Server Troubleshooting

Q: Where are Enshrouded save files?

Enshrouded 1.0 saves locally in C:\Users\ \Saved Games\keen games\Enshrouded\default; dedicated servers save worlds in their savegame folder.

Most Enshrouded multiplayer problems have a documented fix from Keen Games: tick "Show dedicated server" or favorite the server by IP and query port 15637 in Steam, set your Steam profile to public for a hosted game, use the right group password, and update past hotfix 1.0.0.3 (Oct 21, 2026), which fixed the endless black screen when loading some multiplayer games.

2:15 When a friend's Enshrouded game or a dedicated server does not show up or will not let you in, the fixes Keen Games documents are short: tick "Show dedicated server" in the server filter, add the server to Steam's favorites by IP and query port (15637 by default), make sure the host's Steam profile is public, invite through the Steam friends list, and check that you type the password of the right user group. Searching by IP has been in the game since its first update, Hollow Halls (Mar 26, 2024): Keen's highlights video says "for those struggling to find friends servers, worry no more", and adds an option to conceal the address for streamers. This page collects only fixes from Keen's own support articles, patch notes and videos, as of Oct 28, 2026; setting a server up is on Dedicated Servers, and how co-op works is on Multiplayer and Co-op.

Quick facts

Port Keen documents	`queryPort` 15637, plus Steam's own ports
Network	IPv4 only for multiplayer (Keen)
Server ready when the log says	`[Session] 'HostOnline' (up)!`
Black screen loading multiplayer	Fixed in hotfix 1.0.0.3, Oct 21, 2026
Migration crashes	Fixed in 1.0.0.2 and 1.0.0.3
1.0 save folder	`C:\Users\<you>\Saved Games\keen games\Enshrouded\default`
PC and PS5 together	Not possible: no cross-play at launch
Report a problem	"Report a Bug" in the Escape menu, or Keen's form

Server not showing up in the list

Join in the main menu lists both dedicated servers and player-hosted games, but dedicated servers only appear when "Show dedicated server" is ticked in the Server Filter on the right. The list sorts favorites first, then friends' sessions, then dedicated servers, then peer-to-peer games, and it can filter by password, friends, empty servers and free slots (Keen, Dedicated Server FAQ).

If a dedicated server still is not there, Keen's fix is to favorite it in Steam (Favorite Server via IP):

Write down the server's IP and its query port (15637 unless the host changed it).
In the Steam client open View, then Game Servers, then the Favorites tab.
Click the plus button and enter the address as IP:QueryPort, for example 203.0.113.10:15637.
Start Enshrouded and open Join: favorites are listed at the top.

A player-hosted game that friends cannot see is usually a privacy setting. "If the profile is private, it may prevent your session from appearing in the server browser", Keen writes, so the host should set the Steam profile to public under Settings, Account, Privacy Settings, or simply right-click each friend in the Steam friends list and choose invite to game (Network Troubleshooting). A hosted game also exists only while the host is playing; a world that must stay up needs a dedicated server.

If a dedicated server shows up for nobody, check the console window first: Keen says it is fully started when it prints [Session] 'HostOnline' (up)! and "finished transition from 'Lobby' to 'Host_Online'". If the window closes or never gets there, an invalid value in enshrouded_server.json is a likely cause: the server "does not boot and states the incorrectly entered value in the command window" (Server Gameplay Settings). Keen also warns that older versions of the file "can sometimes be incorrectly updated"; delete it and the server writes a fresh one on its next start (copy your passwords and settings out first).

Can't join a friend or keep getting disconnected

For "random connection drops, or the server list not populating", Keen's Network Troubleshooting article gives these steps, in this order:

Open the ports. The game uses query port 15637 by default, and Steam needs the ports in its Required Ports for Steam article. A dedicated server's port can be changed with queryPort; the firewall must match.
Clear Steam's download cache under Steam Settings, Downloads.
Flush DNS: Windows key + R, cmd, then ipconfig /flushdns.
Try Google DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). Keen notes that "Enshrouded is currently only utilizing IPv4 for multiplayer".
Use a cable instead of Wi-Fi if you see high packet loss.
Make the host's Steam profile public and invite through the friends list, as above.

