perms somewhere

[mystic patrol]

would anyone be able to help me trouble shoot my dedicated server? I can launch the mods with the game, but when I copy the same config and plugin files to my server folder, it's unable to launch

I'm trying to launch this server in a week or so, and I got it to work at one point, but it won't work anymore and I don't know why

[timid moss]

Anyone have a better option than Axenhost or Squadnox for free Valheim server hosting that allows the uploading of world-files?

[mystic patrol]

anyone know how to trouble shoot the 'expand world' mod

whenever I include, expand world data and expand world prefab, the server ALWAYS fails to load

[mystic patrol]

also, the server where I get the error message whenever I include 'expand world data' works perfectly when I'm I'm just trying to play a game on that server...

[normal solstice]

Were you not able to update the MTU?

I guess if you don't have the ability to do so, then it makes it difficult.

I spun up another server through Discords Game servers, and I got the exact same issue with playfab, from a different host provider, which rules out it being specific to my machine

[floral jay]

Maximum MTU is determined by the lowest MTU on any hop between two networks. If you are experiencing MTU issues between your computer and two different hosts then the common denominator would be your ISP.

[normal solstice]

This would be true if it is was just me experiencing this yes.

I often find the "Common Denominator" is just an excuse to avoid looking into things properly, and optimising.

My brother and his wife are also having connection issues, he is on PC, and she is on Xbox, connecting to the same server.

Now you may say the common denominator here, is my dedicated server.

We ruled this out by spinning up another server.

They have a different ISP to myself.

The connection to my server is solid, traceroutes show ~1 - 5ms - So the server itself is not an issue.

ALL things, point back to Microsofts Playfab services, and how that handles the packets

[sage nexus]

the reddit spacing... can you not

[final current]

What's the error message you see and what operating system runs your server?

[full spade]

Trying to retrace my steps to get this running again after failing to connect, and it looks like I have some permission issues if anyone has any insight. Here are some lines from the log. I think I just fixed permissions with chown, but this time around, the server name is not updating in the join server tab in-game. I feel like that's a big clue in my failures to connect but can't figure it out.

[wheat heath]

is there a command to force update a server if you're online have devcommands / admin?

[rapid bronze]

We have a server on G Portal and Valheim just updated which bricked the possibility to join.

I've tried reverting back to the old version on Steam...
I've tried changing language...

I'm at a loss. Can anybody please help us?

[plain trellis]

Yeah. Post the same thing in multiple channels. That's cool.

[pliant grail]

I downloaded the latest dedicated server for linux via steamcmd and I still get 0.221.6 something is off 🤔 I already deleted the whole folder. Can someone on linux confirm the latest version on steam is indeed 0.221.10

weird on one machine I get 0.221.10 and on another 0.221.6 even if I delete the whole cache and everything

[pliant grail]

nvm. I found another cache and deleted that also. Everything fine now

[lament compass]

Hello all, players on my server (Crossplay enabled due to having Xbox players) are experiencing noticeable lag. I know there is an unavoidable component of lag that comes with using Crossplay, however I've seen some steam forum threads suggesting this mod may help:
https://thunderstore.io/c/valheim/p/CW_Jesse/BetterNetworking_Valheim/

I would rather not have to install a mod just for networking tweaks, and crossplay might not work with mods (can anyone confirm?) Does anyone know what this mod is actually doing? Is there a way to just implement this in config files myself?

[hushed orbit]

Hi, I have an dedicated server on my windows server 2019. It works fine for some weeks now. Today I updated my client via steam. Then I wasn't able to log on my dedicated server, because version conflict. I tried to update the server via steamcmd, but it doesn't help. I also tried to install a new version of the server, but there was the same error.
I am a little bit confused with the versions (steam_appids) . I used SteamAppId=892970 the whole time. When I made the update I used 896660. Which one is correct? 896660 is the server and 892970 the client? I tried both on my server, but still cant access my world 🙁

[wooden mountain]

896660 is the server app

[final current]

896660 is the server. 892970 is the client, but also acts as the parent app for the server. The server communicates with Steamworks under the parent app ID. You still install the server using the server app ID.

[hushed orbit]

Hmm, okay but why didn’t the update work?
The update runs ok from steamcmd, the server restarted, but still the same error with diffrent versions

How can I see which version my server has? should be x.221.10?

[final current]

It'll be in the server logs, usually less than 100 lines in.

[wooden mountain]

hmm i'm gettting:
⁨```Bash
Loading Steam API...IPC function call IClientUtils::GetSteamRealm took too long: 272 msec
OK
"@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType" = "linux"

Connecting anonymously to Steam Public...OK
Waiting for client config...ERROR! Info request for AppId 7 returned error Timeout.
OK
Waiting for user info...OK
ERROR! Info request for AppId 896660 returned error Timeout.
Unloading Steam API...OK

[fallen grove]

So my server runs via docker on a headless os server. In order to update that, do I need to download the new data via steam and then copy it over?

[final current]

Which image do you use?

[final current]

I don't have any advice but to try again and make sure you don't have an Internet security suite or DNS proxy like Pi hole running that could interfere.

[wooden mountain]

I do not have any of those, re-attempting yields same results

probably some bizzarre xfinity/comcast modem/router throwing a wrench into stuff

my ISP provided router from xfinity keeps re-enabling 'advanced security' on its own all the time..

