Your server boots, you can join by IP, and it is nowhere in the browser. There is a specific list of causes, and one of them — an artifact rule Cfx.re enforces — is the one nobody mentions.
Your server boots. The console is clean. You can connect to it directly by IP. And it is nowhere in the FiveM server browser.
This is one of the most-asked and worst-answered questions in FiveM. The forum answers are mostly "check your ports", which is sometimes right and often not — because a server with closed ports usually cannot be joined at all, and yours can. Here are the actual causes, in the order you should check them.
First, understand the two different things that can break
Connecting directly and being listed are separate mechanisms:
Direct connection goes to your server's endpoint — your IP and port 30120.
Being listed requires your server to successfully register with the Cfx.re master list, an outbound connection from your server to Cfx.re's infrastructure.
This is why "I can join by IP but I'm not in the browser" is so common, and why it is not a contradiction. Your endpoint works; your registration does not. Keep that distinction in mind and the diagnosis gets much easier.
1. Your artifact is too old (the cause nobody mentions)
Start here, because it is the one that is invisible and the one that has bitten the most people since Cfx.re started enforcing it.
Cfx.re's support documentation says this outright: "Unsupported server artifacts older than three months will not be joinable from the server browser."
The median FiveM server peaked at two players. Not two hundred — two. We measured 31,334 of them. Here is what a server realistically needs to feel alive, and why your slot count is fiction.
Every FiveM server requirements table you have read was invented by a company selling servers. Cfx.re publishes no hardware spec at all. Here is what actually determines whether your server runs well.
Recommended artifacts are supported until six weeks after the next release.
Latest artifacts are supported until two weeks after the next release.
Outdated artifacts do not stop functioning — but you get no support, and once they pass the window, players hit "server artifact version is outdated", end-of-support (EOS) or end-of-life (EOL) errors.
So a server that was working perfectly six months ago and has never been touched since will still boot, still run, and still be joinable by IP — and will have quietly stopped being reachable through the browser. Nothing in your console will tell you this is happening.
Fix: download the current LATEST RECOMMENDED build from the artifacts server (build_server_windows for Windows, build_proot_linux for Linux), swap it in, restart. Then put a recurring reminder in your calendar, because this will happen again.
And both must be forwarded through your router or allowed through your firewall. People forward TCP and forget UDP constantly — the game traffic itself is UDP, so a TCP-only forward produces exactly the kind of half-working server that is maddening to diagnose.
If you are on a VPS, check the provider's firewall as well as the operating system's. A ufw rule and a cloud security group are two different walls, and you need holes in both.
3. You are missing sv_projectName or sv_projectDesc
This one is genuinely obscure, it is documented, and it will silently keep you off the list.
Cfx.re's support documentation is explicit: if eithersv_projectName or sv_projectDesc is missing, the server will display an error on startup and may not appear on the list. They are not optional cosmetics.
sets sv_projectName "My Roleplay Server"
sets sv_projectDesc "Serious roleplay, custom scripts, active staff"
If you built your server.cfg by hand rather than letting txAdmin generate it, check that both are present. This is a common cause and almost nobody mentions it.
4. Your licence key is missing
Your key goes in server.cfg:
sv_licenseKey "your_key_here"
Register one free on the Cfx.re Portal (portal.cfx.re). The documented failure is a console error along the lines of "no license key was specified" — which is printed at startup, so read the first fifty lines of your server log properly instead of scrolling to the end and giving up.
(You will see people claim that reusing one key on two servers simultaneously delists you. Cfx.re does not document what happens in that case, so I am not going to tell you it does — but there is no good reason to run two servers on one key, so do not.)
5. An uncommented sv_master1 is making you look private
This is a real trap, and it is the opposite of what most forum posts claim.
The stock server.cfg ships with a commented-out line: #sv_master1 "". If that # goes missing — a stray edit, a bad copy-paste — your server appears private: it shows in the list, but the connect button is disabled.
What sv_master1 does not do is de-list you. The Cfx.re documentation says so in as many words: it can make a server private, but this variable cannot be used to de-list a server from the master list — the server always posts to the default server ingress on startup regardless. So if a forum post told you to blank sv_master1 to hide or unhide your server, that post is wrong in both directions. Just make sure the line is commented out.
While you are in there: sv_endpointPrivacy is often misunderstood too. It hides player IP addresses from the server's public reports. It has nothing to do with whether your server is listed.
