How to Fish Co-op Session Button Not Working — Fix List

TL;DR

• The Create Session button not responding is a known launch-window bug in How to Fish. Patch 1.0.4 (August 22, 2026) addressed the worst lobby and black screen issues, but some players still report problems.
• First fix to try: fully close How to Fish and Steam, relaunch Steam, then relaunch the game and try again.
• Make sure every player in your group is on the same game version — mismatched builds block connections entirely.
• If you cannot host, have a friend host instead and join through the Steam friends list.
• Black screen when joining a lobby? Close the old session, have the host create a fresh one, and join the new lobby immediately.
• Special characters in your server name can corrupt saves — rename it to plain letters only.
• Disable VPNs and check that your firewall is not blocking Steam’s UDP ports before trying anything else network-related.

What Is the Create Session Bug in How to Fish?

How to Fish launched on Steam on August 20, 2026, to massive demand — over one million players in the first 48 hours. With that many people trying to connect at once, multiplayer issues surfaced quickly. The most reported problem is clicking the Create Session button in the multiplayer menu and having nothing happen. No lobby opens, no error message appears, and you end up sitting at the menu unable to start a co-op game.

Dazed Games released patch 1.0.4 on August 22, 2026, which specifically targeted lobby and display issues. The patch fixed the black screen that appeared when connecting to a lobby, expanded lobby capacity to support up to 8 players (though the game is still designed for 1 to 4), and blocked special characters in server names that were corrupting save files. Despite this, some players are still reporting invite failures and black screens after the patch. This fix list covers everything confirmed to help, in the order most likely to solve it fastest.

Fix 1 — Update How to Fish to the Latest Version

This is the most important check and should always be done first. If even one player in your group is running an older game version, the lobby system will reject their connection without giving a useful error message. You might be on 1.0.4 while a friend is still on 1.0.3 — from your end everything looks fine, but they simply cannot join.

To force an update check: open Steam, go to your Library, right-click How to Fish, select Properties, then go to the Updates tab and confirm that automatic updates are enabled. You can also check for an update immediately by closing the game, waiting a moment on the library page, and then relaunching — Steam will update before the game opens if one is available.

Have every person in your group do this before trying to connect again. All players must be on the same build.

Fix 2 — Fully Restart How to Fish and Steam

Many multiplayer button failures are temporary session states that clear completely on restart. But a partial restart is not enough. You need to fully close both the game and Steam before trying again.

Here is the correct process: close How to Fish if it is running. Then open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), look in the Processes tab, and confirm that neither How to Fish nor Steam is still running in the background. Right-click the Steam entry in the system tray (bottom-right corner of your screen) and select Exit — not just close the window. Once Steam is fully closed, relaunch it and let it fully load before opening How to Fish again. Then try creating a session.

This clears temporary session data, network state, and any initialisation problems that occurred during the first launch.

Fix 3 — Have a Friend Host Instead

If the Create Session button consistently does nothing for you specifically, this is the fastest workaround while you wait for a patch to fully resolve it. Have one of your friends host the session instead, then join their lobby through the Steam friends list.

To join without an in-game invite: open your Steam client, find the friend who is hosting in your friends list, right-click their name, and select Join Game. If the option does not appear, ask them to send you a formal Steam invite through the Steam Overlay (Shift + Tab from inside the game, then right-click your name in their friends list and select Invite to Lobby).

This bypasses the Create Session button entirely and is the most reliable workaround until the bug is patched on your machine.

Fix 4 — Verify Game Files in Steam

A corrupted or incomplete game file — which can happen after an interrupted update or a patch that did not install cleanly — can stop the multiplayer menu from functioning even when the single-player side of the game works fine. Steam’s file verification tool checks every local file against what should be there and repairs anything that is missing or damaged.

To run it: open Steam, go to your Library, right-click How to Fish, select Properties, then go to Installed Files and click Verify Integrity of Game Files. This takes a minute or two. If it finds and replaces any files, restart the game afterward and try connecting again.

Fix 5 — Make Sure Steam Is Not in Offline Mode

This one is easy to miss. If Steam entered Offline Mode at some point — either manually or because your internet dropped temporarily — it will not be able to create or join online sessions even if your connection looks fine from a browser or other app. How to Fish needs Steam to be fully online to host or join multiplayer lobbies.

Check: open Steam and look at the top menu bar. If it shows Go Online as an option under the Steam menu, you are in Offline Mode. Click it and let Steam reconnect fully before launching the game. If Steam is already online, skip this fix.

Fix 6 — Remove Special Characters From Your Server Name

Patch 1.0.4 introduced a block on special characters in server names precisely because they were causing save corruption and session failures for some players. If you named your lobby with symbols, emoji, or non-standard characters before the patch, those names can still cause problems in older sessions.

Check your server settings and make sure your session name uses only plain letters, numbers, and basic punctuation. Rename it if necessary, then restart the session completely. This is a small fix but it resolves a specific bug that the developers confirmed.

