Terraria's current PC version is 1.4.5.8, released on 23 August 2026, and the next one — 1.4.6, Crossplay Phase One — is in the works with no release date. Here is how updates reach your server, how to stay in step with your players, and what to expect on the day a patch lands.
The rule: server and game must match
A Terraria client can only join a server on the same version. Re-Logic's note with the 1.4.5.8 release said it directly: "You will need the latest dedicated server." Its February 2026 State of the Game, describing how joining will work across platforms, made the same assumption: "Assuming your PC, dedicated server and mobile are all on the same release version". Players update through Steam or their store, usually without noticing. Your server has to be updated too, or the next join fails with a version error.
Updates are automatic on restart
With Update on restart on (the default) and the build set to Latest, your server does the update itself every time it starts:
- It asks terraria.org which dedicated-server build is current.
- If that build is not the one installed, it downloads the official zip from terraria.org and installs the server files. Your
saves/folder is never touched. - It starts the server. The console shows a
[connect] now on buildline when a build was installed, or[connect] build … is currentwhen nothing changed.
So on patch day the whole procedure is: restart from the Overview tab, wait for the console to print Type 'help' for a list of commands, and tell your group to update their game.
The installed build is shown on the Server Settings tab, at the top of the Version card.
When terraria.org cannot be reached
If the download fails — terraria.org is busy on patch day, or briefly unreachable — the server does not refuse to start. It logs [connect] install of build … failed - starting the build already installed and boots on the build it has. Restart again later and it will pick the new build up.
Pin a build — keep mobile friends in, or match a friend's client
Platforms do not receive a patch on the same day: for 1.4.5.8, PC got it on 23 August 2026, Xbox, PlayStation and mobile on 3 September, Switch on 8 September. In that gap a server that follows Latest is on the PC build, and a mobile player whose app has not been updated yet cannot join. The same thing happens the other way round when one friend has not updated their PC game.
The Version card on the Server Settings tab lets you hold the server on any 1.4.5.x build instead:
- Open the server, then the Server Settings tab, and find the Version card. Leave Update on restart on — the picker needs it.
- Choose Pin a build. The list offers every 1.4.5.x build terraria.org still publishes, newest first, with the installed one marked; pick the build your friends are on. For a build that is not in the list, choose Other 1.4.5.x build… and type it, for example
1.4.5.9. - Save, then restart. The card shows
Installed: … · Chosen: … — restart to applyuntil the restart happens.
On that restart the server downloads the chosen build from terraria.org and installs it, printing [connect] pinned to build …, installed … - installing and then [connect] now on build …. From then on every restart checks that the pinned build is still the one installed and never moves off it, however many patches Re-Logic publishes. Your world is not touched: it is a .wld in saves/Worlds.
Three things to know:
-
A pin cannot go below the build that last saved your world. Terraria will not open a world with a build older than the one that saved it — a server asked to do that sits at its world menu and never comes up. So pin before the patch reaches the server, not after. The card greys out builds below your world's (it reads the build the server last ran), and if a lower build is set some other way the server refuses it at start — the console prints
[connect] cannot run build …: this world was last saved by build … - staying on …— and comes up on the build it has. A new server pinned at creation starts on the pinned build, so a group that wants to stay on an older build should pin first and generate the world second. -
The pin holds everyone, not just mobile. PC players on the newer build cannot join a server pinned to the older one. Steam updates Terraria on its own, so a PC friend who wants in has to stop Steam auto-updating Terraria (right-click the game → Properties → Updates) before the patch reaches them, or wait for you to move the server. A pin is for a group that has agreed on a build.
-
Only 1.4.5 builds can be pinned. An older server cannot be joined by any current client, so the picker refuses anything outside 1.4.5.x.
To move on, choose Latest again, save and restart: the server installs whatever terraria.org publishes that day and goes back to following it.
Update on restart off is the third option: the server never touches its files on boot, whatever the build setting says. Use it only when you want nothing to change at all — the picker is greyed out while it is off.
What a patch changes, and what it does not
- Your world is a
.wldinsaves/Worldsand is not part of the server files. Updates leave it alone. Take a backup from the Backups tab before a big one anyway — see Backups & saves. serverconfig.txtis rewritten from your Server Settings on every start, so a patch cannot reset your password or player cap.- The IP, port and password on your join card do not change.
1.4.6 and Crossplay Phase One
Re-Logic's August 2026 State of the Game said the team is "pushing directly into Terraria 1.4.6, which will be Phase One of Crossplay!", and the September 2026 post described "finishing touches on Crossplay Phase One" with a submission for certification expected "in the near future". No date has been given.
When it ships, the server build on terraria.org will change, and a server still on 1.4.5.8 will stop accepting updated players. Update on restart with Latest exists for that morning: restart, and your server is on the new build. A server you have pinned stays where it is until you choose Latest — check the card before you tell your group to update. What Phase One is expected to mean for console players, in Re-Logic's own words, is in Console crossplay status.
Mods
Your server runs the official, unmodified dedicated server, and that is deliberate: it is the only server a 1.4.5 client can join, and the one Re-Logic's crossplay plans assume. tModLoader is a separate PC product on Terraria 1.4.4, with its own server; we do not run it on this server type. More in tModLoader vs vanilla.
Related
- The version check is step one: Players can't join
- The Version card and the Update on restart switch: Server Settings