Multiplayer co-op failed connection

[Kacilier]

First off--it's not our internet connections. We can connect with each other on any other game just fine. There are no problems there.

My friend and I used to play Stardew together a lot, and we made good progress. But the last half dozen times we've tried to play together (I'm the host, btw), all my friend gets is the "Connection Failed" message. We haven't been able to play together for months (longer than that, probably). We even tried to start a new farm--same problem. We thought the recent update would fix it, but nope!

Neither of us has ever had problems with firewalls, antivirus, or any other software that would impede or, alternatively, be required to run the game (so don't go on about C++ or whatever it is; we have all that). We can run it just fine individually, and as mentioned we can connect together on other multiplayer games without issue. It's just Stardew that causes a problem with its co-op.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this, or how to help fix it? We're getting really fed up with this. Thank you!

[Hinto]

Перепробовал большинство советов, ничего не помогает. Что странно, в самом начале мы играли спокойно, но со временем эта ошибка всё чаще стала нам мешать. Теперь в итоге бывает тратим по 1,5 часа на попытки подключения и всё неудачно. Поначалу думал это из-за того что мы из разных стран РФ-Украина, но нет, в других то играх мы спокойно играем в коопе.
Игра разочаровывает (

[SnoutUp]

Ah, I managed to miss this thread and created my own. The story here is very similar, except Stardew Valley is one of a few games that supposed to support PC + Mac play, so I got it for my friend. After that, everything is the same. We have no mods, both tried hosting, every setting, restart and reinstall imaginable, nothing worked.

Then, I managed to connect to the Mac by starting the game from the Steam UI and it gave us hope and a start of a beautiful new farm. Except it only happend twice and today I spent few hours trying everything the same without any luck. I don't get it. The worst is how little information the game or the log file provides.

We tried LAN over Hamachi and Zerotier, but also without any luck.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/413150/discussions/0/3762229314894552007/

[Tj32]

Originally posted by Kacilier:

This update will probably help precisely no-one, but:

- we're both playing on 64bit machines, confirmed
- we both attempted to connect using the 32bit compatibility mode: my friend's game wouldn't even boot in that mode, but mine would
- I attempted to host using the Comp mode, while my friend reverted to 64bit. Surprising both of us, it worked! We didn't even have save problems.
- I attempted to host a different farm: it also worked
- My friend attempted to host me, same set-up: also worked!
- I then reverted to 64bit as well. Nobody was using Comp mode. I attempted to host.... it worked.

So at first I thought we had a workaround: me on Comp mode, my friend not. But it turns out that it just works now. Whether we somehow fixed something /through/ the switching of modes, or whether Stardew itself fixed the problem without us noticing prior to this, or whether it was a Steam update that fixed it... it now, seemingly, works. We can connect farms.

Additional notes:
My friend IS using mods; I'm not. We're both still connecting remotely over wi-fi with our own separate game copies. Neither of us did anything differently apart from attempting/initially using Comp mode.

I think this matter is still worth investigating further because without knowing what the cause was, I do believe it could reoccur (and it bugs me endlessly that I don't know the exact cause); and it's obviously affecting a lot of people still, yourselves included.
I wish I could give a more definitive answer on why it's suddenly working again for us (after literally years of it not). As it is, if there's any additional information etc, please do keep adding it here.

This worked for me ! Thank you man, u saved our relationship

[Mizerakl]

Hi. One thing that helped me was connecting via LAN by IP. Use following steps:

1. Press Windows + R
2. Type cmd and hit enter
3. Type ipconfig and hit enter
4. Find and send IPv4 address to your friend
5. Your friend has to select connect via lan and input IP that you send

Try this, maybe it will help

[Railic]

Originally posted by Mizerakl:

Hi. One thing that helped me was connecting via LAN by IP. Use following steps:

1. Press Windows + R
2. Type cmd and hit enter
3. Type ipconfig and hit enter
4. Find and send IPv4 address to your friend
5. Your friend has to select connect via lan and input IP that you send

Try this, maybe it will help

This is how my wife and I have to connect to play together. Don't know why it works better than just a steam invite or whatever but it always connects (as long as the other person isn't loading still or viewing the TV in game.)

[Xiendanth]

Me and My friend fix this problem.

We both turned off all unnecessary programs except steam, such as discord, spotify and vpn.
This actually helped, either restarting the steam client

[leviathan1105]

Update: Managed to play together by simply making sure we had both updated Steam and Stardew Valley. Haven't had the connection error since. Nothing else had worked. Hope this helps someone.

[Dick_Sensei]

I had this problem while I was playing on LAN or at least I thought I was because both computers were on the same network. It just kept dropping out when ever I would get further away from the other person who was hosting the game.

I did figure it out I think. I eventually tried connecting to the server on my network by using the IP address of the machine the server was hosted on in this case 192.168.1.100 and the connection is much more solid. You can look up a guide to find your ip but basics are ipconfig in powershell or command promt (cmd) or you could see it listed inside your router.

I think whats happening is that even if you are on the same switch or router the route that is taken automatically by the easy to click join game that pops up is that it routes you through steam somehow. If you enter a ip address you get a actual LAN game connection.

Hope this helps.

[Bluemethyst]

im having this issue now, i cannot join my friends at all and they cannot join me but they can join each other. i previously played with friends on the same computer and same internet but it no longer lets me

[hacknaija]

I have the same problem, don't know what the issue is :(

[SnoutUp]

So, if anyone is curious how I solved this issue and was able to play coop connecting Windows and Mac machines, was using the ZeroTier app, it just required a bit more messing around.

I wrote a blog post about it, hope it's okay to post it here: https://snoutup.com/2023/01/30/stardew-valley-coop-connection-failed-fix/

But I guess it boils down to this:

* Download ZeroTier application to both machines
* Create a new network in that plainly looking web dashboard
* Make sure that both machines are connected to that network
* Make sure you see both machines in the network members list
* Check the auth box next to the members
* Try to ping (if you know how) the Managed IPs of the members
* Now use JOIN LAN GAME option in Stardew Valley and enter the IP of the Host
* Host should see a notification (good sign!) and accept a new client
* Check your farm!

[Cauchemar]

I had this problem today, and in case anyone is searching for another workaround, I modded the game and just forgot to allow StardewModdingAPI.exe on windows Firewall... it worked again without problems after that xD