Squad Server Troubleshooting

If your Squad server is misbehaving, most tickets we see come down to the same handful of things: Steam Workshop sync getting stuck halfway, a single typo in Layers.cfg killing the rotation, a Licensed-Server revocation nobody read the email for, or an RCON config that just won't take the password. Let's work through them.

This guide is ordered roughly by how often we open a ticket for each one. If you're new to Squad hosting, you probably want the getting-started guide first – and if you're staring at a broken config file, the server configuration reference is the place for the syntax. This article is specifically for when something was working and now isn't.

Server won't start at all

Four things cause this, in order of frequency.

Missing or malformed Server.cfg. The daemon needs Server.cfg in SquadGame/ServerConfig/ and it needs at least a ServerName and a MaxPlayers line. If you deleted it by accident or FTP'd a blank file up, the process won't even get past init. Open Configuration Files in the panel and check the file is actually there and non-empty. If you can't remember what it should look like, restore yesterday's Cloud Backup – takes about thirty seconds and gives you a working file back.

Layers.cfg pointing at a Layer that doesn't exist. This one bites everybody once. Squad Layer names are case-sensitive and the format is strict – AlBasrah_AAS_v1 is a real Layer, Albasrah_AAS_v1 is not, and the server will refuse to rotate into it. If the server hits an invalid Layer as its first map, it can hang in an init loop. Open Log Viewer, search for LogWorld or could not find map, and you'll see the bad Layer name in plain text.

Port already in use. Not usually a problem on LOW.MS because we auto-allocate ports per server, but I've seen it when somebody manually edited the startup line and hard-coded 7787, then spun up a second server on the same node. Don't do that. Let the panel assign ports and use the ${SERVER_PORT} style variables in your Commandline Manager entry instead.

Unreal Engine crash on startup. If you see a fatal error in Log Viewer mentioning LogWindows: Windows GetLastError or similar, it's usually a corrupt install. Run Steam Update with "Validate Files" enabled. Honestly, the fastest fix here is usually just re-validating – takes 5–10 minutes and resolves about 80% of these.

Server starts but doesn't show up in the browser

Symptom: the process is up, Log Viewer looks healthy, but players can't find you in the in-game server list. Cause is almost always one of:

Query port blocked. Squad uses a separate UDP query port (next one up from the game port). LOW.MS opens it automatically, but if you're routing through a custom firewall ruleset or a Dedicated IP you configured yourself, double-check UDP is open on the query port as well as the game port. A server that's running but has its query port blocked looks alive internally and invisible externally – classic symptom.
Server still initialising. Squad takes 60–90 seconds to appear on the master list after start. If you check the browser 20 seconds after restart and nothing's there, give it another minute. Watch Log Viewer for LogOnline: Server registered – that's your "I'm on the list now" message.
Licensing revocation. If your server used to appear on the Licensed list and suddenly doesn't, check your admin email for a message from the Offworld community team. Revocations don't silently de-list you – there's always an email, and it almost always cites a specific policy (moderation absence, admin abuse, or license-sharing). See the Licensing section below.
Region filter on the client. Not your server, but worth ruling out – ask the player reporting it to clear their region filter in-game. We've had three tickets in the last month where the "server is invisible" turned out to be a player-side EU/NA filter.

Players can't connect

The server shows up, they click Join, and something goes wrong. Work through in order:

Mod version mismatch. If you're running mods, the client's subscribed mod version has to match the server's installed version. Steam Workshop usually handles this, but if a mod author ships an update and the server hasn't restarted to pick it up, connecting players get kicked. Fix: restart the server. If that doesn't clear it, check the mod in Mod Manager – there should be a current version marker, and if it says "update available" then that's your culprit.
Server full. Obvious one but worth naming – Squad's "Server Full" screen looks exactly like a connection failure to a lot of players. Cross-check Current Activity & Stats to see actual player count.
Whitelist misconfig. If you run a whitelist and a player who should be allowed in is getting bounced, their SteamID64 is probably wrong. It has to be the 17-digit SteamID64 (starts with 7656119…) – not the custom profile URL, not SteamID3 in [U:1:…] form. Use steamid.io to convert if in doubt.
Version skew after a patch. Squad patches go out and your server needs to match. If a player's client updated before your server did, they can't connect. Run Steam Update. We get tickets for this every single major release.
Banned SteamID. Check Bans.cfg in Configuration Files – someone might've been banned by a previous admin and you've forgotten.

Steam Workshop mods not syncing

Workshop mod sync can get stuck in a few ways. Check these in order:

Mod not in the server's mod list. Players can subscribe client-side to any Workshop item, but the server only loads mods you've explicitly listed. If your community is asking why Mod X "isn't working", check that the Workshop ID is in Server.cfg (or whatever mod list file your setup uses) first.
Mod removed by the author from the Workshop. This happens more than you'd think – a modder pulls a release, your server still references it, everything stalls. Log Viewer will usually show a 404-style error on sync. Swap the mod out.
Mod updated but server not restarted. If the Workshop author ships a new version and the server hasn't been restarted, it's still serving the old build and connecting players with the updated client will bounce. Restart to pick up the new version.
SteamCMD or server failing to download the mod. Check Log Viewer for SteamCMD errors on the mod download step. Transient network or Steam-side hiccups will show up here.
Steam Workshop itself is having an outage. Rare, but if content delivery is flapping, your sync will just hang. Check steamstat.us before assuming it's your server.