Two causes are not network problems at all. PC and PlayStation 5 players cannot join each other: "Enshrouded will not be cross-platform at launch", and Keen has "no current estimate" for cross-play (Launch FAQ, Oct 13, 2026). And a full server rejects you if other groups have taken the free slots while some are reserved: a user group's reservedSlots marks the lobby "full" for players of other groups (Server Roles Configuration).

Hotfix 1.0.0.1 (Oct 15, 2026) also "fixed the misbehaving session lists in the multiplayer join menus", which is how Keen described it when the next hotfix repaired a side effect of that fix (1.0.0.2). If your join list looked wrong on launch day, update first.

Password problems and wrong permissions

1:51 On a dedicated server the password you type decides your role. Since Melodies of the Mire (Jun 5, 2024), Keen's highlights video explains, server hosts "can now configure various roles with different levels of permissions tied to passwords", mainly to protect bases and chests. So a player who can fight but not open chests or build has joined with the Guest or Visitor password, not the Friend or Admin one; the host should give them the other password or change the group's rights in userGroups (Server Roles Configuration).

Old configuration files cause the most confusion. The single "password" line near the top of the file "is no longer used to setup the password for dedicated servers"; if the server finds one, it creates a group called "default" with Friend rights. A fresh file starts with placeholder passwords for Admin, Friend, Guest and Visitor, and Keen says "It is highly recommended to set a password. Every player can see the server and can access it, if no password is set." A server-hosting panel that writes the file for you must follow this group format (Keen).

Games hosted from inside the game work differently since 1.0: "Hosts now define the default permission level for every joining player with a single password", then promote or demote each player in the social menu, and the role is remembered when they rejoin. That is not possible on a dedicated server, where "the user groups with the associated passwords work as before" (1.0 changelog). Admins and hosts see a chat message naming each player who joins and their permission level.

3:35 A banned player stays banned. Keen's Wake of the Water highlights (Nov 10, 2025) say server bans "are now persistent after server restart", which "should notably help protect resource worlds from griefing". Bans are kept in the bans list of the server file.

Black screen, crashes and the first start

The endless black screen some players got when loading a multiplayer game was fixed in hotfix 1.0.0.3 on Oct 21, 2026, together with crashes in the water simulation, when leaving the game, when interacting with factories, and when unlocking recipes with a recipe filter active (Keen). Hotfix 1.0.0.2 (Oct 16, 2026) had already fixed a server crash "when fighting a very large number of enemies", a crash when fast traveling or landing with a glider in a world full of enemies, survivors and mannequins, and a gray-fog rendering bug on Nvidia cards (Keen). If you still crash, make sure Steam has installed the latest hotfix before anything else.

6:52 A long wait on the first start after an update is usually shader compilation, not a crash. In Keen's "Performance Improvements for 1.0" video, the engine team explains that each player's GPU driver must translate the game's shaders into machine code, and "this process needs to happen again whenever we change the shaders or when the driver updates"; consoles skip it because their hardware is identical. The 1.0 changelog says that compilation time was "significantly reduced", though "a small amount of compilation time is unavoidable" (1.0 changelog). On Steam Deck, Keen's support article warns that the first startup "may display a black screen for a minute or two".

Two more official notes from the first days of 1.0: if the Edit button for a world did nothing after hotfix 1.0.0.1, Keen's workaround was to subscribe to anything in Adventure Sharing and try again, and 1.0.0.2 fixed world settings that could not be configured (1.0.0.1; 1.0.0.2). For broken reverb and lore audio, Keen advised keeping the master volume at 100% and lowering the volume in Windows instead, until a fix.

