Join the Project Zomboid server

Three steps. The middle one is a download that does the fiddly parts for you.

Why this page exists. This server runs 57 mods. Four of them were deleted from the Steam Workshop by their authors, so Steam cannot give them to you — they have to be installed by hand. On top of that, the Steam build of the game is missing 129 files the server expects. Miss any of it and the join hangs with no error message at all.

1 Get on Tailscale

The server is not on the public internet. Tailscale is a free private network — it is how you reach it.

Ask the server owner to send you an invite link, and click it.
Install Tailscale: tailscale.com/download
Sign in with the same account you accepted the invite with.
Leave it running. The tray icon should say Connected.

Already in the house? If you are on the same home network as the server you can skip Tailscale entirely and use the LAN address further down.

2 Run the setup file

Does all three fixes automatically. Takes about a minute.

⬇ Download pz-setup.batWindows • ~3 KB • no admin rights needed

Double-click it when it lands. It will:

Step	What it does
Steam setting	turns on Allow downloads during gameplay — the single most common cause of a stuck join
8 mods	installs the ones Steam cannot serve into `Zomboid\mods\`
129 files	restores game files missing from the Steam build. Never overwrites a file you already have.

Windows will warn you. It warns about every downloaded .bat. Click More info → Run anyway. In Chrome, click the ⌄ next to the download and choose Keep. The file is short, plain text, and you are welcome to open it in Notepad first — everything it does is listed at the top.

Safe to run twice. It skips whatever is already correct, and backs up the one Steam file it edits as localconfig.vdf.bak-pzsetup.

3 Add the server and join

In Project Zomboid: Join → Favourites → add a server.

Address100.72.119.93 Port16263

On the same home network as the server instead? Use 192.168.1.220, same port.

Start Steam first and let it finish any pending downloads before you launch the game.

If something goes wrong

I would rather do it by hand

a) The Steam setting

Steam → Settings → Downloads → Allow downloads during gameplay.

Without it, Steam quietly refuses to fetch mod updates while a game is running. Project Zomboid asks for the mods during the join, Steam defers, and the join waits forever without ever printing an error.

b) The 8 hand-install mods

Download pz-manual-mods-FOR-Zomboid-mods-folder.zip (49 MB).

Fully quit Project Zomboid.
Extract it into your user Zomboid folder — not the Steam one:
```
C:\Users\<you>\Zomboid\mods\
```
You should end up with these eight folders:

Folder	What it is
`VFE`, `VFEP93`, `VFES`	Vanilla Firearms Expansion + STALKER pack + Post '93
`BetterTowing`, `DisableDefaultTowing`, `HarrysTowTruck`	the towing overhaul
`Project Summer Car`	a vehicle
`VehicleClassOverhaul`	vehicle class changes

Do not put them in steamapps\workshop\content\108600\. Files there do not make Steam consider you subscribed, so the game still refuses them. Zomboid\mods is read directly by the game with Steam not involved — that is the whole point.

c) The 129 missing game files

Download pz-client-files.zip (37 MB) and extract it into your Project Zomboid install folder, the one that contains media:

...\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid\

The zip already contains a media\ folder, so it merges straight in. Choose "skip" if anything asks to overwrite — you only want the files you are missing.

You can tell it worked if this file now exists:

media\actiongroups\player\hitreaction-bite\to_hitreaction-hit.xml

"File does not exist on the client: ..."

You are missing the 129 game files. Run the setup file, or do step (c) above.

This comes back after Steam's Verify integrity of game files, and after some game updates — both delete files Steam does not know about. Just run the setup file again.

"Not Subscribed" or "File Size 0 MB"

That mod was deleted from the Steam Workshop. Waiting will never help — Steam is returning nothing for it. You are missing the 8 hand-install mods; run the setup file, or do step (b) above.

It downloads everything, says installed, then hangs on one mod

Your copy of that mod is older than the server's and Steam is refusing to update it. The mod named on screen is usually just the last one it got to, not the actual problem — there may be a dozen behind it.

It hangs rather than fails because of a stand-off: Steam reports the download "complete" in about a second without transferring anything, because it believes your old copy is current. The game compares against the server, disagrees, and asks again. Neither side gives up and neither produces an error.

Fix, in order of effort:

Turn on Allow downloads during gameplay and retry. This alone fixes it most of the time.
Fully quit the game, open Steam, let it finish any pending downloads, relaunch.
Steam → Settings → Downloads → Clear Download Cache. One stuck download blocks every one behind it — on the server owner's machine one had been jammed for fifteen months, silently blocking all workshop updates.
Unsubscribe from the mod, wait for Steam to delete it, resubscribe. This is the only reliable way to break the stand-off, because it removes Steam's reason to believe your copy is current.

It sits on "Joining game" and never moves

Usually a version mismatch: your game updated and the server has not yet, or the other way round. The server accepts the connection and then goes quiet, so there is no error on screen.

Check the bottom of the main menu for your version, and tell the server owner what it says. Nothing you can do from your side fixes this one.

How to see what is actually happening

The game writes a log. Open:

C:\Users\<you>\Zomboid\console.txt

and look at the end. These lines are the smoking gun:

Subscribed|Installed|DownloadPending ID=<number>   repeated many times
onItemDownloaded itemID=<number> time=1162 ms      Steam claims success...
GetItemState()=Subscribed|Installed                ...but nothing changed
item state CheckItemState -> DownloadPending       so the game asks again

Paste the number after https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id= to see which mod it is. result=3 on an onItemNotDownloaded line means Steam gave up on that item.

Send that file to the server owner if you are stuck.

Mod updates will break this again

With 57 mods, authors push updates constantly. Any time your copy falls behind the server's, the join stalls the same way.

Leave Allow downloads during gameplay on, and let Steam finish updating before you launch the game. If you have not played in a while, open Steam first and give it a few minutes.