[final current]

Could easily be on Valve's side. You can check your SteamCMD logs to see which Valve CDN/edge server is being used to serve the update to you. I think that will be in the ⁨content_log⁩.

[wooden mountain]

hmm all I see in there is:
⁨```
[2026-02-02 11:43:26] Client version: 1769026246
[2026-02-02 11:43:26] Loaded 1 apps from install folder "/home/nitro/valheim_server/steamapps\appmanifest_*.acf".
[2026-02-02 11:43:26] Triggered async write of Steam library folders configuration (1 libraries).

for todays date

[final current]

That's the user you run SteamCMD as?

[wooden mountain]

yeah

i redid the command line arg, after a ⁨⁨sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade⁩⁩, now its doing something haha 😅

[hushed orbit]

After I tried different things, my server doesn’t start at all anymore. I add the output of my start.bat. Can anymone have a look on it and help me, pls. 🙂

[final current]

Looks like it's having trouble contacting Valve's servers. If you've tried a couple times, check your Internet connectivity, Internet security suites, DNS proxies like Pi Hole, or VPN, for anything that could interfere. If you're using a mod-loader like BepInEx, consider launching without the BepInEx http library hack in the folder.

[ruby socket]

I am also have a version conflict after updating both my server and my game

app_update 896660 validate
Update state (0x5) verifying install, progress: 32.78 (544152769 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x5) verifying install, progress: 98.32 (1632070001 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 40.74 (676275466 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x101) committing, progress: 98.54 (1635575142 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x0) unknown, progress: 0.00 (0 / 0)
Success! App '896660' fully installed.

[final current]

After removing the modifier from the command line args, an admin-listed player can use ⁨resetworldkeys⁩ from the in-game Console.

Alternatively you can launch again with ⁨-resetmodifiers⁩

In both cases, any preset, modifier, or setkey modifications will revert. (progression keys should be unaffected)

[final current]

Vanilla or modded?

[ruby socket]

vanilla, never modded

same issue as another guy above

[final current]

Alright, what version is being reported in the server logs? And when you say same issue, are you talking about the timeout contacting the Steam info service, or a different issue?

[ruby socket]

this one

[final current]

Alright, let us know what version your server logs are reporting and also what version your game client is using.

[ruby socket]

i did

app_update 896660 validate
Update state (0x5) verifying install, progress: 32.78 (544152769 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x5) verifying install, progress: 98.32 (1632070001 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 40.74 (676275466 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x101) committing, progress: 98.54 (1635575142 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x0) unknown, progress: 0.00 (0 / 0)
Success! App '896660' fully installed.

[final current]

That doesn't tell us what version the server is launching with. You'll only find that in the server's logs.

[ruby socket]

ah my bad one sec

02/02/2026 12:21:25: Peer 76561198004162305 has incompatible version, mine:0.221.4 (network version 35) remote 0.221.10 (network version 36)

so is the steam updater not pushing out the correct version?

[wooden mountain]

your local game needs to update?

[final current]

You are indeed running an old version. Are you launching the server from the same location your forced the install dir to in SteamCMD?

[warm kernel]

Anyone else running a server with Jutonn having a version compatability error? I assume that is the issue i am having and will have to wait for the modder to update it. Using G-portal as a host.

[final current]

#mods-issues will be a better place to ask

[wooden mountain]

Got my server to update fine after my sudo apt update/upgrade :]

[full spade]

Slight progress I guess, can connect to the server with the internal IP, but not external. Guessing it's something to do with ports which the eero router settings say are open for the device the server is on; however, next to the device in the settings is the internal IP, not the external. When I tried to open the ports for the external IP, I was stymied by some subnet error

[deep shoal]

Updated client to 0.221.10, updated Server to 0.221.10. Done absolutely nothing different to either system from all the other times I've updated. Now getting "Incompatible Version". Any ideas?

Client shows as 0.221.10 in bottom right corner of title screen, server shows as 0.221.10 in the server list. Kicks me out with "Incompatible version" after typing the server password in.

[ember orbit]

Which caches have you deleted? I have the same issue and my server updates only to 221.6

[pliant grail]

@ember orbit everything in .steam and /home/user/steam

[twin rune]

Irongate you need to release a 0.221.6 client version because our servers can only do default_old which is 0.221.6
the client version of default_old is 0.221.4

your missing a version

all my mods are broken and I dont even have a cleint that can connect to my server with its 0.221.6 save

because of the version mismatch I have to wait weeks until mod authors update their mods

to even play my server.

[ember orbit]

Thanks! In the end, I've moved .steam away, then started steamcmd which updated itself, and then moved .steam back to where it was and now it works.

[floral jay]

those should be compatiable, there was never a 0.221.6 for windows

[twin rune]

Server characters needs exact version number

so I had to use depot to downgrade to 0.221.4

for my linux server

its fine if your not using mods

but version number matters to server characters

[deep shoal]

Mine do, and it's still borked. Both server and client are 0.221.10 and I get incompatible version.

[twin rune]

yea well that is because it probbly has an i in front

on the remote server

[little burrow]

hello it seems dedicated server are broken since last uptade, says the site where i rent my dedicated server, do you have any info i can tell to my viking mates?

