QuickBooks Error H505: Fixing 'Host Not Found' in Multi-User Mode

Error H505 shows up when a workstation looks for the computer hosting your company file and can’t find one — either because hosting isn’t enabled anywhere, or the host can’t be reached over the network.

Why this happens

• No computer on the network currently has “Host Multi-User Access” turned on
• The host computer is turned off, asleep, or disconnected from the network
• A firewall is blocking QuickBooks’ communication ports between workstation and host
• DNS or hostname resolution is failing after a router or network change

Steps to fix it

1. Confirm the server is powered on, awake, and connected to the same network as the workstations — simple, but worth ruling out first.
2. Enable hosting on the server only: File → Utilities → Host Multi-User Access.
3. Run the firewall check inside QuickBooks Database Server Manager (found under Network Issues in the QuickBooks Tool Hub) — it will identify and can fix blocked ports automatically.
4. Try connecting using the server’s IP address instead of its hostname temporarily, to rule out a DNS/name-resolution problem.
5. Restart the router if the network topology changed recently (new router, changed IP range) and workstations still can’t resolve the host.

When to get help

If hosting is confirmed correct and the firewall check passes but workstations still can’t see the server, there may be a deeper network segmentation issue (VLANs, guest networks) that’s worth diagnosing directly rather than working around. Intuit’s official guide to fixing Error H202 and H505 covers this in more depth.