Some of our players experience the same thing - takes them a few tries to get past that. They try loading from the Ark screen, from the list of servers using the Steam interface and even our website for the server - hosting company has a link - anyway - no matter what some players get in zero issues - other have the issue. I think its related to some garbage in the Ark Install and update/install process - those with clean installs of ark and all other files on new machines have zero issues.

Those with older installs - have issues. Takes them multiple tries - but they get in eventually and then play with no problems. - I suggest trying different servers running the map - see if its consistent issue - to the point - quite a few of the same player from my group have similar issues with other maps where it hangs at the snap shot screen.

Then Times out.

Can't say this is the proper fix but:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/app/346110/discussions/0/1708438376921680403/?ctp=2https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/app/346110/discussions/0/1708438376921680403/?ctp=2

If you've already tried validating files and restarting without leaving the game and reattempting, I recommend putting just Ark into a separate partition and then defragging it. when nothing else works, if i defrag just the ark files, it resolves the issue. Also, speed of connection has little to do with that Snapshot 16. it's about content on disk. i've watched Ark load using task manager and my net doesn't get touched until after it loads that last file and goes 'white screen', then it attempts the connection again. So, file optimizaiton xD