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Why can't my PS5 friend find my Palworld server?

Your server is online, you can join fine on PC — but your PlayStation 5 friend can't find it anywhere. You're not doing anything wrong. This is the single most common crossplay mix-up, and it has a specific cause.

The short answer

PS5 players cannot type in a server address. There's no IP box on PlayStation. They can only join servers that appear in the in-game Community Serverslist. If your server isn't published there, it's invisible to them — even though it's running perfectly.

Walk through it

Check these in order:

  1. Is the server actually online? Confirm it's up (Tamerdeck shows a green status). If it's offline, start there.
  2. Is it published as a community server?This is the usual culprit. Your server must be listed for PS5 players to see it. On a self-hosted server that's the -publiclobbylaunch argument; on a host, it's a “community” / “public server” toggle in the panel.
  3. Is PS5 allowed? The CrossplayPlatforms setting must include PS5. It does by default — the default allows all platforms — but double-check if someone changed it.
  4. Have your friend search the list. Once published, the server shows up in Community Servers — searching by name is the fastest way to find it among the many public servers.
Where the community-server toggle lives depends on your host. On Indifferent Broccolithe REST API is on by default (verified); most panels (Shockbyte, GPORTAL, Nodecraft, Apex Hosting) expose a “community” / “public server” switch — the exact label varies. Per-host step-by-step guides are on the way.
Not officially confirmed:Some admins report a password-protected server still appears in the Community Servers list and just asks console players for the password on join. We couldn't confirm this in the official docs, so treat it as commonly-reported rather than guaranteed — if in doubt, test with the password off first.
Same problem on Xbox? It works the same way — see the Xbox version of this guide.

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