Valheim Server Troubleshooting Guide

Running into something weird on your Valheim server? This is the catch-all troubleshooting guide — it covers the issues that come up most often in support tickets, in roughly the order they tend to appear. If your problem isn't here, the legacy Common Issues and Can't Connect articles cover a few extra cases, or you can just open a ticket from the panel and we'll dig in.

Connection issues

"I can't connect to the server"

This is the most common ticket we get. Work through these in order — at least one of them is the culprit 95% of the time.

1. Is the server actually running? Open the LOW.MS Panel, pick your Valheim server, and check the status. If it says "Stopped", start it. If it says "Starting" or "Running", give it another 60-90 seconds — Valheim takes a moment to load the world, especially on larger or modded servers.

2. Are the connection details right? Triple-check the IP and port. They should be in the format IP:Port, e.g. 92.118.16.100:27515. A single typo will keep you out. If your server has crossplay enabled you should be using the Join Code from the server log instead of an IP — the IP method doesn't work for crossplay clients.

3. Is the password right? Valheim passwords are case-sensitive, must be at least 5 characters, and cannot contain the world name — Valheim silently rejects any password that does, with no useful error. If you've recently changed your world name, this is worth double-checking.

4. Version mismatch? The client and server both need to be on the same Valheim version. Right-click Valheim in Steam → Properties → Updates → make sure auto-update is enabled. On the server side, restart from the panel to trigger a Steam update.

5. Have you actually waited? After a restart, Valheim takes 1-2 minutes to fully load the world before it accepts connections. Don't try connecting in the first 30 seconds — you'll get a "failed to connect" that has nothing to do with the actual problem.

For a longer connection-troubleshooting walkthrough see the dedicated article: Can't Connect to Your Valheim Server?.

Server isn't appearing in the in-game browser

Make sure your server has -public 1 set (it's the default on LOW.MS).
The Steam community browser can take 5-10 minutes to list a freshly-started server. Be patient or use direct connect.
Add the server to your Steam favorites for quick access from then on.

Random disconnections

High ping (over ~200ms) causes timeouts. Pick a server region close to most of your players.
Big builds and heavy entity counts can cause connection timeouts when someone walks into the area, because the server tries to sync everything at once.
On modded servers, a misbehaving mod is often the cause. Disable mods one at a time to isolate it.
A flaky client connection looks identical to a server problem from the player's side. Get them to check their own connection before assuming the server is at fault.

Performance issues

Lag, low TPS, rubber-banding

The first thing to do is check your resource usage in the panel. Open your server's dashboard and look at the RAM and CPU graphs. If RAM is consistently sitting above 80%, you'd benefit from a bigger plan.

Beyond that, the usual suspects in roughly the order they cause problems:

Building piece counts. This is the number one cause of Valheim server lag, full stop. Each piece is tracked and synced. Sprawling castles with many thousands of pieces will start to chug, especially when players enter the area. There's no hard limit, but if a single base is causing noticeable lag, it's almost always the piece count.
Tamed creatures. Each tamed animal is an active entity. A breeding farm with dozens of boars eats more performance than the same number of building pieces. Cull the population if it's getting out of hand.
Terrain modifications. Heavy use of the hoe or pickaxe to reshape terrain creates terrain-mod data that has to be synced to anyone walking through. Avoid terraforming every square meter.
Item drops. Items left on the ground are entities. Clean up around smelters, forges and farms regularly.
Many active fires and torches. Each light source with a particle effect adds rendering and network load. Use them deliberately, not as decorative spam.

The quickest one-shot fix when something feels slow: restart the server from the panel. It clears memory and resets entity states, and it's free.

World takes forever to load

Loading time naturally grows as your world matures. After major Valheim updates the first load can take longer because the world file migrates to a new format — let it run, don't kill it. If a load is taking more than 5 minutes on a previously-working world, open a ticket.

World and save issues

"The world isn't saving"

Valheim auto-saves every 30 minutes by default. If you suspect saves aren't running:

Check the server console output for any save-related lines (look for "World saved").
In the panel's File Manager, find your world files: YourWorldName.db and YourWorldName.fwl. Their modified timestamps should match the most recent save.
Make sure the server has enough disk space — out-of-disk is a silent killer.