Fix 7 — Disable Your VPN

VPNs are one of the most common causes of Steam multiplayer connection failures that look like game bugs. A VPN routes your traffic through a different server, which changes your apparent location and can interfere with Steam’s peer-to-peer lobby system. The game’s servers see a different IP for you than what Steam’s network expects, and the session either fails to open or drops connections immediately.

Disconnect your VPN completely before launching How to Fish. This means closing the VPN application entirely, not just pausing it. Some VPN clients continue routing traffic in the background even when paused. Once the VPN is fully off and your connection has settled for a few seconds, relaunch Steam and try the session again.

Fix 8 — Check Your Firewall Settings

How to Fish uses Steam’s peer-to-peer networking, which requires outbound UDP traffic on specific ports to establish sessions between players. If Windows Defender Firewall or a third-party security tool is blocking these ports, the Create Session button may appear to do nothing because the game cannot reach the network infrastructure it needs.

The ports relevant to Steam co-op sessions are UDP 3478, 3479, 3480, and 4380. You can open these in Windows Defender Firewall through Control Panel, or check your router’s settings if the firewall is managed there. If you would rather test quickly without changing anything permanently, temporarily disable your firewall, try creating a session, and re-enable it afterward. If the session works with the firewall off, you have confirmed it is the cause and can then set up the port rules properly.

Also check that Steam itself is listed as an allowed app in your firewall. Sometimes a Windows update or security software installation removes or resets these permissions.

Fix 9 — Fix the Black Screen When Joining a Lobby

Black screen on joining a friend’s session is a different but related problem that was specifically addressed in patch 1.0.4. If you are still seeing a black screen after updating, the most effective workaround is a full lobby reset rather than any graphics or driver change.

Here is what to do: both the affected player and the host should close How to Fish completely — not just return to the main menu. Exit the game entirely. The host then relaunches the game and creates a completely new session. Once the new lobby is open, the affected player joins as quickly as possible. Player reports suggest that lobbies which have been running for a long time are more prone to this black screen issue, so joining a fresh session shortly after it is created gives the best chance of a clean connection.

Do not just resend invites to the old lobby. The session itself may already be in a broken state, and hammering the same invite button repeatedly against a broken lobby will not help. Create fresh, join fast.

Fix 10 — Switch Who Is Hosting

If one specific player consistently fails to join while everyone else connects fine, the problem is almost certainly on their machine or their network — not a game-wide bug. But if the host is the one with connection problems, switching which player hosts can make an immediate difference.

The host’s connection quality determines the stability of the entire session. A host with poor upstream bandwidth, high ping, or strict NAT settings will cause lag and join failures for everyone else. Try having a different group member — ideally the one with the most stable broadband connection — take over hosting duties and see if the session becomes easier to join.

Fix 11 — Test With a Mobile Hotspot

If one specific player in your group cannot join any session regardless of who hosts, and every other fix has been tried, the problem may be with their home network rather than the game itself. ISP routing, router NAT type, or firewall settings can block Steam peer-to-peer traffic in ways that are difficult to diagnose directly.

A quick test: have the affected player connect their PC to a mobile phone hotspot and try joining the session again. If they connect without any problem through mobile data, the issue is confirmed to be with their home network or router configuration rather than the game, their PC, or the host. From there, the solutions involve checking their router’s NAT type (Open is best for online gaming), confirming UPnP is enabled on the router, or manually forwarding the Steam UDP ports listed in Fix 8 above.

Fix 12 — Disable Third-Party Overlays

Discord overlay, GeForce Experience, AMD ReLive, and similar tools all inject themselves into the game’s rendering layer. In some cases they conflict with Steam’s own overlay, which How to Fish depends on for the Shift + Tab invite system and session creation. If Steam’s overlay is being interfered with, the Create Session button may not register correctly.

Disable third-party overlays one at a time and test after each one. In Discord: go to Settings, Overlay, and toggle off Enable In-Game Overlay. In GeForce Experience: go to Settings and disable the In-Game Overlay toggle. In AMD Software: find the ReLive settings and disable the overlay there. After disabling overlays, restart Steam and How to Fish and try again.

If Nothing Works — What to Do Next

If you have worked through every fix above and the Create Session button is still unresponsive or friends cannot join, the honest answer is that the issue may be a game-side bug that requires another patch from Dazed Games.

The developers have been actively patching the game since launch. The best thing to do is report the problem with details through the official How to Fish Steam discussions page. Include what specifically happens when you click Create Session, whether solo play works normally, your approximate region, and what version of the game you are on. More reports with more detail help the development team identify and fix the root cause faster.

In the meantime, keep using the workaround in Fix 3 — have a friend host and join their session. It is not ideal, but it gets you into the game while you wait for a fix.

For a full breakdown of how co-op sessions work in How to Fish — including lobby privacy settings, what is shared between players, role tips, and voice chat setup — see our How to Fish co-op and multiplayer setup guide.

Frequently Asked Questions