A game can only join a server that runs the same build; a server on an older build shows brown in the list, without a Join button. After every ARK patch the server, its plugins and every mod must be updated and the map restarted, so for a while the game, the servers and some mods disagree. On this cluster an ASA map is never started on a new game build with old server plugins: the admins wait for the matching server framework, test the update on a test map first, then roll it out map by map. Until a map is updated, a newer game cannot join it.
Engine-update example: Unreal Engine 5.8. Community Crunch 529, published on 24/10/2026, announced a target of 05/11/2026 and said almost all mods had been recooked and validated. A target date is not confirmation that a particular map has updated: check the current official patch notes and our map's version card. The Steam Public Test Realm (PTR) is a separate test build; its players cannot join live servers. Keep PTR saves separate from live saves because an upgraded save may not load in the older build.
Earlier patches already fixed related faults: a crash during dynamic mod downloads, and since v66.45 the game clears duplicate versions of the same mod.
Check first: the version pill on each card on the Servers page. A map highlighted as different from the others is still updating. If every card is ahead of your game, update your game. If your game is ahead of every card, our maps are waiting for their update.
The admins update the maps and their server plugins together, back up the saves before patching, test on a test map first, and check each map's start log and mods before players come in; the card shows every map's version. Ask an admin when one map stays behind long after the others are updated, when the mod download fails on our maps only, or when something that worked before the update has stopped working.
Tell an admin the map, the time (the clock in your profile menu shows the server's time), your character's name, what you carried or had uploaded, and the exact message on the screen. For a transfer: both maps and both times. Report the same day — the backups reach back only about two days. Contact admin is in your profile menu; the Guides page has a question box.
