This has been happening since Bedrock 1.17, when I start up my server it does the whole loading process and most of the time it starts up fine. But when I try to join my server, my server says I've joined, but my screen says "Locating Server" and it won't ever load. 

But if I let the server sit for roughly 2 hours (without anyone joining or doing anything with the server), then I and other players would be able to join.

BTW, this happens every time I start the server, and it happens to every player.