Palworld's UDP 27015 query port conflict kept Deadlock and PUBG from launching

Only while Palworld Dedicated Server was running on Windows 11, Deadlock would not advance past the loading screen after launch, and PUBG showed an “external provider authentication failed” error.

When I stopped Palworld, Deadlock launched. After that, I changed Palworld’s Query Port from UDP 27015 to 27100, and PUBG could launch while the Palworld server kept running.

The Palworld game connection was using UDP 8211, but checking the actual listening ports in PowerShell showed that PalServer-Win64-Shipping-Cmd.exe was also using UDP 27015.

Get-NetUDPEndpoint -LocalPort 27015 |
  Select-Object LocalAddress, LocalPort, OwningProcess,
    @{Name = "ProcessName"; Expression = {
      (Get-Process -Id $_.OwningProcess).ProcessName
    }}

There is also a user report on the official Deadlock forum where the infinite loading problem was caused by port 27015 already being in use. In my case, Deadlock progressed when Palworld was stopped and reproduced when Palworld was started, so it looked like the same port-conflict class of issue.

References: Get-NetUDPEndpoint / Deadlock official forum solved report

I added -queryport=27100 to Palworld’s launch arguments. Before changing it, I checked that 27100 was free, backed up the world, and restarted the server.

PalServer.exe -port=8211 -players=5 -logformat=text -queryport=27100

-port=8211 is the game connection port, and -queryport=27100 is the port used for Steam server queries. Steamworks also treats the Game Port and Query Port as separate values.

As of July 23, 2026, Palworld’s official launch-argument list does not mention -queryport. I tried a workaround used by the community and confirmed that, on this PC, Palworld listened on UDP 27100.

References: Palworld Server Guide launch arguments / SteamGameServer_Init / report of the same -queryport workaround

After the restart, the ports were assigned like this:

After moving Palworld’s Query Port to 27100, PUBG acquired the now-free UDP 27015 port and launched. The error message alone was not enough to identify the cause, but on this PC the Query Port change fixed it.

The Hamachi join address stayed the same as before: 25.x.x.x:8211. Participants did not need to change their settings.

This is a private server where people enter the IP address and UDP 8211 directly, so changing the Query Port does not change the join destination. If you publish the server to Steam’s community server list, check that the new Query Port is allowed through the firewall and router.

Related: Windows Firewall settings when Palworld Dedicated Server would not accept Hamachi connections