Terraria Server Not Showing Up

Start with the thing that surprises most people: Terraria has no server browser. There is no list for your server to appear in, so “not showing up” is really “nobody can join” — and there are only a handful of candidates. They are below in the order they turn out to be the answer.

First, separate the three failures

Before working through the list, establish which problem you actually have. Check the log first: if the server never finished starting, nothing about connectivity matters yet. If it did start, try connecting to your public address and port from outside your own network. If you get in, the server is healthy and the problem is at your players’ end — wrong address, or a version mismatch. If you do not, the server is unreachable and the fault is the port or the protocol.

Those three lead to different halves of this page, and confusing them costs the most time. In particular, a version mismatch and a closed port produce completely different symptoms: a mismatch kicks the player with a message, a closed port just times out.

The five causes, in order

1.The port is forwarded as UDP

Terraria is TCP. Most survival games are UDP, most forwarding guides are written for them, and most router UIs default to UDP or offer "both" as an afterthought. A rule for UDP 7777 looks completely correct in the interface and does nothing at all for the game. Check the protocol column before you check anything else — this is the single most common cause and the fastest to rule out.

2.You are looking for a server list that does not exist

Terraria has no official server browser. There is no listing service, no query protocol and nothing to register with, so a healthy server will never "show up" anywhere — by design. Players join with Multiplayer, then Join via IP, and type your address and port. If your friends are scrolling a list looking for the name, that is the whole problem, and no setting will fix it.

3.The client and server versions do not match

Terraria requires an exact version match, and it says so on the kick: your player gets a message about a different version rather than a timeout. This bites hardest on TShock servers, because TShock ships after a Terraria release rather than with it — so Steam quietly updates everyone’s client and the server is left a version behind for days. Check the version in the server log against what the client reports.

4.The server never finished starting

Which looks identical to "not showing up" from the outside. A large world takes minutes to generate on first boot and accepts nobody until it is done. The other case is a plugin that throws on load and takes TShock down with it, usually after a TShock or Terraria update left it built against the wrong version. Both name themselves in the first thirty seconds of the log.

5.The address is a LAN address, or the port is missing

People outside your network need your public address, not the 192.168.x.x one the machine reports to itself. And the port has to be on the end: 7777 is the default but nothing enforces it, and a client typing a bare address is trying the default whatever the server is on. Confirm both from outside your own network rather than from the machine running the server.

Terraria is TCP only

Worth stating plainly, because it is where most troubleshooting time goes. Terraria uses TCP 7777 for the game and nothing else. There is no UDP, no query port and no port range. TShock’s optional REST API adds TCP 7878, and that is the entire surface.

The trap is that almost every other game in the genre is UDP, so the advice people reach for — and the defaults their router offers — are for the wrong protocol. A UDP rule on the right port number is the most convincing-looking way to have no rule at all.

Reading the log rather than guessing

The server prints the reason on startup in nearly every case where it failed to boot. A plugin that could not load names itself and the exception it threw. A world still being generated says so and then says when it finished. Open the log, restart the server, and read the first thirty seconds rather than the last thirty — the cause is almost always in the boot sequence, and everything after it is the consequence.

Terraria also has a real console, which is more than most games in this genre give you. TShock adds proper server commands on top of it, and its optional REST API on 7878 will answer with the live player list and the server version over HTTP — which is the quickest way to prove from outside that the server is up and who is on it, without asking anyone to try joining.

If it is the version

The fix is to bring the two into line, and which direction depends on what you run. On vanilla, update the server to match the client. On TShock, you usually cannot — TShock has to be rebuilt for a new Terraria release, so for a few days after a game update the correct move is to hold your players on the previous version rather than to chase it. Steam can be told to stay on a specific build for exactly this reason.

This is also the failure mode most likely to arrive without you changing anything: Steam updates clients silently, so a server that worked last night can start rejecting everybody this morning with no edit on your side. If the symptom appeared out of nowhere, check the version before you check the network.

Or start from a server that is already wired

The game port published as TCP, TShock installed and matched to the build it runs, the status API on so the dashboard shows who is connected, and hourly world backups. First week free if your Flux account is new.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my Terraria server not showing in the server list?

There is no server list. Terraria ships no browser, no listing service and no query protocol, so a server is never advertised anywhere — players join with Multiplayer, then Join via IP, using your address and port. If people are searching a list for the name, that is the answer, and nothing on the server needs changing.

Does Terraria use TCP or UDP?

TCP, and only TCP. The game runs on TCP 7777 with no UDP and no separate query port. This catches people because nearly every other survival game is UDP, so a forwarding rule copied from that advice looks right and does nothing.

My friends get kicked for a different version. What now?

Terraria requires an exact version match between client and server. On vanilla, update the server. On TShock you often cannot yet — it ships after a Terraria release, not with it — so the right move for a few days is to hold clients on the previous build through Steam rather than to chase the update.

Why does the server refuse to start at all?

Two usual causes, and both name themselves in the log. A large world takes minutes to generate on first boot and accepts nobody until it is finished. Otherwise it is a plugin throwing on load, which almost always means it was built against a different TShock version.

Which port does Terraria need?

TCP 7777 for the game, and genuinely nothing else. Add TCP 7878 only if you deliberately enable TShock’s REST API, and set a token before you open it.

Can a host cause this?

Only by publishing the wrong port or the wrong protocol, which is visible to you. What a good host removes is the failure modes it controls: publishing 7777 as TCP, and installing a TShock build that matches the Terraria version it runs, so the update-day mismatch never reaches your players.