Question 1

My server is not starting. What should I check?

Accepted Answer

Open the Console page and look at the startup logs. Common causes: a corrupt addon or plugin crashing on load, running out of allocated memory, or a misconfigured server.cfg / server.properties. Try removing recently added addons or plugins and restart. If the console shows no output at all, the server may have hit its memory limit; consider upgrading your plan. For Project Zomboid specifically: if your server was crash-looping shortly after starting, especially right after a reinstall or a plan/memory change, with out-of-memory symptoms in the Console, that has now been resolved platform-wide. Just start your server again. If it still happens, contact support. If your server won't start after removing a Workshop mod, double-check the Workshop Mods page shows it as removed and that you clicked Save Changes; a mod left in the config after removal can stop the server loading cleanly. If players (or you) can connect to the server but immediately get disconnected with "Client version does not match server version", that is a branch mismatch, not a start failure; see the updating guide. If a reinstall does not complete or hangs on the Steam download step, check the Console page for the install log; a repeated failure with the same error is worth sending to support along with the exact text.

Question 2

My server crashed. How do I find out why?

Accepted Answer

When a server stops unexpectedly (not a clean shutdown or scheduled restart), Crash Doctor runs automatically and shows a diagnosis on the Console page. It reports the exit code, a plain-English explanation, and a suggested fix. A few common cases it detects: Exit code 137 means the server was killed for using more memory than your plan allows; either reduce memory usage (fewer addons/plugins, lower player-facing limits) or upgrade your plan. Addon or plugin exceptions: for GMod, a Lua error that crashed the whole server rather than just logging; for Minecraft, an uncaught plugin exception. Crash Doctor names the addon or plugin where possible. Port conflicts: another process already using the port the server tried to bind to. Missing files: a required file (map, world, config) was deleted or never uploaded. Crash Doctor only triggers on unexpected stops. If you stopped the server yourself or it restarted on a schedule, you will not see a report.

Question 3

Players cannot connect to my server: what should I check?

Accepted Answer

First confirm the server is actually running by checking the status on the Dashboard. If it shows online, check the port players are using. GMod and Minecraft use different default ports, and players often copy the wrong one. For GMod servers, players connecting via the Steam browser should see it automatically once it is running. If the server appears in the browser but joining fails, your Workshop collection or required content may not be downloading; check the Workshop Addon Manager (Workshop Search in the sidebar). For Minecraft, confirm that online-mode in server.properties matches your setup. If you are running a Velocity or BungeeCord proxy, backend servers must have online-mode=false. If you recently changed ports or server software, double-check the Allocations page in the panel to confirm the active port.

Question 4

My server console shows errors: how do I read them?

Accepted Answer

Errors in the Console page are usually self-describing. Read the full line around the error, not just the error type. "Failed to load" means a missing file or broken dependency; the name before it tells you which addon or plugin to investigate. "Out of memory" means the server needs more RAM for its current load. "Permission denied" is a file permissions issue in the server directory; try re-uploading the affected file via File Manager. For GMod, Lua errors include a file path and line number. Open that file in File Manager, go to the line, and look for the issue. Common causes: a nil value being accessed, a missing function from a dependency that was not installed. For Minecraft, plugin errors usually name the plugin and the method that threw the exception. If the stack trace says "ClassNotFoundException", the plugin may not be compatible with your server JAR version. Copy the exact error message and search for it alongside your game name for community solutions.

Question 5

My server is running slowly: what should I check?

Accepted Answer

Check the Server Vitals page for CPU and RAM usage under load. If RAM is consistently above 85%, the server needs more memory; either upgrade the plan or remove addons and plugins to reduce load. For GMod, run status in the Console to see current player count. Slow performance on GMod is usually caused by too many addons, a poorly optimised addon running expensive Lua operations every tick, or a large number of entities spawned in the world. For Minecraft, open the TPS Monitor page. A healthy server runs at 20 TPS. If TPS is below 18, common causes are loaded chunks (lower view-distance), too many entities (use the /kill @e[type=!player] command to clear excess entities), or a plugin running expensive operations. Run /timings report in the console for a full breakdown. Check the Activity Log for recent changes that coincided with the slowdown. Disabling addons or plugins one at a time and testing after each helps identify the culprit.

Question 6

My server config changes are not saving between restarts

Accepted Answer

If config changes are not persisting, the most likely cause is the game overwriting your file on shutdown. For Minecraft: use the Server Properties page in the panel instead of editing server.properties directly; the panel writes the file at the right time in the shutdown sequence. Editing the file while the server is running risks the server overwriting your changes on shutdown. For GMod: edit server.cfg while the server is stopped, or use the panel's configuration pages where available. The server writes some config on shutdown, which can overwrite manual changes if the timing is wrong. For Rust: edit server.cfg while stopped. Rust also writes server settings on shutdown, so changes made while running may be overwritten. If the File Manager returns an error when saving, check you have not reached your plan's storage limit; the Dashboard shows current disk usage.

Question 7

What happens if I hit my plan's RAM limit?

Accepted Answer

When a server consistently uses RAM close to its plan limit, performance degrades and the server may crash. The server process is killed by the OS when it exceeds the hard limit; you will see the server go offline without a clean shutdown, and the Console page will show no final output. The Server Vitals page shows RAM usage over time. If you are regularly above 80%, consider upgrading your plan. You can upgrade at any time from Settings without any downtime beyond the restart required to apply the change.

Question 8

How do I identify which addon or plugin is causing a crash?

