How to Kick and Ban Players on Your Valheim Server

You can kick and ban players using the in-game console or edit the ban list manually via SFTP.

Kick and ban players via console

Open the console with F5 and enter the following commands. The commands only work if you are listed in adminlist.txt – see Add Admin.

Kick a player

kick <name>

The player is removed from the server but can rejoin.

Ban a player

ban <name>

The player is permanently banned from the server. If they are currently online, the server adds their player ID to bannedlist.txt, otherwise the name you entered.

Unban a player

unban <ID>

Enter the entry exactly as it appears in the ban list. You can display all banned entries with the command banned.

Edit ban list manually

You can also edit the ban list and permitted list directly via SFTP:

1. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard.

2. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP.

3. Edit files
   Open the files at /.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/:

   • bannedlist.txt – Banned players (one player ID per line)
   • permittedlist.txt – Permitted players (one player ID per line), see Enable the Whitelist

4. Add or remove the player ID
   Add the player's ID on a new line or remove it. To unban a player, remove every line that belongs to them – a Steam player can be listed in several forms. Copy the ID exactly as it appears in the player list (F2) or in the server log, including the prefix and upper and lower case, e.g. V_76561198012345678. For Steam players, the older form Steam_76561198012345678 and the plain SteamID64 also work. Crossplay players (e.g. on Xbox, PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch 2) do not have a SteamID64, so for them you always need the ID from the player list or the server log.

5. Start the server
   Start your server.

All commands