How to ban players or allow only some players on your Valheim server

Valheim keeps two lists for this, and the panel edits both in the Access window on the Active players card. Banned blocks the players on it. Allowed is an allow list: as soon as it has one player, everyone who is not on it is refused. Changes need no restart, and the game picks them up within about 15 seconds.

Open Access

1. Open your server in the panel. On Overview, find the Active players card.
2. Click Access. The window has three tabs: Admins, Banned and Allowed, each with the number of entries.

The window says the lists are the game's own, so they work even while the server is stopped.

Ban a player

1. Click the Banned tab.
2. If the player is online, they are listed under Online now with a button: click it.
3. Otherwise type their ID in Add by player ID. You can add a Reason (optional), up to 100 characters.
4. Click Ban.

A banned player who is online is removed: at once with PlayNHost Tools on, within about 15 seconds without them. The ban list also takes a character name, written the way the game shows it. To ban from a player's row instead, see How to kick or ban a player on your Valheim server.

Allow only some players

1. Click the Allowed tab. While it is empty it says the server is open to anyone with the password.
2. Add yourself first. Type your own ID in Add by player ID, or click your name under Online now, not allowed yet.
3. Click Allow. Because this is the first entry, the panel asks Close the server to everyone else?. Click Add and close the server.
4. Add every other player who should be able to join, one at a time.

From the first entry on, the tab says The server is closed to everyone except the players below. Anyone online who is not on the list is removed within seconds, and anyone else is refused, even with the right password. You can also use Allow on a player's row on the card.

Lock-out warning. If you forget your own ID, you are locked out too. Open Access in the panel, which works even while the server is stopped, and add yourself or remove every entry.

Open the server again

Remove every entry from Allowed. The panel says Saved. The allow list is empty again, so anyone with the password can join.

Which list for which job

A password is still the first lock: How to change your Valheim server name and password. The IDs are explained in How to find a player's ID for Valheim admin, ban and allow lists.

Good to know

• The lists are the files bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt in .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/. The Access window edits them for you. They are part of your backups.
• If friends are suddenly refused, check the Allowed tab first: Valheim players are refused because the allow list is on.