Accepted Answer

The binary search method is the most reliable approach for finding a problematic addon without testing each one individually. First, note which addons were recently added or updated; start with those. Remove the most recent additions one at a time and restart after each removal. If removing one stops the crash, that addon is the cause. If recent additions are not the issue, disable half of your addons by moving them to a temp folder (create a folder outside your addons/ directory and move half the addon folders into it). Restart and test. If the crash is gone, the problem is in the half you moved. If it persists, the problem is in the remaining half. Repeat: move half of the suspected group and test again. You narrow the culprit to a single addon in about 5-6 iterations for 50+ addons. For Minecraft, the same approach applies to the plugins/ folder. The startup log usually names the offending plugin on crash; look for "Error enabling plugin" or a stack trace mentioning the plugin class. Remove that plugin and test.

Question 9

Players are not downloading Workshop content on join: what do I check?

Accepted Answer

When players join your GMod server, they should automatically download required Workshop addons. If they are not, the most common causes are: Missing Steam Web API key: Workshop downloads require a valid Steam Web API key configured in the STEAM_ACC startup variable on the Startup page. Without it, the download process silently fails. Get a key from steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey and add it on the Startup page. workshop.lua not generated: the Workshop Addon Manager (Workshop Search in the sidebar) generates the garrysmod/lua/autorun/server/workshop.lua file that tells the server which addons to download. If this file is missing or empty, no addons will be downloaded. Open Workshop Search and verify your installed addons or Collection tab entries are actually saved. Collection not published: Steam Workshop collections must be publicly visible. If your collection is set to Friends Only or Private, other players cannot access it. Open the collection on Steam and confirm it is set to Public. Addon not in collection: If a player is missing specific content, confirm the addon ID is in your collection. Also check that the addon itself is still publicly available on the Workshop; sometimes addon authors unpublish or delete their work. For very large collections (100+ addons), the download can take 5-10 minutes the first time a player joins. This is expected behaviour; subsequent joins only download updated addons.

Question 10

My server is stuck in "Starting" status and never comes online

Accepted Answer

When a server gets stuck in "Starting" indefinitely, the process has started but has not reached a ready state within the expected window. Open the Console page immediately after clicking Start and watch the output. The most useful information is usually the last line printed before the server stalls. Common causes: Workshop download stall: For GMod, a failed or very slow Workshop download causes the server to wait indefinitely. Look for "Downloading item" lines in the Console that stop updating. A CDN failure or permission error on a specific addon causes this. Try removing the stalling addon from your collection and restarting. Plugin loading hang: Some Minecraft plugins with startup-time HTTP requests (for licensing or update checks) can cause the startup to hang indefinitely if the request times out. The Console will show the startup progress pause after a specific plugin loads. Remove that plugin temporarily to confirm, then check its configuration for a timeout setting. Insufficient memory: If the server never prints any output after launch, it may have been killed immediately by the OS for exceeding the memory limit. Check the Server Vitals page for memory usage at the time of the start attempt. If the server is stuck for more than 5 minutes with no Console output at all, use the Force Stop button on the panel, wait a moment, and try starting again.

Question 11

My Minecraft world appears corrupted: what should I do?

Accepted Answer

World corruption in Minecraft usually manifests as: chunks appearing as holes in the map, items or builds disappearing after a restart, or the server crashing on startup with a "Could not load level" error. First, stop the server and create a backup immediately. Even a corrupted world is better than no world; a backup captures the current state before anything gets worse. For chunk-level corruption (holes or missing builds): the affected chunks can often be deleted individually to force regeneration. Use a tool like MCEdit or Amulet to identify and delete the corrupted region files, then restart. The deleted areas regenerate as fresh chunks; any builds in those chunks are lost, but surrounding terrain survives. For "Could not load level" startup crashes: this usually means the level.dat file (the main world metadata) is corrupt. Check your backup history; the File History feature snapshots files regularly. Open File History for world/level.dat, find the most recent valid version, and restore it. For inventory or player data loss: player data is stored in world/playerdata/. Each player has a .dat file named with their UUID. These can be restored individually from File History without affecting the whole world. If you have scheduled backups enabled, restore the most recent backup from before the corruption appeared. This is the cleanest fix when the corruption is extensive.

Question 12

Players are experiencing high ping or lag: how do I diagnose it?

Accepted Answer

Latency and lag have two distinct causes: network latency (ping) and server-side performance. They feel similar to players but have different solutions. Network latency (high ping): this is the round-trip time between the player and the server. Our servers are in Germany (EU); players in the UK and Western Europe will have low ping (under 30ms), while players in North America or Asia will have higher ping that cannot be reduced regardless of plan. If ping complaints are only from specific geographic regions, this is a network distance issue, not a server problem. Server-side lag (stuttering, rubber-banding): this is caused by the server not processing ticks fast enough. For Minecraft, check the TPS Monitor page; values below 20 indicate server-side lag. For GMod, run status in the Console to see current server performance. Server-side lag is caused by: too many addons or plugins running expensive per-tick operations, too many entities spawned in the world, a world that has grown very large with many loaded chunks, or RAM/CPU usage close to the plan limit. Diagnosis steps: check the Server Vitals page during a period when lag is reported. If CPU is at 100% or RAM is above 85%, the plan is undersized for the current load. If CPU and RAM are fine, the issue is a specific addon or plugin. Use the activity log to identify recent changes, then disable recently added items one at a time.

Troubleshooting