Known Issues and Fixes

Palworld’s dedicated server software is under active development and has some known quirks. This guide covers the most common issues server owners encounter and how to resolve them. If your problem is not listed here, open a support ticket on Discord.

Connection Timeouts

Symptom: Players get a “Connection Timed Out” error when trying to join the server, even though it appears to be running.

Causes and Fixes:

Server is still starting up. Palworld servers can take several minutes to fully initialize, especially after an update or first boot. Check the console at Dashboard and wait until you see messages indicating the server is ready and listening for connections.
Server is unresponsive due to memory pressure. If the server has been running for an extended period, it may have consumed all available memory. Restart the server from the control panel. See the Memory Leaks section below for a long-term fix.
Client and server version mismatch. Palworld updates frequently, and the client and server must be on the same version. When Palworld releases an update, restart your server to pull the latest version. Make sure players have also updated their game through Steam.
Incorrect connection details. Double-check the IP address and port in the panel under Settings. A common mistake is using the wrong port or including extra characters when copying.
Server password mismatch. If you have set a server password, ensure players are entering it exactly as configured. Passwords are case-sensitive.

Memory Leaks and High RAM Usage

Symptom: Server performance degrades over time. Players experience rubber-banding, slow base loading, or eventually get disconnected. The RAM usage shown in the panel steadily climbs toward the limit.

Cause: Palworld’s dedicated server has known memory leak issues where RAM usage gradually increases during extended sessions. This is a problem with the game’s server software itself, not your hosting.

Fix: Schedule automatic restarts. The most effective solution is to restart your server on a regular schedule:

Go to Schedules in your server panel
Create a new schedule named “Auto Restart”
Set it to run once or twice daily during off-peak hours (e.g., 4:00 AM and 4:00 PM)
Add a task with the action Restart
Enable the schedule

A daily restart keeps memory usage in check and prevents the gradual performance degradation. If your server has heavy usage, consider restarting every 12 hours.

For detailed instructions on setting up schedules, see our Schedules and Auto-Restarts guide.

Additional tips to reduce memory usage:

Lower BaseCampWorkerMaxNum in your settings — fewer working Pals at bases reduces memory consumption
Reduce PalSpawnNumRate slightly — fewer wild Pals means less entity tracking
Set a reasonable ServerPlayerMaxNum based on your plan

World Corruption

Symptom: The server crashes on startup, players lose significant progress, or the world resets to an earlier state unexpectedly.

Causes and Prevention:

Editing files while the server is running. Never modify configuration files or world saves while the server is active. Always stop the server first, make your changes, and then start it again.
Server crash during a save operation. If the server runs out of memory or crashes while writing save data, the save file can become corrupted. Scheduled restarts (see above) help prevent crashes.
Disk space exhaustion. If the server cannot write save data because the disk is full, corruption can occur. Monitor your disk usage in the panel and clean up old backups or logs if space is low.

Recovery:

If your world is corrupted, restore from a backup:

Go to Backups in the sidebar
Select the most recent backup from before the corruption occurred
Click restore and confirm
Start your server

This is why regular automated backups are essential. Set up daily backups through the schedule system so you always have a recent clean save to fall back on. See our World Management guide for detailed backup procedures.

Save File Issues

Symptom: Player progress is not saving, or players join to find their character reset to a previous state.

Fixes:

Ensure the server shuts down gracefully. When you stop the server, use the Stop button in the panel rather than killing the process. A graceful shutdown triggers a final save operation. If the server is unresponsive and must be killed, some recent progress may be lost.
Check auto-save settings. Palworld saves the world at regular intervals. If the save interval is too long, players may lose more progress during a crash. The default interval is usually sufficient, but you can verify it in the startup parameters.
Verify disk space. Saves fail silently when the disk is full. Check your disk usage in the panel dashboard.
Individual player data loss. If only one player lost their progress while everyone else is fine, their specific player save file may have been corrupted. You can restore just their file from a backup (located in Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/<WorldID>/Players/).

Server Not Updating

Symptom: After a Palworld game update, the server is still running the old version and players with the new version cannot connect.

Fix: Restart the server from the panel. The server automatically checks for and installs updates on startup. If a simple restart does not work, try stopping the server, then starting it again (rather than using the restart button). In rare cases, you may need to reinstall the server:

Create a backup of your world data first
Go to Settings in the sidebar
Use the Reinstall Server option
Restore your world data from the backup after reinstallation

High Latency and Rubber-Banding

Symptom: Players experience lag, teleporting, or delayed interactions even though their internet connection is fine.

Fixes:

Too many players for the plan. If your server has more concurrent players than your plan comfortably supports, you will see performance issues. The Assembly Line (10 GB) plan works best with up to 8 players, while The Syndicate (16 GB) handles 16 or more.
Excessive base complexity. Large bases with many working Pals are the biggest performance drain. If players have massive factories with dozens of Pals, consider lowering BaseCampWorkerMaxNum or asking players to simplify their base designs.
Memory pressure. Check your RAM usage in the panel. If it is consistently above 90%, the server is struggling. Restart the server and consider scheduled restarts to keep memory in check.
Restart the server. If performance suddenly drops, a restart often resolves it immediately.

Server Crashes on Startup After Settings Change

Symptom: You edited PalWorldSettings.ini and now the server will not start.

Fix: The settings file has strict formatting requirements. Common mistakes include:

Missing or extra commas between settings
Missing closing parenthesis at the end of the OptionSettings line
Invalid values (e.g., text where a number is expected)
Extra spaces or line breaks within the settings line

Open the file in the file manager and carefully review your changes. If you cannot find the error, restore the file from a backup or delete it entirely — the server will regenerate a default settings file on the next startup.

For a reference of all valid settings and their expected values, see our Server Settings guide.

Getting Help

If none of the fixes above resolve your issue:

Check the Console in your panel for error messages — these often point to the exact problem
Take a screenshot of any error messages
Open a support ticket on Discord
Include your server name, what you were doing when the issue occurred, and any error messages you found

Our support team is familiar with Palworld’s common issues and can help get your server back on track.