Fix Simple Voice Chat Disconnected on Your Minecraft Server

You installed Simple Voice Chat on your server. You and all your players installed it on the client too. You joined, and there it is: the disconnected plug icon in the corner of the screen. Press your push to talk key and the mod answers with "Voice chat not connected" above the hotbar.

You opened the config file. You changed the port. You restarted the server. Still not connected.

This is one of the most common problems with Simple Voice Chat, and the cause is almost always the same. Minecraft reaches the server, but the voice chat's UDP port does not. Voice chat needs a port of its own, and on a hosted server that port has to be one the panel actually gives to your server.

This page is the complete fix. If you would rather answer a few yes or no questions first and jump straight to the step you need, use the Simple Voice Chat troubleshooting flowchart.

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Voice chat not connected: the fast fix

Simple Voice Chat shows "Voice chat not connected" when you press push to talk (or whisper) while your client has no voice connection to the server. You can still play, because Minecraft and the voice chat use separate connections. On a Space-Node Minecraft server these steps fix it in most cases:

1. Create an extra allocation. In the panel, open the Network tab and click Create Allocation. Extra ports are free: your plan includes three allocations, and if you need more we can raise that to five on request. Note the port number of the new allocation. It is usually not 24454, and that is fine.
2. Set port to that number. Open config/voicechat/voicechat-server.properties on Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt, or plugins/voicechat/voicechat-server.properties on Paper, Spigot and Purpur. Set port= to the allocation's port, for example port=25590 if that is what the panel gave you.
3. Leave bind_address and voice_host empty.
4. Restart the server fully and rejoin.
5. Test it. In game, run /voicechat test followed by a player's name.

Do not use port=-1. That setting makes voice chat share the Minecraft port, and the official Simple Voice Chat wiki warns that it "may crash the server", because UDP on the game port is also used for the server query. The port you pick must also not be the one Geyser or the query uses.

If it still fails after these steps, ask us in live chat and we will look at it with you.

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Why the game connects and voice does not

Minecraft Java connects to the server over TCP. Simple Voice Chat sends its audio over UDP, on its own port. The wiki puts it plainly: audio packets are always sent over UDP "on the port number specified here, independently of other networking used for the game server."

On a panel host, your server only receives traffic on the ports that are allocated to it. The default voice port, 24454, is normally not one of them. The mod starts, listens on 24454, and no packet ever arrives. That is why changing the port in the config to a random number does not help either. The number has to match a port the panel has given your server.

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Step-by-step fix

Step 1: Give voice chat its own port

On Space-Node:

1. Open your server in the panel and go to the Network tab.
2. Click Create Allocation. A new port appears in the list.
3. Write down that port number. You do not need to change anything else on the allocation.

You do not need to ask support for this, and it costs nothing.

If you self-host on a Linux VPS, keep the default 24454 and open it for UDP:

sudo ufw allow 24454/udp
sudo ufw reload

Or with iptables:

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 24454 -j ACCEPT

If you self-host at home, create a port forwarding rule on your router for 24454 with the protocol set to UDP (or "Both"). Many routers default to TCP when you create a rule.

Step 2: Put that port in the voice chat config

The setting is not in server.properties. It lives in the mod's own server config, which the mod creates on first start:

config/voicechat/voicechat-server.properties      (Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt)
plugins/voicechat/voicechat-server.properties     (Paper, Spigot, Purpur)

Find the port line and set it to the allocation from step 1:

port=25590

Use your own number, not this example.

Step 3: Leave bind_address and voice_host alone

bind_address=
voice_host=

When bind_address is blank, the mod uses the server-ip value from server.properties, and if that is empty too it listens on all interfaces. That is what you want on a Docker based panel such as Pterodactyl. The troubleshooting page of the wiki says to leave it empty unless you are explicitly told to set it.

voice_host tells clients to connect to a different address or port than the one they joined with. The wiki's own comment on it is "Do NOT change this value if you don't know what you're doing." On a Space-Node server the allocation's port is the same inside and outside the container, so players reach the voice port on the address they already use. Leave it empty.