Save migration problems after 1.0

The first time 1.0 loads a save made with version 0.8 or earlier, it backs the save up and converts it to a new, smaller format (1.0 changelog). Three things went wrong for some players, and Keen has fixed or explained each:

Problem	What Keen says
A character is missing from the list	Check the other tab: the character and world menus now have separate tabs for the local save folder and the Steam Cloud folder (1.0 changelog). Corrupted characters were skipped by 1.0.0.2 "for now"; 1.0.0.3 migrates characters with invalid extra backpack slot entries, without the items that blocked them
The game crashed during migration	Rare crashes fixed in 1.0.0.2 and 1.0.0.3
A base lost its water	1.0.0.3 puts a Flame Altar that sat outside the voxel grid back in place, but that base's water "must be re-added as needed"
The skill tree is empty	Expected: every skill tree resets once when an older save first loads in 1.0, so spend the points again
"Save data can't be overwritten"	The files are set to read-only in Windows; 1.0 now warns about it

Keen's Launch FAQ adds that early access saves work in 1.0, but because the world and the first hours changed, "we strongly encourage you to start over" (Launch FAQ). See What's New in 1.0.

Where saves are, and how to roll back

The 1.0 changelog names the local save folder: C:\Users\WINDOWSUSER\Saved Games\keen games\Enshrouded\default, with your Windows user name in place of WINDOWSUSER. Keen's older support article still points at %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\enshrouded, the folder early access used, which is worth checking if a pre-1.0 world seems lost. Steam Cloud copies can be downloaded from Steam's remote storage page for the game, and Steam keeps a local copy in Steam\userdata\<your Steam ID>\1203620\remote (Save Game Management).

Each world has a fixed file name by the order it was created (world 1 is 3ad85aea, world 2 3bd85c7d), and Keen's article describes 10 numbered rolling copies, a new one every 10 minutes or when the game shuts down. To roll back, open the world's -index file in a text editor and change the number under "latest" to the copy you want, from 0 to 9. Keen: "Before making any changes, it is highly recommended to create a copy of all save files." Keen's article predates the 1.0 format, so check the folder before editing.

A dedicated server keeps only the world, in its savegame folder (saveDirectory), written every 5 minutes; characters live on each player's PC (Dedicated Server FAQ). Keen lists these folders "for sharing or creating backups"; copy them only while the server or game is stopped.

Keen's support channels

In the game: "Report a Bug" in the Escape menu. If the game will not start, use Keen's support form, and watch for a reply e-mail asking for files (Reporting Bugs).
What to attach: a dxdiag.txt (Windows key + R, dxdiag, Save All Information), the client log enshrouded.log and its backup folder from the game's local files, your save files from before and after the problem, and for a server its logs folder, logs/backup and savegame.
News and known issues: Keen's Steam announcements, enshrouded.com/news and the #news channel of the official Discord (Keen).
Knowledge base: enshrouded.zendesk.com, where every article quoted here lives. Fixes from server-hosting companies and fan forums are not covered on this page.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my Enshrouded server not showing up? Tick "Show dedicated server" in the server filter of the Join menu; if it is still missing, add it in Steam under View, Game Servers, Favorites as IP:15637 (or its own query port), and it will appear at the top of Enshrouded's list.

Why can't I join my friend in Enshrouded? In Enshrouded the host's Steam profile must be public for the game to show in the browser, or the host can invite you from the Steam friends list; PC and PS5 players cannot play together because there is no cross-play at launch.

What port does Enshrouded use? Keen Games documents query port 15637 for Enshrouded, plus the ports Steam itself needs; multiplayer uses IPv4 only.

How do I fix the black screen when loading multiplayer in Enshrouded? Update Enshrouded: hotfix 1.0.0.3 of Oct 21, 2026 fixed the endless black screen some players got when loading a multiplayer game.

My character is missing after the 1.0 update. What do I do? In Enshrouded 1.0, check both the local and the Steam Cloud tab in the character menu; characters skipped as corrupted by hotfix 1.0.0.2 were addressed in 1.0.0.3, which migrates characters with bad backpack slot entries.

Where are Enshrouded save files? Enshrouded 1.0 saves locally in C:\Users<your name>\Saved Games\keen games\Enshrouded\default; dedicated servers save worlds in their savegame folder.

Why can't I open chests or build on an Enshrouded server? On an Enshrouded dedicated server your rights come from the password you joined with; the Guest and Visitor groups cannot use chests or build in bases, so ask the host for the Friend or Admin password.