[agile pecan]

Servers are not broken (mine is working fine), just make sure that both the server and the clients installed the update.
It's another story of you are using mods, then you'll have to either rollback to the previous version or wait for the mods to be fixed

[little burrow]

i tried to launch vanilla server and the server with just 1 mod to get 30 slot. None of them were starting

[little burrow]

where do you get your dedicated server from? i might just go there^^

[agile pecan]

I'm running it myself on a spare machine 😉

You'll have to make sure that the server and the clients are updated, if either the server or the client is still on the old version, it's not going to work

(and try completely vanilla first, a lot of mods are broken atm)

[little burrow]

the server doesn(t even start

Input System module state changed to: Shutdown

[ruby socket]

yea, we cant seem to get the server to update

[full spade]

Deleting all port forwards, updating the eero router firmware, restarting the entire network, re-adding the port forwards, then starting the container seems to have done the trick. Server name updated in-game and I can connect via external IP. A couple hours prior, I had deleted the data folder in the valheim-server folder to try to refresh anything going on there, too

[agile pecan]

I've had that problem as well. In the end i removed both steamcmd and valheim and did a fresh install.

[twin rune]

I used steam cmd to install an older deopt for my server

And now my server is 0.221.4 instead off 0.221.6

And now my mods work

[ruby socket]

ugh okj

so odd, have never had issues

[deft fiber]

so I rent a server on Dathost and since the update today my game version shows 0.221.10 and dedicated server shows 1-0.221.10 and cant figure out what to do here.im not a tech person at all just host for buddys to play on can anyone help me figure this out?

[final current]

Those versions sound up-to-date and compatible. Seeing an issue of some sort?

The l in l-0.221.10 is just a lowercase L and it stands for Linux. Most hosts won't shell out for 10 CAL licenses to host on Windos server… it gets a little pricey for them.

[dire kestrel]

I'm going to jump in and say that my server will not update via SteamCMD to 0.221.10. It installed an update but still sits at 0.221.6 and now SteamCMD says it's up to date.

(on linux)

[nimble gazelle]

and you just used the app_update 896660?

I didnt have any issues, I am running mine on Debian.

[dire kestrel]

I can paste the whole script, but yes that's the line I use for the update.

[nimble gazelle]

I can help troubleshoot, feel free to post what you like!

[dire kestrel]

I tried it a third time and it's saying that an update was successful again, but it took less than a second. Fingers crossed.

No success, same result. I'll post confirmation of the server version as a screenshot and then my update script...

[nimble gazelle]

So for starters, where is your server installed at? whats its directory?

Is it installed in the normal /steamapps/common/etc..?

[dire kestrel]

Yes, it's in .steam/steamapps/common/....

[nimble gazelle]

do you launch steam as a user?

or root?

[dire kestrel]

To launch the server?

[nimble gazelle]

to launch steamcmd.

[dire kestrel]

As a user, the same user who owns the .steam directory in question.

[nimble gazelle]

ok great, just wanted to verify.

so with that being the case, it seems like you are doing everything right from what I can see.

would you try the manual steps to see if there is better error reporting?

[dire kestrel]

Sure.

[nimble gazelle]

My process if this helps is:
su steam (Switch to steam user I created for steamcmd)
cd /home/Steam/
./steamcmd.sh
login anonymous
app_update 896660

I dont force an install directory for steam to use, I have it use its default path, which is /steam/steamapps/common/etc...

[dire kestrel]

Your steamcmd.sh script, I don't use a .sh script for that. I have a steamcmd command to launch the program.

Otherwise I can duplicate the steps exactly.

Wait, I found it in steam's directories.

[nimble gazelle]

It might be a bit different but same ish steps.

I didnt create that steamcmd.sh it came with steam 🙂

[dire kestrel]

"Sucess! App '896660' already up to date."

[nimble gazelle]

oh so its lying

[dire kestrel]

Maybe uninstalling before updated will snap it out of this?

Wait... could steam/steamcmd itself require an update for this?

[nimble gazelle]

Well when I launch steamcmd.sh It updates steamcmd at launch.

[dire kestrel]

I tend to let this thing run with a lot of uptime between system upgrades.

I see. Well I suppose it won't hurt to do a system upgrade while nobody can play anyway. Seems like smart troubleshooting.

[nimble gazelle]

Yeah I would just be sure to backup the world files, just incase you do a clean install.

but I do find it odd, it thinks it is updated. Let me look at my install to see what it says for versions.

[dire kestrel]

I could also rm any binaries and force it to fail the check, right?

[nimble gazelle]

Yeah you could delete part of it and attempt a validate flag against it.

That might correct it... but the valheim 'start_server.sh' file doesnt call for a version so it should launch what is there. Steam says it updated the app, is there for sure only one installed dedicated server? could have steamcmd installed another copy in another directory?

[dire kestrel]

I do have other users with steam directories, including Valheim servers, but that has been true for a while and the files and directories are confirmed not writeable by this user. It's not impossible that it's a problem, but I'll check to see if deleting something in this user's directory triggers the validation.

First I need to reboot the server and hope that SSH reconnects (the anxiety of being a lazy system updater).

[nimble gazelle]

it might be worth trying the 'force_install_dir' for steamcmd and pointing it at the directory you know you want updated.

you have to do that command before you login as anon.

[dire kestrel]

If I do that, is the directory I provide the .steam directory of the user or the actual software's directory within .../common/?

