How to Join on Xbox, PlayStation or Switch

If you play Minecraft on Xbox, PlayStation or Switch, you have probably noticed there is no way to type in a server address. That is not something wrong with your server. The console versions of Minecraft only list Mojang's featured partner servers, and the platform holders do not allow an Add Server box at all.

Your server works fine. Getting a console onto it takes a workaround, and this page explains the options honestly, including what each one costs you.

1Confirm the Server Works First

• Log in to your game panel and check your Bedrock server reads RUNNING on the Console page.
• Join from a phone or a Windows PC using the address from that page, as described in how to connect to your Bedrock server.
• Do this before trying anything on a console. If a phone can join, the server is fine and everything below is about the console, not about your server.

2Option A: A Companion App

• Apps such as BedrockTogether and Bedrock Online run on a phone and advertise your server to the console, which then shows it under the Friends tab.
• The console and the phone need to be on the same network, and the phone has to stay open while you join.
• Support varies by platform and changes over time. At the time of writing these apps work with Xbox and PlayStation, and Switch support is patchy.
• Follow the app's own current instructions rather than a guide you found last year, because the method changes whenever Mojang changes the game.

3Option B: The DNS Method

• Services such as BedrockConnect work by changing the DNS settings on your console. The featured server list is then replaced with an entry that lets you type any address.
• This is the more reliable route, and it is also the more invasive one: you are pointing part of your console's network traffic at a third party.
• Use the service's own current setup instructions, and write down your original DNS settings first so you can put them back.

4What We Can and Cannot Help With

• We can confirm your server is online, reachable and on the right version, and we will happily check that for you.
• We cannot support the console workarounds themselves. They are third party tools, not ours and not Mojang's, and they break whenever Minecraft changes.
• If a console player cannot connect but a phone can, the problem is the workaround, not the server.

Good to Know

• This is a platform restriction, not a hosting limitation. Every Bedrock host has the same problem, because the block is in the console version of the game.
• Realms are the officially supported route on console. They are Mojang's own product with far fewer features and no server files, but they need no workaround. Worth knowing about even though it is not what we sell.
• Java players have it easier. If your group is mostly on PC, a Java server with the Geyser plugin lets Bedrock players in without any of this. See Java or Bedrock, which server do you need.

Finished

Your console players are in, or you know why they are not. If players on phones and PCs also cannot connect, that is a different problem: read players cannot connect.