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Tickwise
ErrorVelocity & proxySIG-VE-003

Velocity cannot connect the player to the backend (backend unreachable)

Platforms
Velocity · whole network
Verified
Verified
Confidence
Confidence 85%

What it looks like in the log

Any one of these lines is enough. The agent matches them locally, on your server.

logs/latest.log
  • unable to connect to server
  • Unable to connect you to

Symptoms

  • Players cannot get onto the server: “Unable to connect you to <server>. Please try again later.”
  • In the proxy log: “<player>: unable to connect to server <name>” with Connection refused / timeout

Cause

The proxy could not establish a connection to the backend: the backend process is stopped, has crashed or is restarting, has hung (does not respond within read-timeout), or the address in velocity.toml is wrong.

Possible causes

  • The backend is off, has crashed or is restarting (Connection refused) — the cloud correlates this with the backend state (NW-01)
  • The backend has hung or is overloaded and does not respond within read-timeout (ReadTimeoutException)
  • Wrong backend address/port in the [servers] section of velocity.toml, or a firewall between the proxy and the backend (connection timed out / No route to host)
  • noteVelocity kick messages are translatable and can be overridden; the primary source is the Velocity agent's API events, and this log signature is supplementary

How to fixLow risk

  1. Look at the exception under the unable to connect to server <name> line in the evidence: Connection refused — nothing is listening on the address; connection timed out / No route to host — network or firewall; ReadTimeoutException — the backend accepts the connection but does not respond (hung or lagging).
  2. Check whether backend <name> is running and not stuck in a restart loop (the hosting console/panel, the end of its latest.log).
  3. Compare the backend address and port under [servers] in velocity.toml with server-port in that backend's server.properties.
  4. If the backend is reachable but responds slowly, look for the cause of the hang on it (TPS/MSPT, GC pauses, watchdog).
  5. To stop players being dropped from the proxy entirely, keep a working fallback server in try.

Translated from the Russian original; log lines are quoted verbatim.

Sources