[nimble gazelle]

so this is my server path, and this would be the same path I would provide the force_install_dir flag.

/home/steam/Steam/steamapps/common/Valheim dedicated server

[dire kestrel]

Okay, a system upgrade and reboot got me another <1 second update. Probably worth trying again now.

[nimble gazelle]

system upgrade in this case was a yum/apt update and upgrade correct?

That might also allow steamcmd to update.

[dire kestrel]

Yeah, if I was wise enough to use debian or ubuntu. In my case is pacman -Syu

[nimble gazelle]

oh you are out of my expertise in some regards lol havent seen pacman in a while 😄

[dire kestrel]

As expected, no change. I'll delete move the executable and have to attempt the upgrade again with -validate

[nimble gazelle]

yeah I would just move the entire Valheim dedicated server dir in to "old" Folder and try again.

[dire kestrel]

Good idea. I just wanted to confirm that it's targeting the right place. It did replace the executable so that's good.

Wait... does this update require a new world generated in order to apply?

[nimble gazelle]

no, that comes down to configuring the .sh start script.

you just need to match the info for server name and world file.

well you can change the server name lol... but the world file you would have to match.

[dire kestrel]

I don't know why I assumed it doesn't. I have always started new worlds with updates in the past for the content, never tried to stay on the same world through an update before.

[nimble gazelle]

./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "xxxxxxxxxxxxx" -port 2456 -world "Rested Path" <- you just match this name in the new .sh file.

Rested Path will be located in another folder outside of the Valheim dedicated server folder.

example path: /root/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/Rested Path.db

[dire kestrel]

I have a -savedir option so the save is contained inside of the same directory as the server (as a matter of consistent organization of many games).

Whatever the case, I'll backup and wipe out the whole directory now.

[nimble gazelle]

alrighty thats no issue, you'll just have to move the world file from the 'old' folder to the new one that steamcmd creates as apart of your process.

At this stage of the game, you'll just need to validate the path's being used to make sure everything re-connects.

[dire kestrel]

Okay, actual download happening now. Taking a good minute. I emptied it except for my update script, running that from the same location as before.

[nimble gazelle]

You backed up your world as well correct seeing as you mentioned it was in your dedicated server location?

[final current]

If this is Linux and the fresh dir download worked for you, you can check your SteamCMD content_log to see if it matches up with this issue:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/597411554294506565/

I've seen it happen more often when SteamCMD runs as uid 0/root, which happens frequently in Docker/podman setups

[dire kestrel]

Yeah, the one directory rules them all, meaning everything is contained inside of the server's own directory.

[dire kestrel]

Alright, I'll see what I can confirm.

Brewing some motivational sweet tea, then launching again to see if we're up to date.

Edited the default start_server.sh file just to avoid stray world save directories and launched from that.

Still on l-0.221.6

SteamCMD must be the culprit.

[final current]

How do you launch the server?

systemd unit? just running the shell script in the dir from a terminal?

[dire kestrel]

I enter the directory and simply run the start_server.sh via ./start_server.sh

I own the physical box and I tend to run different games at different times, so I keep it manual.

Where is the content_log.txt file?

[final current]

~/.steam/logs is a popular place for it

[dire kestrel]

Oh...

Yeah, just found that.

I'm smart, I promise.

[final current]

It's not you, they barely document this tool, and it's definitely not open source

[wooden mountain]

I feel like this happens every release 🙃

[nimble gazelle]

/home/steam/Steam/logs/content_log.txt is where it was for me.

youd be looking for this line here in the log:

[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 state changed : Fully Installed,Update Queued,Update Running,```

[dire kestrel]

grep pulled zero results for "denied", so the issue linked above doesn't apply.

Is there a buildID I should look for, or a client version?

I have BuildID 20460518

[nimble gazelle]

do me a favor and redo the uninstall reinstall idea, but dont run the validate flag at the end.

[dire kestrel]

Okay.

[nimble gazelle]

Just app_update and the number.

I think Validate might be trying to install the wrong version.

your updated file count is way off.

[wooden mountain]

I've read an out of date steamcmd can cause this..

Mine was borked until i did a sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade

[nimble gazelle]

This is true, we think we validated his steamcmd install. He did earlier run those upgrades.

[wooden mountain]

Yeah i thought i saw that 💀

[dire kestrel]

I didn't see a steamcmd entry in my pacman upgrade. It's not impossible that this is a problem with my repository.

[wooden mountain]

Only other thing thats also borked me is opting in/out of beta

[dire kestrel]

I'm not running common (see: "wise") server distros.

[nimble gazelle]

Yeah I think that is actually what we need to investigate.

I have a feeling your steamcmd is not the latest version so It itself is not updating its apps.

[dire kestrel]

Hol' up....

[nimble gazelle]

Steam just last week updated for me, If yours hasnt updated in a while that might be whats going on.

[dire kestrel]

I manually launched SteamCMD, as the user who owns the server, logged in anonymous, and ran app_update 896660

"Success! App '896660' is already up to date."

[nimble gazelle]

Right but if steamcmd, its self is not updated, it has an outdated list of app codes avaliable.

[dire kestrel]

The directory is empty.

[nimble gazelle]

say what now?

OH gotchya

So it said it installed but didnt do anything?

