You paid for a server, it says it is running, the console looks healthy — and it is nowhere in the browser. ARK: Survival Ascended is unusually good at this particular kind of frustration, because ASA changed how servers are discovered and most of the advice still floating around the internet is written for Survival Evolved. This guide goes through every real cause, in the order worth checking, and finishes with the one that nobody wants to hear: sometimes it genuinely is the host.
Before you change anything, work out which of two very different problems you have.
That single test saves most people an hour, because roughly half of all "server not showing" reports turn out to be a client filter and the other half never had a working server in the first place.
ARK patches often, and a server running an older build than your client simply will not appear in the list. It is not hidden or throttled; the browser filters it out.
Check the version your server prints in the console at startup and compare it with what other unofficial servers are running. If yours is behind, the fix is to update the server files and restart. On a managed host this is usually a single update action; on a self-hosted box it means re-running SteamCMD against the ASA dedicated server app and letting it patch before you start again.
Two traps here. First, a server that is mid-update or has downloaded a patch but not restarted still reports the old build — restart it properly. Second, if you run mods, a client that has newer mod files than the server can also be refused; see the mod section below.
This one catches almost everybody who has run an ASE server before, because ASA changed the rules.
The practical consequence: if you are self-hosting and have spent an evening on port 27015, stop. Confirm UDP 7777 reaches the machine, and look at EOS registration instead. On a rented server the ports are already handled, which is exactly why this problem largely disappears on managed hosting.
The ASA server browser filters aggressively by default, and every one of these will hide a perfectly healthy server:
Ark.UseServerList 0 workaroundWhen the browser itself is misbehaving rather than your settings, one console command has resolved it for a lot of players: open the console at the main menu with the tilde key and enter Ark.UseServerList 0, then search again.
This switches the client off the newer list backend and back to a more direct query path. It is a workaround, not a fix — it does not repair a server that is genuinely down or out of date — but if your server appears immediately afterwards, you have learned something useful: the server was fine all along and the listing service was the problem.
ASA supports players across Steam, the Epic Games Store and consoles, but on a self-hosted dedicated server crossplay is not automatically on. Launching without the crossplay flag gives you a server that Steam players can find and Epic players cannot, which looks exactly like "my friend can't see the server" while you are staring at it in your own list.
If half your group can see it and half cannot, and the halves line up with which store they bought the game from, this is your answer.
Even after you fix the underlying cause, the list can take a while to catch up. Direct connection bypasses it entirely: use your server address with the game port, and once you are in, favourite it so you can rejoin without searching. It is worth giving your players the IP alongside the server name for exactly this reason — a community that can always connect directly is a community that does not lose an evening to a browser bug.
A mod mismatch produces a different symptom — the server is visible but the join fails, or you are dropped straight back to the menu. The cause is that your client's mod files do not match the server's: usually the server updated a mod and your client has not caught up, or the reverse.
The fix is to let the client finish downloading mods before joining, and, if that fails, to clear the local mod files so they re-download cleanly. If it is affecting everyone at once, the server is mid mod-update — restart it and let the download complete. Our ASA mods guide covers install and update order properly.
If you are being told you are not logged in, that is an authentication problem rather than a listing one — the game could not establish your Epic Online Services session, which ASA needs even when you bought the game on Steam.
Work through it in this order: fully restart the game client (not just back to the menu), confirm the platform client itself is signed in and online, and check whether EOS is having a service incident before you touch anything on the server. Persistent cases usually clear after a client restart or a reboot, because the stale session is on your machine, not on the server. Nothing about this error is fixed by editing server configs — if a guide tells you to change GameUserSettings.ini to fix it, close the tab.
Once version, ports, filters and crossplay are all ruled out, the honest answer is that some servers are invisible because they are not really running. The patterns to watch for:
That last one is worth being blunt about: ASA wants real memory. A server that keeps dying mid-startup is not a mystery to be debugged, it is a plan that is too small.
Ports are pre-configured, updates are applied, and the RAM is actually there. Every ARK: Survival Ascended plan runs on high-clock AMD Ryzen with NVMe storage and always-on DDoS filtering.
| Plan | RAM · vCPU | Best for | Price/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 8 GB · 3 vCPU | Small group, vanilla, one map | $24.99 |
| Plus (popular) | 12 GB · 4 vCPU | Mods, bigger tribes, busier maps | $36.99 |
| Pro | 16 GB · 4 vCPU | Heavy mod lists, public communities | $48.99 |
Move up or down a tier in one click, billed pro rata. Quarterly and yearly cycles cost less per month, with one month free on annual. No setup fee, 7-day money-back guarantee.
Both editions are covered — see ARK: Survival Evolved if you are still on the original, and our ARK dedicated server setup guide for a clean start.
Almost always a client-side filter or a stale list. Check the unofficial-servers toggle and the map filter first, then try Ark.UseServerList 0, then join by IP to confirm the server is genuinely fine.
No. Discovery runs through Epic Online Services, so the old query port does not do what it did in Survival Evolved. UDP 7777 is the one that matters, plus 27020 only if you use RCON.
That is usually a mod mismatch or a server still finishing startup. Check the console for mods still downloading, and make sure every player's mod files match the server's.
8 GB is a realistic floor for a small vanilla group. Mods and larger maps push it to 12 GB, and a busy public server with a long mod list wants 16 GB. Under-provisioning shows up as startup loops and servers that vanish under load.
On rented hardware, yes — it runs on our machines, not yours, so your tribe can play while you are offline. A server hosted on your own PC stops the moment that PC does.
Deploy an ARK: Survival Ascended server →