Step 4: Restart and read the log

Restart the server fully, not with /reload. Watch the console for a line like this one, sometimes with an address in front of the port:

Voice chat server started at port 25590

If you see Failed to run voice chat at UDP port ..., something else already uses that port. Geyser and the server query are the usual suspects. Give voice chat a different allocation. On Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt the mod then logs Shutting down server and stops the whole dedicated server, so a server that shuts down right after you changed the voice port usually has this problem. On Paper, Spigot and Purpur the plugin logs Disabling Simple Voice Chat instead, and the server keeps running without voice chat.

Step 5: Test

Join the server. The plug icon should be gone. To check a specific player, run this in game:

/voicechat test PlayerName

It needs the voicechat.admin permission, which only server operators have by default, and it does not work from the console. The answer tells you where to look:

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Behind Velocity or BungeeCord

If players join through a proxy, the setup is different. According to the wiki's proxy setup page:

• The Simple Voice Chat plugin for Velocity or BungeeCord goes on the proxy, and the mod or plugin stays on every backend server.
• The proxy plugin finds the voice port of each backend and forwards the traffic. Players only need one open UDP port on the proxy, by default the proxy's own Minecraft port.
• Through the proxy plugin, voice_host on the backends is ignored. If you need it, set it in the proxy plugin's config.
• If the proxy and the backends run on the same machine, every backend needs its own voice port.

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Common mistakes

Setting the voice chat port to the Minecraft port. Voice chat needs its own port. port=-1 does exactly this, and the wiki says it can crash the server because the query also uses UDP on the game port.

Picking a port that is not allocated to your server. Editing port= to any free looking number does nothing on a hosted server. It has to be one of your allocations.

Sharing a port with Geyser or the query. Geyser listens on UDP for Bedrock players. The Geyser docs state that voice chat and query "cannot share the port with Geyser". If you run both, each gets its own port.

Opening the port in a firewall but not in the panel. Pterodactyl runs servers in Docker. Even if a host firewall allows the port, Docker only passes traffic for ports that exist as allocations on your server.

Forgetting the client mod, or running a different version. Simple Voice Chat has to be installed on the server and on every player's client. A player without it simply has no voice. When the versions do not match, the server log shows Connected client ... has incompatible voice chat version (server=..., client=...).

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Quick reference table

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Still not working?

If you followed every step and the icon is still there:

1. Check your server console for lines containing voicechat. Look for bind errors or the "Failed to run voice chat" message.
2. Test the voice connection itself. In game, run /voicechat test followed by the player's name. From a player's PC you can also use svc-cli-utils, the command line tool linked from the official wiki: svc ping your.server.address:PORT while the server is running. General port checkers cannot tell you whether this port is open. UDP has no handshake, so only an answer from the voice chat itself proves the port works.
3. If it works for everyone except one player, the server side is fine. See the fix for one player. The wiki notes that some internet providers block UDP, especially on mobile data, and that VPNs can cause the same thing.
4. Check that the mod build matches your Minecraft version and loader on both sides. Simple Voice Chat ships separate builds per loader and Minecraft version. The official Simple Voice Chat wiki has the setup steps, and its troubleshooting page lists the known error messages.

On Space-Node, if it still fails after all of this, ask in live chat. Tell us the allocation port and paste the voicechat lines from the console, and we will check it with you.

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Related Simple Voice Chat fixes

• Simple Voice Chat troubleshooting flowchart
• UDP port 24454 firewall and hosting panel fix
• Offline mode and online-mode=false warning explained
• Fix Simple Voice Chat for one player only
• What the plug icon and the other Simple Voice Chat icons mean
• Running Geyser as well? Our Geyser and Floodgate crossplay guide covers the Bedrock port.

If the disconnect happens before you even reach the server, the error usually names the cause: see what "Connection timed out: getsockopt" actually means.