A note: Valheim's save admin command does not work on dedicated servers in vanilla. Iron Gate restricted it to single-player. If you want to issue a manual save in-game on a dedicated server, you'll need the Server devcommands mod. For a forced save without mods, just restart the server from the panel — Valheim flushes the world to disk on shutdown.

World looks like it reset

If you log in and your world is suddenly fresh:

Check the World Name in your server settings. This is the most common cause by far — the world name was changed (or has a typo) and the server is now creating a brand new world by that name. Your original world is still safe in the file manager, just not loaded. Set the world name back and restart.
If the file is genuinely missing, restore from a LOW.MS cloud backup via the panel.

Restoring from a backup

Stop the server.
Open Backups in the panel.
Pick the backup you want.
Click Restore and confirm.
Start the server.

Mod issues

"I installed mods but nothing is happening"

Walk through these in order:

Is BepInEx actually loaded? Check that /BepInEx/LogOutput.log exists in your server root. If it doesn't, BepInEx never loaded and no mods will work. See the Mod Installation Guide for the install steps — note that the install differs between Linux and Windows servers.
Are your .dll files in the right place? They need to be in /BepInEx/plugins/, not in a nested folder unless the mod's docs specifically tell you to.
Are the mods compatible with your current Valheim version? Mods often break after game updates. Check the mod's Thunderstore page.
Read the BepInEx log. /BepInEx/LogOutput.log is verbose but the actual error is almost always obvious if you scroll to the bottom.
Is crossplay enabled? Crossplay and BepInEx are mutually exclusive. If crossplay is on, BepInEx will not load.

Server crashes after adding mods

Bisect the problem:

Stop the server.
Remove the most recently added mod from /BepInEx/plugins/.
Start the server.
If it boots, you found the problem. If not, repeat with the next-most-recent mod.
Check the offending mod's Thunderstore page for known issues, dependencies, or version requirements.

Players get kicked or can't connect after adding mods

Almost always a client/server mod mismatch:

Check whether the mod needs to be installed on both sides or only one.
Make sure all players have the same mods at the same versions.
Some mods enforce strict version matching — check the mod docs.
The fastest fix when one player is broken: wipe their r2modman profile and reinstall the exact same mod list from scratch.

Crossplay issues

Steam and Xbox players can't share a server

Crossplay needs to be enabled on both ends:

Server side. Enable crossplay in the panel (this passes -crossplay to the server). Restart.
Client side, Steam. In the Valheim main menu, click the crossplay toggle icon before joining.
Client side, Xbox/Game Pass. Crossplay is enabled by default.

The Join Code isn't working

The join code regenerates every time the server restarts. Check the server log for the most recent Join code: line.
All players need crossplay enabled on their client.
Make sure the server is fully started — codes generated mid-startup may not be valid yet.

Update-related issues

Server is out of date after a Valheim update

Restart the server from the panel — that triggers a Steam update. Valheim updates can take longer than usual to download on the first restart. If the server still reports an old version after the restart and update finishes, open a ticket.

World isn't compatible after an update

Some Valheim updates change the world format. The server will migrate your world automatically on first load, but for big worlds this can take several minutes. Do not interrupt the migration — if you kill the server mid-migration you can corrupt the world. Let it finish.

DLC issues

Hildir's Quest content not showing

There's a dedicated walkthrough: Installing/Activating Hildir's Quest DLC. Short version: there's nothing to "install" — Hildir's Quest is part of the base game now. Just run a Steam Update on your server. If the new content isn't appearing, it's almost always because you're trying to find it in an area you've already explored. Hildir's locations only spawn in unexplored regions.

When to open a ticket

The support team is around 24/7 and we'd rather help early than have you bounce off something for an hour. Open a ticket if:

You've worked through the relevant section above and it didn't help.
The server logs are showing errors you don't understand.
You think it might be a hardware or network issue on our side.
You need help with a backup restore or rolling back a corrupt world.
You're setting up a complex mod stack and want a second pair of eyes.

Tell us which Valheim version you're on, what changed since it last worked, and (for mod issues) which mods you've installed and what OS your server is on. That information up front saves us both a few back-and-forth messages.