The server is online, but a player gets a version error, a timeout or a refused connection. For Terraria this is nearly always one of the causes below. Work down the list in order — the first two cover most tickets.
1. The server and the game are on different versions
Players update through Steam or their store. The server updates when it restarts. In between, the two are on different builds, and a Terraria client cannot join a server on a different version. Re-Logic's own note on the 1.4.5.8 release was blunt: "You will need the latest dedicated server."
Fix: restart the server from the Overview tab. With Update on restart on and the build set to Latest (the defaults), the restart is the update. Then have the player try again.
Check: the installed build is shown at the top of the Version card on the Server Settings tab, and the server prints its version in the console at start. The player's version is on the game's title screen. They must match.
Straight after a patch, the server build can be published on terraria.org a little after the game build reaches players. If a restart still shows the old version, wait and restart again. When the restart does pick up a new build, the console says so with a [connect] now on build line before the world loads.
If the server is pinned: the Version card says Pin a build and names it. A pinned server stays on that build on purpose, so a player who has updated past it is refused until you either choose Latest (save, restart) or they match the pin. Mobile players whose store has not shipped the patch yet are the usual reason to pin — see Pin a build for how it works and who it holds.
2. The port is wrong
Terraria's default port is 7777, and players who have joined other servers tend to type it from habit. Your server's port is the one on the Overview join card, and it may not be 7777. The game asks for the IP and the port as two separate prompts in Join via IP; a wrong port looks like a timeout, not a clear error.
Fix: send the IP and port from the join card by copy-and-paste, and tell the player to enter the port exactly as written.
3. The server has not finished starting
Between Start and the ready line, the server is checking terraria.org for an update, then loading — or on the first start, generating — the world. Connections during that window fail.
Fix: watch the console; tell players to connect once it prints Type 'help' for a list of commands.
4. Wrong password
If the connection reaches the server and is refused at the password prompt, the network side is fine. The password is the one on the Server Settings tab (and the join card). Passwords are letters and digits only, and case matters.
Fix: send the password from the join card. If you just changed it, restart first — the server reads it at start.
5. The server is full
Max Players on the Server Settings tab defaults to 8 and can be set from 1 to 16. A player refused when the server is busy has probably hit it.
Fix: raise Max Players (up to 16, our cap on every plan) and restart.
6. A setting was changed without a restart
The server reads serverconfig.txt once, at start. A new password or player cap saved on the Server Settings tab is not live until the next restart — the server is still running with the old values.
Fix: restart, then try again.
7. They are on a console
PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch players cannot join a dedicated server on today's version of Terraria, whatever they type. This is not a setting on your server. Re-Logic has said that joining by IP address and port is "the functionality that we plan to initially release on console" in 1.4.6, Crossplay Phase One; its September 2026 State of the Game gave no release date. Mobile players (iOS and Android) on the same version as the server can join today.
The current position, with Re-Logic's own words, is kept in Console crossplay status. We will update it the day the picture changes.
8. One player, everyone else fine
If exactly one person cannot join while the rest are in, it is their side: their game version (section 1 again — check the title screen), their platform (section 7), their connection, or a firewall or antivirus on their PC blocking the game's outbound connection.
Still stuck?
Open a ticket from your dashboard with: the exact message the player sees, the player's game version from the title screen, the server build from the Server Settings tab, the platform they are on, and whether anyone at all can join. Those five answers usually let us solve it in one reply.