[dire kestrel]

There's nothing in .steam/SteamApps/common/Valheim\ Dedicated\ Server/ except for two scripts that I made.

It didn't even try, it says I'm up to date.

[nimble gazelle]

Ok ok ok... Steamcmd is trolling us for sure. I am almost positive about that now.

That or permissions on the folders got messed up somehow.

and steamcmd didnt have write access or read access and just got an odd error and said 'oh its installed!'

[wooden mountain]

Hey sometimes you just gotta full send delete steamcmd 😅 one time that worked for me

[nimble gazelle]

Well he is using pacman to install steamcmd which I dont think uses the main repo's

[dire kestrel]

I'll check permissions. Could SteamCMD have a cache that indicates to it that it's installed, which falsely reports that the app is fine unless I provide -validate?

[latent arch]

has there been any update to Therzie mods being worked on?

[final current]

The manifest number from that log is 3582760691865144507, which is indeed the old version. I think it's time to delete your steamapps/appmanifest if you didn't already with your prior dir clearing effort.

[nimble gazelle]

No validate just does the validate against the directory it installed too... seeing as there is nothing there and it was like 'yep'

[nimble gazelle]

Yep I was just looking that version number up lol

[dire kestrel]

I didn't touch anything outside of the valheim server software directory, so this definitely hasn't been tried yet.

[nimble gazelle]

so that number Justin mentioned is the version of steamcmd that is running which is what we confirmed is out of date, so when you ran pacman it did not have a new version avaliable to install.

[dire kestrel]

Out of shear curiosity, I'm going to browse the manifest and see if I can't understand some of it and see what it says before I delete it.

Oh, I'm in appmanifest_896660.acf, which is the game's.

[final current]

yep, that's the one

[dire kestrel]

It provides both a buildid and a TargetBuildID, which are the same, so clearly either this file or something else about SteamCMD is a dirty rotten liar.

If you're curious.

[nimble gazelle]

when you run this command what does it report?
pacman -Si steamcmd

[dire kestrel]

error: package 'steamcmd' was not found ...interesting.

[final current]

Old buildid for both current and target too. I think deleting the manifest ought to be enough if it survived your last clearing

[nimble gazelle]

So your steamcmd is 100% not updated.

You'd have to get it from them directly, I dont have another repo you could try for Arch.

You should continue working with Justin first tho

[dire kestrel]

Well, thanks to choosing distro familiarity over stability, I actually have to get steamcmd from the aur (user repository). Honestly, stuff there is usually quite up to date if it's popular, but I'm not going to act surprised if it's an issue here.

I deleted the game's manifest and am installing again with my script (which includes the -validate tag).

[nimble gazelle]

Ok so my last statement is not 100% accurate, it could still be updating but if there are large package updates, you'd forsure be missing those.

[final current]

The appmanifest file is useful for SteamCMD figuring out the diff/patch it needs to apply to bring something up to date, but it can also trip things up. You'll get a new one with the new install

[dire kestrel]

Alright, got some crazy networking errors but I'll just scrap the modified start_server.sh file and try again with the default.

Okay, well that was a one-off. But unfortunately it's still 0.221.6. I'll confirm in game and then compare to the old manifest, then investigate if the steamcmd maintainer is actually maintaining this.

[final current]

OK, if an updated SteamCMD doesn't fix it, take a look at the staging downloading dir shown in your content log; you may need to clear that as well.

[dire kestrel]

Huh, behaviour changed a little: I no longer get a password prompt and then 'invalid version' but instead simply "failed to connect". Strange, but I suspect it doesn't matter why if the manifest is still wrong.

[nimble gazelle]

Have we actually validated he 'updated' steamcmd? From what I am seeing the pacman process does not keep steamcmd packages. Thus doing that upgrade never results in that package being updated in full, when steamcmd does major releases it does require the packagemanager to reinstall. It seems like to me, his steamcmd just fell out of current release becuase his repo no longer has an updated package.

[final current]

If you were connecting directly before with loopback or LAN IP, the default shell script uses Crossplay instead, blocking direct connections.

[nimble gazelle]

If you didnt have crossplay enabled before remove it now or you will need to install more packages to get the crossplay to work.

[final current]

Yeah, no clue about that. SteamCMD is awkward to manage with a package manager.

[dire kestrel]

Pacman should handle upgrading it even if it's from the aur, given it has a working PKGBUILD file. However, I haven't confirmed that with a manual reinstallation and I'll do that now.

[nimble gazelle]

you can always try curling it

curl -sqL "https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/steamcmd_linux.tar.gz" | tar zxvf -

pacman -Syu
pacman -S lib32-glibc lib32-gcc-libs Assuming the package names are the same, I needed to install these as well.

[dire kestrel]

Would I just unzip that to .steam/steamcmd?

[nimble gazelle]

yes I believe so, however I should mention I dont manage my steamcmd from them directly.

So this is kinda new to me as well 🙂

I think you would want to put it in the folder it is in now. From what I am seeing.

so if it was in a /steamcmd folder before, it should go back there.

at the end of it all, you just want the steamcmd.sh file to be in the same location.

[dire kestrel]

Alright. First I'll try to rebuild it from a fresh aur download, then I'll try to curl it from there if that fails.

[nimble gazelle]

Sounds like a plan to me, Lets hope the aur has the latest versions.

