FiveM Missing Server Data: How to Fix It in the Cfx Portal

"Missing server data (must be configured in Portal)" is what the FiveM server list shows for a server that has no details saved in the Cfx Portal, and you fix it by filling in your server's name, tagline, description and language on its page at portal.cfx.re. From Wednesday 21 October 2026 the Portal, not server.cfg, is where FiveM and RedM servers manage their name, description, tags, language and images, so editing sv_projectName or sv_projectDesc is no longer how you change what players see.

This guide is based on Cfx's forum announcement of 14 October, the Cfx Portal itself as it was on 16 October, and the FiveM docs. The docs and the Cfx help center had not been updated for the change on 16 October, so where Cfx has not said something, we tell you that instead of guessing.

What changes on 21 October

The announcement, titled "Portal Update: Server Metadata Management", puts it like this: "Previously, server metadata (such as your server name, description, tags, server language, and imagery) was configured locally within your server's configuration files. With this update, this information will now be managed directly through the Cfx Portal."

On timing it says "the majority of these changes will come into effect from next week October 21, 2026." Note the word majority. Cfx has not said which parts come later.

The rest of the announcement, in short:

• It covers both the FiveM and the RedM server list.
• Cfx copied existing details into the Portal: "we have backfilled your server information if available to us recently." Where it found nothing, the fields stay empty and "will need to be configured manually before they can be displayed publicly."
• A server can have at most five unique tags, and players can search by them.
• Cfx now recommends a 2560 x 280 pixel banner (minimum 1825 x 200) and a 512 x 512 profile image (minimum 256 x 256).
• You can add a Discord link. It shows under 'Details' in the FiveM or RedM client, beneath the server owner's username.

Until the 21st you keep working the old way. Your server's page in the Portal already says so: "All editable fields are disabled until the feature is fully live on October 21st, 2026. Please continue to edit your information in your server's .cfg file until then."

What "Missing server data" means

The announcement is direct about it: "If your server information is left blank, the server will be displayed as 'Missing server data (must be configured in Portal)' inside the server list."

So it is not a license key error, a crash or a ban. Your server is in the list, but the Portal has no details to show for it. The reason Cfx gives is that it was "unable to find historical metadata for your server" when it filled the Portal, so the fields were left blank.

Editing server.cfg does not clear the message. As the text itself says, the data must be configured in the Portal.

The Portal also has a warning about keys without these details: "This server registration key is missing required metadata. Add metadata before activating this key."

Check your server's page now

You cannot edit before the 21st, but you can already see what Cfx copied over:

1. Sign in at portal.cfx.re with your Cfx account.
2. Open Servers, then Server Registration Keys (portal.cfx.re/servers/registration-keys).
3. Click the card of the key your server uses. If you have more than one key, compare the key on the page with the sv_licenseKey line in your server.cfg.
4. Read the fields. An empty field shows "No Data".

Write down which fields are empty or wrong and prepare the text and images, using the limits in the table below. If you have not used the Portal much, our Cfx Portal guide shows where everything is.

How to fill in your server details from 21 October

1. Sign in at portal.cfx.re and open Servers, then Server Registration Keys.
2. Click your server's card under Active.
3. Select Edit Server Details.
4. Fill in the four required fields: Name, Tagline, Description and Language.
5. Add up to five tags, separated by commas.
6. Upload a banner image and an icon if you want them, and paste your Discord invite link.
7. Select Save Changes. If a required field is empty, the Portal answers "Please fill in all required fields".
8. Wait before you check the list. The Portal warns: "There might be a delay of up to 1 hour for the metadata to update."

The details belong to the registration key, so edit the key that is on your sv_licenseKey line, from the Cfx account that owns that key. If a former developer generated your key on their own account, either they fill it in, or you generate a key on your own account and swap it into server.cfg. The keys page reminds you that "You can only have up to three active keys at any one time."

New keys need these details as well. In the demo video that came with the announcement, generating a key opens a page called Generate Server Registration Key that says: "Please fill in the mandatory fields to generate your key. You can continue to update this page after key generation." The rest of the key steps are in our FiveM Keymaster guide.

The form also links to "Server Metadata Guidelines". On 16 October that link opened the Server management section of the Cfx help center, which had no article about metadata yet.

Fields, limits and the server.cfg lines they replace

The first three rows come from Cfx itself: the Portal shows sv_hostname, sv_projectName and sv_projectDesc as placeholder text in those boxes. The other rows are our reading. The announcement moves tags, language and imagery to the Portal, and these are the lines Cfx's example server.cfg uses for them.

Two things to check:

• Name sets the name players see. The Tagline box carries a tooltip that says "This will not affect the display name in the server list", which leaves Name as the field for it. Name replaces sv_hostname, a line Cfx's example config describes as "not usually shown anywhere in listings", so plenty of servers never cleaned it up. Cfx has not said which old value it copied into Name, so look at it before the 21st.
• The image sizes disagree. The announcement gives minimums of 1825 x 200 for the banner and 256 x 256 for the profile image, while the form asks for at least 1865 x 200 and 512 x 512. Use Cfx's recommended 2560 x 280 banner and a 512 x 512 icon and you meet both.

