Connecting
Adding the server in Minecraft, firewalls, and port forwarding.
Bedrock clients talk to the server over UDP, not TCP. Almost every "I cannot join" report comes down to that one line.
Adding the server in Minecraft
In the game: Play → Servers → Add Server. Any name, then the address and port.
| Where the player is | Address | Port |
|---|---|---|
| Same network | The machine's local IP, e.g. 192.168.1.20 | 19132 |
| Over the internet | Your public IP or a domain pointing at it | 19132 |
Consoles
Xbox, PlayStation and Switch hide custom server entries unless the console is set up to use a DNS service that maps a featured server to yours. That is a client side limitation, not something the server can fix.
Firewall
sudo ufw allow 19132/udpPort forwarding
Pin the server's local IP
Give the machine a static local address, or a DHCP reservation in the router. A lease that moves breaks the forward silently.
Forward the port
In the router, forward external UDP 19132 to that IP on port 19132.
Test from outside
Mobile data, not the same network. Testing from inside tells you nothing about the forward.
Carrier grade NAT
Some ISPs give you no public IPv4 address at all, and no port forward will ever work. If your
router's WAN address starts with 100.64. through 100.127., that is what is happening. A VPS
or a tunnelling service is the way around it.
Checking whether it is listening
Opening server on 0.0.0.0:191320.0.0.0 means "every network interface on this machine". It does not mean the server is reachable
from the internet, only that it is bound locally.
ss -lunp | grep 19132If the port is listening and LAN clients can join but outside clients cannot, the problem is the firewall or the router, in that order.
Same machine as the client
Minecraft for Windows runs in an app container that blocks loopback connections by default:
CheckNetIsolation LoopbackExempt -a -n="Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe"Still nothing
More of these in Common issues.