Like I said they just updated like 3 days ago.

[dire kestrel]

Last updated on 2026-01-20 according to the aur listing.

[nimble gazelle]

steam publishes steamcmd to the main public repos for yum and apt managers so there is little to no wait for updates to propagate.

That still seems a bit behind.

[final current]

I would also check ~/.steam/steamapps/downloading/896660 and see if files are in there. They ought not to stick around.

[dire kestrel]

I don't know how updates differ between what's offered in the repo and what steamcmd will download for itself when I run it.

My steamcmd does run updates when I launch the software, but I don't know if that means "new steamcmd version" or just "new steamcmd data for this version".

[final current]

Ya, I don't think package-installed versions can stop SteamCMD from trying to auto-update themselves.

[dire kestrel]

no folder for 896660 in downloads/

[final current]

well, that's a good thing. would have been an easy answer though

[dire kestrel]

I deleted the manifest again and have a fresh install from the aur. Let's turn the key and see what happens.

[nimble gazelle]

if you continue to have issues, please run this command

./steamcmd.sh +version +quit

This is my version: Steam Console Client (c) Valve Corporation - version 1769026246

[dire kestrel]

New manifest.

Okay, I should have made more tea. Steam's killing me here.

[nimble gazelle]

ok great, we can rule that out, so now we are looking at permission issue yeah? seeing as stuff is not showing up in the directories?

[dire kestrel]

No, it's installing now. The issue before is that it didn't think it needed to update despite the directory being empty (I didn't not include the -validate tag at this time).

But once I include -validate it installed normally, to the directory I expected. I will confirm permissions regardless.

[nimble gazelle]

Ok, I am following now, so we get an installed game, is it the correct version of the game?

[dire kestrel]

Nope, still 0.221.6

[final current]

If it keeps saying that old buildid, probably not the one we want

[dire kestrel]

Well, l-0.221.6 to be exact.

[final current]

21713257 is the new buildid

[dire kestrel]

I can try deleting more of the data for steamcmd, even the entire directory.

But first I should see what's in the tar file linked earlier.

[nimble gazelle]

well we can ignore that process for now.

we validated your steamcmd version against mine, and they match.

so I dont believe that to be the issue here.

[dire kestrel]

I just wanted to see if something else was in there that might affect this. There was not.

[nimble gazelle]

try this:

app_update 896660 -beta public validate

if you want to see what steamcmd sees for branches use these commands:

login anonymous
app_info_update 1
app_info_print 896660

public is

"public"
{
"buildid" "21713257"
"timeupdated" "1770022882"
}

which is the one you want.

[dire kestrel]

Found it!

Would that not be what it selects by default?

[nimble gazelle]

you'd think but thats not what is getting installed.

[dire kestrel]

Okay, then let's tell it to do it right and see if it listens.

[nimble gazelle]

lol exactly

[dire kestrel]

Okay, not a trivial update this time. s

Started at 72% so it must have found just some files to replace?

[nimble gazelle]

The updated file count number at the end is what I want to know

is it in the 900's ?

[dire kestrel]

Server log says l-0.221.10 so we're lookin' good!

[nimble gazelle]

We have done it.

Huzzah

[dire kestrel]

I didn't get a file count.

[nimble gazelle]

Man.. your steamcmd just wants to troll...

lol

[dire kestrel]

I got a bit size.

[nimble gazelle]

Go figure it wouldnt lol

[dire kestrel]

Started with 1.2Gb left alone and installed a new ~0.5Gb

So who am I reporting this to?

Because it's an easy fix but not an obvious fix.

[nimble gazelle]

We just have to be the keepers of the know how for now....

maybe a mod can pin some useful info for us on the steps to force public.

[dire kestrel]

Well thanks a bunch for the help. I'll be writing the exact branch into my update scripts for all of my games now, knowing that this could be an error.

[nimble gazelle]

To summaries:

See what branches steamcmd sees:

login anonymous
app_info_update 1
app_info_print 896660

then force a branch to be installed:
app_update 896660 -beta public validate

Glad we got it working for ya.

Thanks @final current for helping out as well!

[dire kestrel]

How did we find the correct buildID, for future reference?

[nimble gazelle]

So Justin did some searching I think ingame to find that out via maybe dev commands??? not really sure, I just used what steam could see, and I knew public was always latest.

[dire kestrel]

Oh, so just referred to a working copy. Got it.

I was hoping that Iron Gate published it somewhere.

I guess I can't be so greedy.

[nimble gazelle]

Not steam build id's no...

its something steam does automagiclly

[final current]

You can use Steam APIs to get it, or https://steamdb.info keeps track for ya

[dire kestrel]

Well I'll apply this knowledge to my future steamcmd exploits and try to stick around here for a couple days to see if the error arises for others and nobody else can help.

[nimble gazelle]

Oh yeah, that website is a thing.

That makes more sense lol

[dire kestrel]

Well thanks again. What a journey for such a dumb little malfunction!

[final current]

Glad it's working. Wish I knew where Steam got the idea to keep going after that older build (or default_prev branch or something similar).

[trim locust]

i cant get steamcmd to update to the latest

im still on .4 for my server, my game is on .10

[agile pecan]

I've not read the whole convo so you probably already resolved this, but I had the same issue (but on windows). In the end I removed both the steamcmd and valheim folders (only one of them was not enough) and did a fresh install. I suspect there was something in a cache somewhere that tripped steamcmd up..