The five-tag limit

From the announcement: "Servers can have up to a maximum of five unique tags, which you can add to your server via the Cfx Portal. Players will be able to search for FiveM/RedM servers via these tags". The Portal form adds "Tags should be separated by commas" and counts them for you, up to 5/5.

If your server shows more tags today, "the first five tags (ordered chronologically) will be displayed. Any over this amount will not." Cfx does not explain what chronological order means for tags that all came from one sets tags line, so do not leave it to chance. Pick your five yourself on the 21st.

Choose tags players actually filter on. Cfx's help article on server filters says tags narrow the list by "game type and tone: Roleplay, Racing, Freeroam, Serious, etc." The demo server in Cfx's own video used Roleplay, Serious, Gangs, Factions, EMS. One tag for your game type and the rest for what sets your server apart beats five ways of saying roleplay.

What happens to sv_projectName, sv_projectDesc and tags in server.cfg

Until 21 October these lines still set what the list shows, and the Portal tells you to keep editing them. If your sv_projectName shows up cut short before then, that is the existing docs rule: it "should be a name, not a list, nor should it contain tags. Any non-compliant name will be cut off in the server list."

From 21 October the Portal is the source. Cfx has not said whether the server list ignores the server.cfg lines completely after that date or still uses them as a fallback. What the announcement does make clear is that empty Portal fields show "Missing server data", so a value in server.cfg will not fill an empty Portal field for you. If sv_projectName seems to stop working after the 21st, that is why: change Tagline in the Portal instead, or Name for the title.

Keep the lines anyway. On 16 October Cfx's server issues FAQ still said about sv_projectName and sv_projectDesc: "If either variable is missing, the server will display an error upon startup and may not appear on the list." No Cfx source tells you to remove them. Leave them in and keep them in line with the Portal, so nobody on your team edits the wrong place:

# From 21 October 2026 the Cfx Portal sets what the server list shows.
# Keep these lines and keep them in line with the Portal.
sv_hostname "Your Server Name"
sets sv_projectName "Your tagline"
sets sv_projectDesc "One sentence about your server."
sets tags "roleplay, serious"
sets locale "en-GB"

Nothing in the announcement touches sv_licenseKey, sv_maxclients, your endpoints or sv_master1, so those stay in server.cfg as before.

How long a change takes to show

The Portal warns: "There might be a delay of up to 1 hour for the metadata to update." Give it that hour before you change anything again.

Your server's page in the Portal also has a Server Publish Status box. It lists five steps, "Server started", "Server registered with client server list", "Server queried", "Server processed" and "Server published in client server list", with a badge that reads Published, Pending, Error or Unknown. A key with nothing to report yet shows "No publish status available yet."

If the server is missing from the list altogether, rather than showing the wrong details:

1. Check that its key sits under Active. The Portal says: "Inactive servers retain server details but will not be visible on the client server list."
2. Give a freshly started server time. Cfx's docs say it "can take up to 8 minutes for a server to appear in the list after launch if no other heartbeats are sent."
3. Work through the port, firewall and sv_master1 checks in the server issues FAQ.

txAdmin notes

txAdmin itself has published nothing about this change. On 16 October neither its GitHub releases (newest v8.1.1, June 2026) nor its recipe repository mentioned Portal metadata.

What matters is what txAdmin wrote into your server.cfg. The default FiveM recipe deploys these lines and fills in the parts in braces:

sv_hostname "{{serverName}} built with {{recipeName}}!"
sets sv_projectName "[{{recipeName}}] {{serverName}}"
sets sv_projectDesc "{{recipeDescription}}"
sets tags "default, deployer"
sets locale "root-AQ"

If you never edited them, the details Cfx backfilled for your server may be these placeholders. root-AQ is not a real language either; Cfx's example config asks you to replace it. Check your Portal page and correct Name, Tagline, Tags and Language on the 21st. Our txAdmin setup guide covers the rest of txAdmin.

Hosting it with us

Our FiveM server hosting comes with txAdmin pre-installed, and you edit server.cfg, including the sv_licenseKey line, from the control panel. The Portal details are tied to your own Cfx account and key, so you fill those in yourself at portal.cfx.re. Plans run from €3.99 a month (2 GB, up to 16 slots) to €63.99 (32 GB, up to 250 slots), with DDoS protection included in all 9 regions. If you want someone to look over your server.cfg, our support is there 12/7, from 08:00 to 20:00 UTC.

FAQ

Why does my FiveM server show "Missing server data (must be configured in Portal)"? The Portal has no details for it, usually because Cfx found no recent metadata to copy over. Fill in Name, Tagline, Description and Language on your key's page at portal.cfx.re, save, and allow up to an hour.

Why is my FiveM server name not changing? From 21 October the name in the server list comes from the Name field in the Cfx Portal, not from server.cfg. Change it there and allow up to an hour. Before the 21st, server.cfg is still the place.

Should I delete sv_projectName and sv_projectDesc from server.cfg? No. Cfx has not said to remove them, and its docs still say the server shows an error on startup if either one is missing.

How many tags can a FiveM server have? Five, entered in the Portal and separated by commas. If your server has more today, only the first five "ordered chronologically" are displayed.

Does this apply to RedM servers too? Yes. The announcement covers both the FiveM and the RedM server list.

Related guides: Cfx Portal guide: keys, assets and escrow | FiveM Keymaster is retired: get your key in the Portal | FiveM txAdmin setup guide