Votifier Not Working? How to Fix It

Votes not reaching your Minecraft server? It's almost always the port, the key, or the listener. Check them in order with one test vote.

In practice that means the port isn't reachable, the key on the list doesn't match your server's, or the vote arrives and nothing handles it. Check them in that order and you'll usually find the cause quickly.

One thing makes this harder than it should be. The original Votifier protocol can't report failures. NuVotifier's own FAQ says most server lists ignore connection errors and show the vote as a success, so a list telling you "test vote sent" proves very little. The only evidence you can trust is your server console.

Start with the console

Send a test vote and read what your console prints. The result puts you in one of three places.

• Nothing at all. The vote never reached NuVotifier. Start with the next section.
• An error about decrypting data. The vote arrived but the key is wrong.
• A line saying a vote was received, but no reward. NuVotifier did its job and the problem is in your listener.

Nothing in the log

Work down this list. It follows NuVotifier's troubleshooting guide.

• NuVotifier didn't enable, or couldn't bind to its port. Look in the startup log for the plugin's enable message and for a bind error. If another process owns the port, pick a different one.
• The port on the list doesn't match plugins/Votifier/config.yml. A typo after changing the port is common.
• A firewall is blocking it. That could be Windows Firewall, iptables or ufw, or a firewall in your VPS provider's dashboard.
• You're on a shared host that never opened the port. Ask them to.
• You're hosting at home and haven't forwarded the TCP port on your router.
• You entered the wrong address. 0.0.0.0 is what NuVotifier listens on, not an address a list can connect to. Use your domain or public IP.

The Test Votifier Connection button on your minecraftservers.blog dashboard is a quick way to check from outside your network, and its error messages are specific. A domain that could not be found means the DNS record is wrong or missing. Connection refused usually means nothing is listening on that port, so check the port number and that NuVotifier is running. A timeout usually means a firewall is quietly dropping the traffic, or the machine is offline. An invalid key error is covered next.

Could not decrypt data

If the console says it could not decrypt data and asks whether your key is correct, the vote did arrive. The public key on the list just doesn't match your server's.

Open plugins/Votifier/rsa/public.key again, copy all of it, paste it into the listing and save. The usual causes are a paste that got cut off, a key copied from a different server, and an rsa folder that was regenerated after you listed the server. Never paste private.key anywhere. The public key is the only one a list needs.

Vote received, no reward

NuVotifier receives votes and does nothing else. If it logs one and the player gets nothing, either no listener plugin is installed or the listener isn't set up for that site. How to set up vote rewards covers both VotingPlugin and VotePlus.

With VotingPlugin, the service name the list sends has to match the ServiceSite value in VoteSites.yml. Cast a vote, then run /av servicesites to see exactly which names have arrived, and copy that value. Don't work it out from the list's web address. VotingPlugin's wiki lists minecraftservers.blog with the service name minecraftservers.blog, but what your console shows is what counts.

Also check that only one plugin is feeding votes into VotingPlugin. Two listeners, or a listener plus a forwarding setup, can pay the same vote twice.

TDX VotePlus works differently. It doesn't match on site name, so a vote from any site is counted and rewarded. Two things help you tell where the break is. Run /voteplus give YourName, which sends a test vote through the plugin without any vote site. If the reward arrives, VotePlus is fine and the problem sits between the list and your Votifier. Then look in the console for a [VotifierHook] Received vote line from VotePlus. If it never appears, VotePlus never heard about the vote.

Errors that look worse than they are

• Connection reset by peer. The list closed the connection before NuVotifier finished reading the vote. NuVotifier can't fix that, and the maintainers say to report it to the list. Lists that use the newer v2 protocol are less prone to it.
• A "zip file closed" error when the server shuts down. It's harmless, according to the NuVotifier FAQ.
• Lag blamed on NuVotifier. It does its work off the main server thread. If votes cause lag, the commands your listener runs on each vote are the likely cause.

Proxy networks

If you run BungeeCord, Waterfall or Velocity, install NuVotifier on the proxy and give the lists the proxy's address and port. For passing votes on to your servers, the maintainers recommend pluginMessaging for most networks. On each backend server, set the forwarding method to pluginMessaging and the port to -1, so the backend doesn't open a port of its own.

Keep your backend servers reachable only through the proxy. Otherwise anyone who finds one can send it fake votes. If nobody is connected to the target server when a vote comes in, NuVotifier holds the vote and delivers it when a player joins.

The tokens used in the more complicated proxy forwarding mode are not the RSA key from the rsa folder. NuVotifier's FAQ calls this out, because the two are easy to confuse.

Still stuck

Restart the whole server after any change instead of reloading, and send one test vote at a time so the console stays readable. If you're not sure the basic setup is right, how to set up Votifier walks through it from the start. If the tester keeps failing, the exact message it shows is the most useful thing to send to your host's support team.