Ranch Simulator – Unable to Connect to a Session

How to Fix Connection Problems

If you are unable to connect to a session, please try the following:

• Check that your antivirus software or Windows Defender isn’t blocking the connection, try whitelisting Ranch Simulator.

To do this on Windows Defender:

• In the search bar, search for windows firewall (you want to find ‘Allow apps to communicate through Windows Defender Firewall’)
• Select ‘change settings’ (you may need to provide administrator details to access this)
• Scroll down to where you find Ranch Simulator / and tick the boxes for Private and Public
• Press OK at the bottom of the page

Ensure that you are running Steam and Ranch Simulator in Admin mode. To do this:

• Right-click on the Steam icon on your desktop or Navigate to your Steam folder and right-click Steam.exe
• Select Properties
• Click on the Compatibility tab
• Check Run This Program As An Administrator
• Click the Apply button
• Click the OK button

Then navigate to the installation area for the game.

The easiest way of doing this is to:

• Open steam and go to your library
• Right click on Ranch Simulator and go to properties
• Click on the local files tab and then browse
• Once here you want to go Ranch_Simulator\Binaries\Win64
• Right click on the file Ranch_Simulator-Win64-Shipping.exe and also set this to run as administrator.

If that doesn’t work:

• If this is anyone’s first time playing the game, you may need to have created your own save game and completed the beginning of the tutorial up to the point where you save at the tent before playing a multiplayer game.
• Check that you are both on the same version number, and your PC date and time is accurate for the time zone you have selected
• Swap who is hosting the session and see if you can connect that way
• Start a new game and invite everyone, if that connects then all exit to the main menu and load up your save. Try to invite everyone again
• In the game installation directory. Look for EpicOnlineServices. Run that then try to load the game.
• Check that your PC and GPU is all up to date, and you have nothing else using your network bandwidth that could slow it down. If you have an unstable connection, unfortunately the only thing you can do is to keep trying to re-connect – there may be an underlying issue with your router/DNS or network provider/ just having a weak or unstable connection in general.