s&box Server Troubleshooting

s&box is new enough that every "my server won't do X" symptom has a shortlist of probable causes. This guide covers the ones we see most. If you haven't actually done the first-time setup yet, the getting started guide is probably what you want first – most of the "won't start" tickets we get turn out to be command-line issues that the setup walkthrough covers. If you hit something that's not listed here, open a ticket and we'll add it.

Server won't start

First stop is Log Viewer in the LOW.MS Control Panel. The Facepunch server logs the reason it bailed – usually one of:

+game <packageIdent> is malformed. Package identifiers are org.name, lowercase, no spaces. A mistyped name or a legacy Garry's Mod gamemode name (deathmatch, darkrp) won't resolve against sbox.game.
The package can't be fetched from sbox.game's cloud. If the node lost outbound connectivity during startup the server can't download the game package. Hit START again once the network is back.
SteamCMD didn't complete validation. Usually self-resolves on retry; if not, hit Steam Update in the sidebar to force a full re-validate.

If the log is empty and the process just silently dies, that's different – probably the Dedicated Server binary itself is corrupt. Run Steam Update and try again.

`+game` switch is rejected or ignored

Classic symptom from the back half of 2024 of being on a public branch that drifted behind staging. Operators at the time had to force -beta staging to get +game recognised at all. Launch should put this to bed, but if you're seeing "unrecognised command" in the log, or the switch being silently dropped:

Check Log Viewer for the exact error wording.
As a sanity check, switch to the staging branch temporarily. If +game starts working, your public branch is out of sync on that node – open a ticket and we'll force the update.
Don't run staging long-term. It's not what your players connect to.

Server's up but nobody can see it in the lobby browser

Nine times out of ten this isn't a server-side issue. s&box discovery goes through Steam lobbies per-gamemode, not a global server list. If you loaded facepunch.walker but a friend is looking at the multiplayer menu of a different game package, they won't see your server.

Things to check, in order:

Is the friend looking at the correct gamemode's multiplayer UI? Different games on sbox.game have their own lobby lists.
Is +net_game_server_token set? Without one, the server gets a fresh Steam ID every restart – anyone who bookmarked the old ID won't reconnect.
Did the hostname appear in the log after startup, confirming the server registered with Steam? If not, outbound Steam connectivity from the node is the problem.

If all three check out and the server's genuinely invisible, ticket us.

Admin claims aren't working

You edited users/config.json, gave yourself kick and ban, but nothing responds in-game. The configuration guide has the full claims format if you need a reference, but the usual causes are:

Wrong Steam ID format. It must be the 64-bit SteamID64, not the vanity URL or SteamID3. Convert at steamid.io if in doubt.
You didn't restart the server. Claim checks happen at connect time – saving the file and reconnecting your existing session isn't enough. Hit RESTART and rejoin.
The claim name doesn't match what the gamemode expects. kick, ban, restart are Facepunch's documented examples but individual gamemodes can define their own claim strings. Check the gamemode's docs for what it actually checks.
Invalid JSON. Trailing commas, unquoted keys, or missing brackets will cause the server to silently skip the file. Paste it through a JSON validator if something's not applying.

Updates aren't pulling

steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 1892930 validate +quit is the command. The Steam Update sidebar button runs the same thing.

Symptoms and fixes:

"Already up to date" but Facepunch released a patch earlier today – Steam's CDN occasionally lags by 10–30 minutes. Wait and try again.
Update downloads but the server won't start after – version mismatch between the game package and the server binary. Force a full validate (Steam Update in the panel, or SteamCMD with validate as above) and retry.
Game packages themselves update via sbox.game's cloud, not SteamCMD. They refresh on server restart. If a gamemode's broken after a Facepunch patch, a simple RESTART often does it.

If you're running -beta staging and a patch specifically broke your gamemode, switch back to public – staging gets new builds first and occasionally regresses.

Server is slow or laggy despite low player count

Not many operator-tunable knobs here. A few things to rule out:

Current Activity & Stats in the sidebar shows CPU / RAM / bandwidth. If CPU is pinned, the gamemode is doing too much work – that's a gamemode issue, not a server one.
s&box doesn't expose sv_tickrate or similar network-rate ConVars. If a gamemode has its own perf settings, check its docs.
Other services on the same node shouldn't cause this – we size nodes for it – but fresh-game launches occasionally surface packaging issues. Open a ticket if you suspect it.

"I can't install mods through the panel"

s&box isn't Steam Workshop-based, so the panel's Mod Manager doesn't apply to s&box the same way it does for Garry's Mod, ARK, or Conan. Games and assets live on sbox.game's cloud and are loaded via the +game <packageIdent> command-line switch. There's nothing to install in the classic sense – your server pulls the package it's configured to load at startup.

If a specific gamemode tells you to drop files in the server directory (a custom-modified fork, say), use File Manager or SFTP.

None of the above fits

Open a ticket. Include:

Your server ID from the panel overview.
The last 20–30 lines of Log Viewer around when the problem started.
What you tried already.

s&box is new and the failure modes are going to be a moving target for the first few months after launch. We update this article as recurring tickets surface.