DayZ: Join Your Server (Browser, Launcher, and Ports)

On My Servers, click the address at the bottom of your server card to copy it. It flashes Copied hostname!. The card must say Online before anyone can join.

Two of your server's ports matter for joining:

• Game port: the number on your card. In-game Direct Connect and the dashboard Join button use it.

• Query port: the game port plus one. Steam's Game Servers window and the DZSA server check use it, because that is the port server lists ask for player counts and names.

Mixing those two up is the usual reason a server "isn't showing up".

1. Start DayZ, click Play, and in the server browser click Direct Connect (bottom right).

2. Enter the address from your card: the part before the colon in the address box, the number after it in the port box.

3. If you set a Server Password (Basic tab of your server's settings), type it when asked.

1. In Steam, open View, then Game Servers, then the Favorites tab, and click +.

2. Enter the address with the query port, your card's port plus one.

3. The server then also appears under Favorites in DayZ's in-game browser.

If Steam says the server is not responding, you almost certainly used the game port. Add one and try again.

Launching DayZ from Steam opens the official DayZ Launcher. On its Servers tab, search for your server's name. If your server runs Workshop mods, the launcher offers to download and enable them before connecting, which is the easiest path for a modded server.

The community DZSA Launcher (dayzsalauncher.com) works the same way; to get listed there, submit your address with the query port on its Server Check page. Either way, every player needs exactly your server's mod set: see DayZ mods: install them and get your players in.

On a desktop browser, while your server is Online, click the small arrow at the right end of the address strip. The Join pill in the row that opens launches DayZ through Steam with your address and port already filled in.

• The server is not Online yet. A brand new server's first start takes longer than later ones, because DayZ builds its world cache once. If the card says Sleeping, press Wake up and join when it says Online. See What is Wake and Play?.

• DayZ just updated. Steam updates players within minutes, while your server moves to the new build on its next restart. Until then Require Matching Game Version (on by default, Details tab) turns every join away. Restart your server rather than switching that setting off.

• Your map is Sakhal. Sakhal is DayZ's paid Frostline DLC, and every player must own it to join. Chernarus and Livonia need no DLC. Both labels in the Map setting are out of date, so ignore them: Sakhal's description says it is included in the base game (it is not), and Livonia still carries a "(DLC)" tag although it became part of the base game in 2024. That is a DayZ rule, not something we control.

• Experimental Branch is on. A stable DayZ client cannot join an experimental server, so every player has to run the same experimental build. The dashboard points them at Steam, DayZ, Properties, Betas, experimental_public; if no such branch is listed there, they need DayZ Experimental, the separate free entry in their Steam library. Turning the toggle off and restarting puts your server back on stable.

• Whitelist is on. Only players listed in your whitelist file get in: DayZ: become admin, kick, ban, and whitelist players.

• Kicked with "Client contains PBO which is not part of server data". That player's mods do not match the server's, and the mods article above has the fix.

• The player is on Xbox or PlayStation. They cannot join a Haptic DayZ server, and no setting changes that: DayZ: can Xbox or PlayStation players join my server?.

Ask in Discord or email support@haptic.gg. Include your server name, which join route the player used, and a screenshot of the message they get.