@trim locust ☝️

[trim locust]

Ok thanks, I’ll try that

[trim locust]

worked

[proper belfry]

I cannot update the server version on linux and continue to tell me I run an older version

• uninstalled and install
• try different brench
• try a differenct directory
• try every script online
• try the solution above to check the brench is correct

Dunno why isn't working

[deep shoal]

Have any Devs even acknowledged this issue with updating completely vanilla servers? Server says 0.221.10... Client also says 0.221.10... Yet I get incompatible version.

[agile pecan]

Is the client also completely vanilla?

[deep shoal]

yep

literally gone from working to not working in one update

despite updating

same for my mate who plays on my server

worked, updated, stopped working. literally changed nothing

vanilla server, 2x vanilla clients on 2 different PCs 30 miles apart

[ruby socket]

Yea it’s an issue

Server says it’s updating. But doesn’t update

Multiple server owners. Not sure if devs have said anything

[agile pecan]

@deep shoal what Side_Show said. Are you sure the server actually updated? You need to confirm that the server log shows the new version

[ruby socket]

The I have posted screenshots

Devs should fix this though.

SteamCMD says it downloaded and installed

But doesn’t actually update

[agile pecan]

I'm not sure if this is a valheim or a steamcmd issue though

[ruby socket]

Devs should be opening a ticket with steam then

100% vanilla severs should be able to use the CMD to update

If it was modded, I get it. But these are vanilla servers

I’m just worried they don’t think it’s a concern and aren’t doing anything

[deep shoal]

It reports in game that the server is 0.221.10

[ruby socket]

app_update 896660 validate
Update state (0x5) verifying install, progress: 32.78 (544152769 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x5) verifying install, progress: 98.32 (1632070001 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x81) verifying update, progress: 40.74 (676275466 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x101) committing, progress: 98.54 (1635575142 / 1659886548)
Update state (0x0) unknown, progress: 0.00 (0 / 0)
Success! App '896660' fully installed.

02/02/2026 12:21:25: Peer 76561198004162305 has incompatible version, mine:0.221.4 (network version 35) remote 0.221.10 (network version 36)

I have ran this update 5 times on my server

[agile pecan]

Yes, I had the same issue #dedicated-server message

[ruby socket]

Understood. But these point is that we shouldn’t have to do that. I’m good now. But this is something the devs should fix

[agile pecan]

Yeah, I agree

[ruby socket]

@wide cipher is this internally flagged?

[agile pecan]

Can you see something in the server logs after the failed connection attempts of the clients?

[ruby socket]

Yes. The second message I sent is from server log

[ruby socket]

This one

[agile pecan]

I'm sorry, I'm confused, are you and Big_Rich talking about the same server?

[wide cipher]

what is?

[naive crow]

Our dude is getting the same issues on our dedicated server. I'm glad everyone has been talking about it here - makes us feel validated lol

[agile pecan]

steamcmd not updating valheim servers
#dedicated-server message

[fair lichen]

Can someone help me, we lost our servers .db file and the world is now corrupted(map progress gone, trees are in water weird floating stones and structures).
The server is hosted on a local machine running linux.

[snow grove]

Hey hey I was wondering if you host a server (ex with gportal) and you activated players progression based events let's say we killed the eldar is it possible that a raid of goblin spawns In ??

[nimble gazelle]

did you get it working?

[proper belfry]

nope

[nimble gazelle]

try these steps with steamcmd.

To summaries:

See what branches steamcmd sees:

login anonymous
app_info_update 1
app_info_print 896660

then force a branch to be installed:
app_update 896660 -beta public validate

you did the public branch and it continued to not work?

[proper belfry]

I try this after lunch

and used the public brench

there is a way in linux to know what version the server is using ?

[nimble gazelle]

You can see what version should be deployed by using this site here: https://steamdb.info/app/896660/patchnotes/

the buildID is what the branch in steamcmd will refer too.

content_log.txt in /steam/Steam/logs/ will have a line that states this build it used.

[2026-02-02 19:02:43] Verified 1654 MB in '/home/steam/Steam', clean bytes tally is now 1654 MB
[2026-02-02 19:02:43] Triggered async write of Steam library folders configuration (1 libraries).
[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 App update changed : Running Update,
[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 App update changed : Running Update,Committing,

[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 starting commit from "/home/steam/Steam/steamapps/downloading/896660" to "/home/steam/Steam/steamapps/common/Valheim dedicated server" : 938 updated, 0 moved, 1 deleted files
[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 state changed : Fully Installed,Update Queued,Update Running,
[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 finished update, 2 mounted depots (BuildID 21713257) : 1006 !!!!!!!SEEN HERE!!!!!(6403079453713498174),896661 (2638249364938489857),

[2026-02-02 19:02:44] AppID 896660 App update changed : Running Update,
[2026-02-02 19:02:44] AppID 896660 App update changed : None
[2026-02-02 19:02:44] AppID 896660 state changed : Fully Installed,Update Queued,
[2026-02-02 19:02:44] AppID 896660 state changed : Fully Installed,
[2026-02-02 19:02:44] AppID 896660 scheduler finished : removed from schedule (result No Error, state 0xc)

Running the steamcmd commands I stated will give you this info from steamcmd.

