007 First Light Connecting to Server Please Wait Stuck Fix

What is the 007 First Light "Connecting to Server, Please Wait" Stuck Loop?

After IO Interactive's 0.6.2 hotfix the week of June 15, 2026, players on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S report the **Connecting to server, please wait... banner staying on screen indefinitely — on the title screen, in matchmaking, after a mission, and even mid-session when re-syncing the Bond Pass. Unlike the older "Stuck on Authenticating" fault, this banner can appear at four distinct stages** of the network boot-up, and each stage has a different fix.

The four stages 007 First Light goes through are: (1) IOI identity authentication (0-25s window), (2) Glacier session handshake (25-60s, exchanges the session ticket with the platform), (3) matchmaking lobby allocation (60-95s, where the front-end finds you a regional queue), and (4) shard assignment (95-120s, where you get pinned to a specific game server instance). The banner text looks identical at every stage, which is why generic "verify files / restart router" advice fails — you have to identify which stage is actually hanging.

When does it occur?

• On the title screen, the banner shows immediately and never resolves (Stage 1 hang)
• After "Press any key" disappears, you sit for ~45 seconds then bounce back to the main menu silently (Stage 2 hang)
• You reach the multiplayer hub but every queue (Quick Play, Ranked, Contracts) keeps the banner spinning (Stage 3 hang)
• The match starts loading, but you stay on the loading screen with the banner overlaid (Stage 4 hang)
• After finishing a campaign mission, the post-mission summary stalls on the banner before XP unlock
• During Bond Pass tier claim or contract submission

Common causes

• IOI Identity API returning intermittent HTTP 504 to platform-handshake calls (Stage 1)
• Stale session ticket cached on disk after the 0.6.2 hotfix changed the ticket schema (Stage 2)
• Wrong matchmaking region selected vs the data center actually serving your IP (Stage 3)
• UDP port 7777-7780 (Glacier game-server traffic) blocked by Windows Defender Firewall, router NAT, or Strict NAT on PS5/Xbox (Stage 4)
• IPv6 leak interrupting the WebSocket leg of the Glacier handshake
• VPN or CGNAT (Free Pop, T-Mobile Home Internet, Starlink) routing through a non-whitelisted egress
• Corrupted playerprofile.dat in the local save folder forcing a full re-sync that times out

Step-by-step fixes

1. Identify the stage first — open the in-game Network Diagnostic overlay with F8 (PC) or hold Touchpad + L3 (PS5) / View + LS (Xbox). The overlay shows four indicators: AUTH / SESSION / MATCH / SHARD. Whichever one is amber/red is the stage that is hanging — apply the fix below for that stage.
2. Stage 1 (AUTH) fix — switch IOI region manually — main menu → Account → Region → toggle from Auto to your nearest region (EU-W, NA-E, NA-W, SA-E, OCE, JP). Auto-detect is misrouting EU users to SA after the 0.6.2 hotfix. Confirm via [account.ioi.dk](https://account.ioi.dk) → Profile → Country that the two match.
3. Stage 2 (SESSION) fix — wipe the session ticket cache — quit the game. Delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\IOI\007FirstLight\Cache\session.tkt on PC. On PS5, Settings → Saved Data → 007 First Light → Delete from System Storage the Network Cache slice only (do NOT delete your save game). On Xbox, hold the game tile → Manage game → Saved data → Reserved Space → Clear. Relaunch.
4. Stage 3 (MATCH) fix — manually pin the matchmaking region — multiplayer hub → press Start/Options → Network Settings → set Matchmaking Region to a single region (not Best Available). Pick the geographically closest one; if it's full, try the next. The 0.6.2 lobby allocator silently fails when "Best Available" can't reach the primary shard quickly enough.
5. Stage 4 (SHARD) fix — open UDP ports 7777-7780 and TCP 443 — Windows Defender Firewall → Advanced Settings → Inbound Rules → New Rule → Port → UDP → Specific local ports 7777-7780 → Allow. Repeat for Outbound. On the router, port-forward the same UDP range to your console / PC. PS5: Settings → Network → Connection Status → confirm NAT Type 2 (not Type 3). Xbox: Network Settings → Test NAT type → must show Open.
6. Disable IPv6 on the active adapter — Control Panel → Network and Sharing Center → adapter → Properties → uncheck Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) → OK. On PS5/Xbox, manually configure IPv4 only. The Glacier WebSocket leg refuses IPv6 fallback after the 0.6.2 build.
7. Flush DNS and switch to a clean resolver — admin PowerShell: ipconfig /flushdns; Clear-DnsClientCache. Set adapter DNS to 1.1.1.1 + 1.0.0.1. Cloudflare resolves the new shard-eu-w-01.glacier.ioi.dk style hostnames significantly faster than ISP defaults that still cache the 0.6.0 CNAMEs.
8. Disable VPN / IPv6 over CGNAT routing — if you're on Free Pop, T-Mobile Home Internet, Starlink, or any CGNAT-NAT44 ISP, you cannot accept inbound UDP from the shard. Either ask your ISP for a public IPv4 (Free: Pro mode), or run a wired Ethernet to a non-CGNAT hotspot to confirm whether CGNAT is the culprit before paying for anything else.

If it still doesn't work

If the stage indicator stays red at SHARD after every fix, capture the in-game packet log (Settings → Network → Export Diagnostic on PC 1.0.4.0+) and attach to a ticket via the [IOI support portal](https://007firstlight-support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us). Include the exact stage shown in the F8 overlay — IOI's support team triages tickets faster when they don't have to guess the failure point. For a full breakdown of every other 007 First Light networking and launch error, see the [007 First Light troubleshooting hub](/en/errors/007-first-light-all-errors-troubleshooting-hub).

If AUTH is still amber after step 2, the upstream issue is actually the [stuck on authenticating fault](/en/errors/007-first-light-stuck-on-authenticating-fix). If SHARD reaches green but you still get disconnected mid-match, you're hitting the [disconnected from server connection lost](/en/errors/007-first-light-disconnected-from-server-connection-lost) error, which is a downstream symptom of NAT exhaustion rather than initial connect failure.