The general rule: if your config contains convars you cannot explain, remove them and restart. A stock config plus a licence key and a project name is enough to get listed.
6. NAT, UDP source ports, and the eight-minute wait
Two more documented ones worth knowing before you start rewriting your config:
Give it eight minutes. Cfx.re states it can take up to 8 minutes for a server to appear in the list after launch if no other heartbeats are sent. If you restarted 90 seconds ago, you may simply be impatient.
NAT that masks UDP source ports will break listing. If you are behind a gateway or NAT that rewrites UDP source ports, your server may not show up. This is a real and nasty one on some home connections and cheap VPS setups.
A good quick test, straight from the Cfx.re support page: check that http://your-ip:30120/info.json loads from outside your own network (ask a friend, or use your phone on mobile data). If that URL does not resolve externally, your problem is networking, not FiveM.
7. Outbound connections from your server are blocked
Registration is an outbound call from your machine to Cfx.re. On a locked-down VPS, an aggressive egress firewall can block it while inbound game traffic works fine — producing, again, a server you can join but cannot find.
If you administer the box, confirm it can actually reach the internet outbound, not just accept connections inbound.
8. Nothing is broken — you are just invisible
This is the outcome nobody wants to hear, and for a lot of servers it is the true one.
There were 32,616 public FiveM servers online at our last poll. Roughly 18% of them had not had a single player in a week. The browser is not a level playing field: it sorts by player count, and an empty server sits below thousands of other empty servers.
So if your server is in the list — you can find it by searching its exact name, or by its join code — then it is not delisted. It is buried. That is a completely different problem, and no amount of config editing will fix it. Getting your first players is a marketing problem, not a technical one.
How to check which situation you are in: open the FiveM browser and search for your server's exact hostname, and try connecting by its cfx.re join code. If it comes up, you are listed and simply invisible. If it does not come up at all, go back to cause 1.
The order to actually work through
Wait eight minutes after a restart before concluding anything.
Search for your server by exact name in the browser. Found it? You are listed — skip to the last step. Greyed out or the connect button is dead? Check sv_master1 is commented out. Not found at all? Continue.
Check your artifact version. More than three months past support is a hard stop, and it is the most likely cause on a server that used to work and now does not.
Confirm sv_projectName and sv_projectDesc are both set.
Confirm 30120 is open on TCP and UDP, at the router, the OS firewall, and the cloud provider.
Check info.json resolves from outside your network. If it does not, stop editing server.cfg — the problem is networking.
Read the first fifty lines of your server console on startup. Licence key and registration errors are printed there and nowhere else.
Strip unexplained convars from server.cfg.
If you are listed but nobody comes: the problem is that you are one of thousands of empty servers, and the fix is a community, not a config file.
That last point is worth sitting with. Our data on what population a server actually needs shows that nearly six in ten public servers never get two players online simultaneously — being in the list has never been the hard part. You can see the whole live directory, updated every five minutes, on the FiveM server list.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my FiveM server not showing in the server list?
In rough order of likelihood: your server artifact is too old (Cfx.re states unsupported artifacts more than three months old will not be joinable from the server browser), port 30120 is not forwarded on both TCP and UDP, you are missing sv_projectName or sv_projectDesc (Cfx.re documents that a server missing either may not appear on the list), your licence key is missing, or your server is simply buried thousands of places down a list of 32,000 servers because it has no players.
Can my FiveM server be joinable by IP but still not listed?
Yes, and it is common. Direct connection uses your endpoint; listing requires your server to successfully register with the Cfx.re master list. An outdated artifact, a licence key problem, or a blocked outbound connection can break registration while direct joining still works.
Which ports does a FiveM server need?
Port 30120 must be open on both TCP and UDP — people forget UDP constantly. txAdmin's web panel uses 40120 by default, which should not be exposed to the internet.
Does my server get delisted for having no players?
It is not removed, but it is effectively invisible. There are over 32,000 public servers online at any time, and roughly 18% of them have not had a single player in a week. An empty server is not hidden — it is just far enough down the list that nobody will ever scroll to it.
How long does it take for a new server to appear in the list?
Usually a couple of minutes after the server successfully registers with the master list. If it has not appeared after a restart and several minutes, the problem is registration, not delay — start with the artifact version and the licence key.
Most FiveM setup guides on Google were written for a version of txAdmin that no longer exists. This one is checked against the current docs, and covers the three-month artifact rule that quietly removes servers from the browser.