            "branches"
            {
                    "public"
                    {
                            "buildid"               "21713257"
                            "timeupdated"           "1770022882"
                    }
                    "default_old"
                    {
                            "buildid"               "20460518"
                            "description"           "Previous stable"
                            "timeupdated"           "1770022819"
                    }
                    "default_preal"
                    {
                            "buildid"               "20221240"
                            "description"           "Last stable build before Ashlands"
                            "timeupdated"           "1759477966"
                    }
                    "default_prebw"
                    {
                            "buildid"               "20221628"
                            "description"           "       Last stable build before Bog Witch"
                            "timeupdated"           "1759477997"
                    }
                    "default_precta"
                    {
                            "buildid"               "20221863"
                            "description"           "Last stable build before Call to Arms"
                            "timeupdated"           "1759478062"
                    }
                    "default_preml"
                    {
                            "buildid"               "20222098"
                            "description"           "Last stable build before Mistlands"
                            "timeupdated"           "1759478369"
                    }
            }
            "privatebranches"               "1"
    }

}

this command forces steamcmd to use the public build which is current. app_update 896660 -beta public validate

[proper belfry]

my build id in public is the same of yours

[nimble gazelle]

Yes but did steamcmd install that version?

does the log state the right build?

[proper belfry]

I'm checking the log now

[nimble gazelle]

This is the section and text you are looking for:
[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 starting commit from "/home/steam/Steam/steamapps/downloading/896660" to "/home/steam/Steam/steamapps/common/Valheim dedicated server" : 938 updated, 0 moved, 1 deleted files
[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 state changed : Fully Installed,Update Queued,Update Running,
[2026-02-02 19:02:43] AppID 896660 finished update, 2 mounted depots (BuildID 21713257) : 1006 !!!!!!!SEEN HERE!!!!!(6403079453713498174),896661 (2638249364938489857),

[proper belfry]

[2026-02-02 22:42:30] Start validating appID 896660 on BuildID 21713257

[nimble gazelle]

are there any other statements from the log?

was it 'successful?' like mine stated?

[proper belfry]

[2026-02-02 22:42:58] AppID 896660 state changed : Fully Installed,

[nimble gazelle]

Alrighty, so you have the correct software installed. Lets look at your configurations and issues you are faced with. Can you describe the issue you are having?

[proper belfry]

let me start the server

🤞 hope is working

[nimble gazelle]

do you support crossplay? and is the script using the crossplay flag?

[proper belfry]

nope I'm not, me and my friend play only with steam

[nimble gazelle]

Is your client still using some public build of the game?

this isnt a server issue, this is a client issue.

[nimble gazelle]

is this what your's says?

[nimble gazelle]

Ok, so are there mods on your server?

[proper belfry]

no mods

[nimble gazelle]

Do you have many installed servers installed on the 'server machine'?

do you run more then 1 valheim server?

[torpid owl]

@proper belfry for context: how is the server deployed exactly?

Whats your setup

[proper belfry]

I have a dedicated machine with public ip

[nimble gazelle]

Yes thats no isuse, do you have multiple server installs on that machine?

[proper belfry]

no I use 1 server only,

I start it manualy and when is all ok I put this as a service

[nimble gazelle]

So did steamcmd install the updated content into the right location?

[proper belfry]

exactly I told him to use the specific directory

and when give me the issue I uninstalled and reinstalled again and again I uninstalled and tried in another directory

but the error is the same

[nimble gazelle]

when you start the server it should state in the console something like:
02/03/2026 16:40:07: Valheim version: l-0.221.10 (network version 36)

can you verify the server is loading the correct version?

[proper belfry]

yupe

give me a sec

tnx for the help

[nimble gazelle]

Yeah no problem, things have been odd with this update process.

[proper belfry]

02/03/2026 16:46:05: Valheim version: l-0.217.14 (network version 12)

[nimble gazelle]

So that tells me that steamcmd did not in fact update your files.

Your server files are in fact out of date.

do you run steamcmd as root or a user you built?

[proper belfry]

as a user

root doesn't see steamcmd

[nimble gazelle]

alright, so perhaps you should try to use the 'force_install_dir' function for steamcmd and use the force beta public flags. |

force_install_dir ./path/to/your/valheim/server/files/

So the process would be...

./steamcmd.sh

force_install_dir /path/to/your/stuff

then...

login anonymous

app_update 896660 -beta public validate verfiy files are changed in the directory after update.

Steamcmd should report 900+ files updated if done correctly.

You might also just move all the server files installed in to a 'old' folder so there is nothing there and it attempts a fresh install in full.

[proper belfry]

I try a fresh install

can I remove the old dir ?

[nimble gazelle]

Yes so long as your world file is not in the same location.

But that error is usually folder permission related.

Does steamcmd's user have full access to the directory you are trying to install too?

[proper belfry]

y

this setup is old, like 3 years

and it worked before

[nimble gazelle]

what is the OS?

[proper belfry]

linux ubuntu server

[nimble gazelle]

run an apt update and apt upgrade

lets see if steamcmd updates.

[proper belfry]

indeed I totaly forget to do that !

[nimble gazelle]

its likely your steamcmd is just out of date.

[proper belfry]

probably

it takes a while XD

[dim swallow]

Any word here if they'll add an option to have all simulation handled by the server?