How to Add a Server on Minecraft Bedrock

On Windows 10/11 and mobile, you add a server in Bedrock from the Play screen: open the Servers tab, scroll past the Featured Servers list, and hit Add Server to get the Add External Server popup, where you type a name, the address, and the port. The catch most people hit isn't a typo in the address — it's that this button only exists on Windows and mobile. Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch don't show an Add Server option at all, so if you're on a console the steps below stop short and you'll need a different route. The general how to join a Minecraft server walkthrough covers the rest once you've got an address, and the crossplay servers list is where you'll find the Bedrock-friendly addresses.

The actual add-server flow (Windows and mobile)

This is the whole thing, in order:

1. From the main menu, press Play.
2. Open the Servers tab — it's the right-most of the three tabs, alongside Worlds and Friends.
3. You'll land on Microsoft's Featured Servers list. Scroll to the bottom of it and select Add Server.
4. In the Add External Server popup, fill in three fields: Server Name (any label you want — this is just what shows in your list), Server Address (the IP or domain from the listing), and Port.
5. Press Play to connect right away, or Save to add the server to your list and join it later.

The Port field defaults to 19132, which is the standard Bedrock port. Leave it there unless the listing tells you otherwise. This is the single most common place people go wrong: they copy a Java address that ends in :25565 and paste that number into the Port box. That's the Java port (25565/TCP). Bedrock talks on 19132/UDP, and a Java port will never connect you here. If the host runs on a custom port, type that exact number — but only if they've published one.

Once it's saved, the entry shows a live ping and player count in your Servers list, which is the fastest way to confirm the address resolves and the server is actually online before you commit to joining.

The first-connect warning

The first time you add an external server, Bedrock may show an "Unknown External Server" screen before it lets you in: "You should only connect to servers you trust! Do you still wish to join?" with a Proceed / Back choice and a "Do not show this screen again" checkbox. Hit Proceed and you're through. It's a one-time trust prompt, not an error, so don't read it as the server rejecting you.

Featured Servers vs. adding your own

These are two different things, and mixing them up causes a lot of confusion about why a server "won't add."

Featured Servers are the curated list Microsoft and Mojang ship at the top of the Servers tab. They're large partnered networks that were vetted and approved, and they appear automatically for every player on every platform. You don't add them — you just tap one and you're in. That list is identical for everyone and you can't edit it.

Adding your own server by IP or domain is the only way to reach a community or private server that isn't in that curated list, which is the vast majority of them. The Featured list is short and partner-only; the full server list is not. So if you found a server on a ranking page or from a friend, it's almost certainly an external server you add yourself, not something you'll find sitting in Featured.

Consoles: where the button isn't

On Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, the Bedrock Servers tab shows you Featured Servers and Realms — and nothing else. There's no Add Server button and no field to type an address. The Switch is especially locked down, leaning on Realms or featured servers for online multiplayer. This isn't a bug you can fix or a setting buried in a menu; it's a platform policy from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, and as of mid-2026 it's still in place despite players regularly asking for an official console version of the button.

What console players can do without any workaround:

• Featured Servers — one tap, no address needed.
• Realms — a hosted Bedrock world that works across console, mobile, and Windows.
• LAN — a console can still reach a server on your own local network. The restriction is specifically about typing in an external IP, not about multiplayer in general, so a server running on a machine in your house is still reachable over LAN.

There's also an unofficial community route: DNS-based tools like BedrockConnect that reroute a Featured Server entry into a custom address menu. It's third-party software, it can break with any update, and you use it at your own discretion — so treat it as an aside rather than a recommended step. If you're specifically on PlayStation, the PlayStation custom server IP guide walks through that DNS path in full.

For console players, the realistic answer is to filter for servers that are built to accept you. The crossplay servers tag lists networks that take Bedrock and console players, which is the difference between a server you can actually reach and one that only ever loads on a PC.

Why a working address can still fail

If the name, address, and port are all correct and you still can't connect, the next thing to check is version. Bedrock client and server have to be running the same protocol to talk to each other, and a newer client is not backward-compatible with an older server. Bedrock numbers its releases separately from Java, so don't go by the Java numbers you'll see on server listings: the September 2026 drop is 26.3 on Java but 26.50 on Bedrock (then hotfixed to 26.51). Compare the version in the bottom corner of your main menu with the Bedrock version the server says it supports. A mismatch produces a connection failure even when everything you typed is right, which is why an address that works fine for a friend can refuse to load for you if your app updated and the server hasn't.

The site's version filters, like 26.2 servers or 26.1 servers, go by the Java version a server runs, so they won't tell you which Bedrock build it takes. On a crossplay server that's up to Geyser, which accepts a range of recent Bedrock releases. What you can check is that the listing shows a Bedrock or crossplay address before you add it. The monthly rankings reset at the start of each calendar month, so the servers near the top are the ones with players on them right now, not whatever was popular a year ago.

FAQ

The Add Server button is missing on my PC — what now?

If you're on Windows 8.1 or earlier, that older build doesn't include the external-server feature, same as the consoles. The add-by-IP flow is reliable on Windows 10/11 and on Android/iOS, so the fix is playing on one of those. Also double-check you're on the Servers tab and have scrolled all the way to the bottom of the Featured list — Add Server sits underneath it, not at the top, so on a long Featured list it's easy to miss.

Do I type the address with the port attached, like play.example.com:19132?

No — Bedrock splits them into two separate fields. Put the hostname or IP in Server Address on its own (play.example.com), and put 19132 (or whatever custom number the host lists) in the Port field by itself. Don't paste the :19132 into the address box. If a listing shows the address as one string with a colon, mentally cut it at the colon: everything before goes in Address, the number after goes in Port.

My server saved but shows "offline" or a red ping — is the address wrong?

Not necessarily. A red or "offline" status in your list means your client couldn't reach that address-and-port combination at that moment. The usual culprits, in order: the port is wrong (you used 25565 instead of 19132), a single character in the address is off, or the server is genuinely down. Re-open the entry, confirm the port reads 19132, and retype the address by hand rather than trusting a paste — one transposed character looks correct to you but resolves to nothing.

Can I edit a server I already saved instead of adding it again?

Yes. In the Servers tab, select the saved entry and you can open its details to change the Server Name, Server Address, or Port, then save the edit — no need to delete and re-add it. This is the quick fix when a host moves to a new IP or changes their port: update the two fields in place and the existing entry keeps its spot in your list.