Whitelist players on your Valheim server

Valheim has a whitelist, though it calls it the permitted list. When anyone is on it, only those people can join your server and everyone else is turned away. Your Players tab calls the list Allowed only.

Checked against Valheim 1.0.20 (patch of 15 October 2026) and Iron Gate's own dedicated server guide, October 2026.

How the list behaves

Valheim keeps it in a text file called permittedlist.txt. Iron Gate's guide is blunt about the effect: adding a person to the permitted list bans everyone else from the server. So the moment the list has one name on it, nobody else gets in, you included unless you add your own ID too.

Turn it on from the Players tab

1. Collect the ID of everyone who should be allowed in, yourself first. How to find a player's Valheim ID shows where each kind comes from.
2. Open the Players tab and choose Allowed only.
3. Paste the first ID into the Paste an ID box and click Add. The button stays greyed out until the ID has a valid shape: a 17-digit Steam ID, or a platform ID such as Xbox_2535451158060505.
4. Repeat for each person, then Restart the server. The panel notes that every change applies the next time the server starts.

The tab title shows how many people are on the list, for example Allowed only (4).

Add or remove someone later

To let a new friend in, add their ID to Allowed only and restart the server. To remove someone, click the X at the end of their row and restart. Like every change to these lists, it applies the next time the server starts.

If you only need to keep one troublemaker out, the Banned list is lighter than an allowed list: see Kick and ban players on your Valheim server.

Go back to an open server

To open the server to everyone again, remove every ID from Allowed only and restart. With the list empty, the whitelist is off and the join password is the only gate.

Check the file by hand

If you want to look, open the File Manager and go to .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/permittedlist.txt. Valheim writes a // comment at the top, then one ID per line. Keep each ID alone on its line.

If a friend is turned away

• They are not on the list. Check the ID you pasted is theirs, not a name. A crossplay player's ID starts with a platform name, such as Xbox_, and a Steam player's is a 17-digit number.
• You did not restart. Changes apply the next time the server starts, so restart after editing the list.
• They are on the Banned list. Check Banned as well, because that list also refuses people at the door.