If you manage mods through Mod Manager, most of the above is surfaced visually. If you're doing it manually through Configuration Files, you'll need to cross-reference Log Viewer more carefully.

Layer rotation stuck on one map

You set up a rotation of six Layers and the server keeps replaying the first one. Three possibilities:

Layers.cfg isn't being read at all – check the file path matches what the startup is pointing at.
One Layer name is invalid and the server is falling back to the previous one. Log Viewer will name the bad Layer.
You only defined one Layer. Laugh, but it happens – someone copy-pastes a config, strips it back to test one map, forgets to re-add the rest.

RCON refuses to connect

RCON is a frequent ticket because the config is picky.

The Squad RCON password lives in Rcon.cfg and is read only at startup – changing it live in Web Console will not re-read the file. Restart after editing.

Common causes of "connection refused" or "bad password":

Wrong password in Rcon.cfg (most common – trailing newline, smart-quote from a web editor, typo).
RCON port not open. LOW.MS opens the RCON TCP port automatically, but if you've configured a custom firewall or you're connecting from a restricted network, check that TCP is reachable on the RCON port.
allowed-hosts whitelist. Rcon.cfg has an IP allowlist. If you set it to a specific IP and your home IP then changes, you'll get silently refused. Set it to 0.0.0.0 to allow any source while you debug, then lock it down again.
Client tool version mismatch. Some older RCON tools don't handle recent Squad protocol changes well. If your SquadJS or similar bot keeps dropping, try a known-good RCON client (like mcrcon) to rule out your tool.

Admin commands not working

You're in-game, you type AdminKick, and nothing happens. Check:

Admins.cfg format. SteamID64 only – 17 digits, starts with 7656119. Not the profile URL, not SteamID3.
Role permission mismatch. Squad admin roles are granular. If your SteamID is under a role that has ChangeMap but not Kick, you can't kick. Check the role definitions at the top of Admins.cfg.
Role not defined. I've seen a config where someone referenced a role called Moderator but never defined what Moderator could actually do. The server then assigns you to a role with zero permissions.

Licensing issues

Only relevant if you're running a Licensed server. If your server was removed from the Licensed list, there is always an email from the Offworld community team explaining why. Usual reasons: lack of admin presence, admin abuse, license-sharing with another community, or facilitating an environment hostile to new players.

To appeal: open a ticket in the Offworld Industries Hosting Discord (#create-ticket channel). You'll need the six-digit license ID of the revoked server and a written explanation. Appeals don't guarantee relicensing. Be honest about what happened and what you've changed – generic "it won't happen again" responses don't usually land.

Unlicensed servers still run perfectly fine and still appear in the normal community server browser. Most servers we host are unlicensed. Losing the license is not losing the server.

Performance: tick-rate drops, warp, rubber-banding

Squad is a heavy game server. Once you're in the 80–100 player range with vehicles and logistics, the physics load alone is significant.

Check CPU first. Squad is single-thread-bound on the critical path. If one core is pegged at 100% and tick rate is falling, the CPU is the bottleneck. This is exactly why we offer the Latest CPU upgrade (guaranteed Ryzen 7950X/9950X) – the per-core clock matters more than core count for Squad.
RAM exhaustion with heavy mods. Default is 10 GB which is comfortable for a vanilla 50-slot. Heavy modded 80–100 slot servers often need more – our RAM upgrades go 15, 20, 25, 30 GB. Watch Current Activity & Stats; if RAM is at 95%+ consistently, you need more.
Mod-induced slowness. Some mods are genuinely badly optimised, particularly ones that spawn a lot of deployables or run their own physics. If performance degraded after you added a new mod, that mod is the prime suspect – disable it and re-test.
Vehicle overload. Not a bug, just physics. Forty helicopters and logistics trucks on one map will tank tick rate on any hardware. Not much you can do other than layer selection.

Server keeps crashing or restarting

UE crash after a Squad patch – run Steam Update, validate files.
Mod incompatibility after a mod update – check Log Viewer for the crash stack, disable suspect mod, restart.
Corrupt SaveGame / profile data – rare on Squad (most state is transient) but if you've been migrating between hosts, do a clean Cloud Restore from a known-good snapshot.
Out-of-memory kill – if you see the process die without a clean shutdown and no UE crash log, suspect OOM. Bump RAM.

Make a habit of pulling a Cloud Backup before every Squad patch. It takes seconds and has saved countless servers from post-update disasters.

Using the panel for diagnostics

Most of the tools above sit on the sidebar – a quick inventory of what to reach for when:

Log Viewer – first thing you open for anything. Live tailing, searchable. If you learn one panel tool, learn this one.
Web Console – send live RCON-style commands, check admin permissions interactively.
Configuration Files – edit Server.cfg, Rcon.cfg, Admins.cfg, Layers.cfg in-browser. No FTP needed for quick fixes.
Mod Manager – visual mod whitelist management if you prefer UI over editing configs.
Cloud Backup / Cloud Restore – take a snapshot before updates or risky config changes. Restores in under a minute.
Backup Manager – schedule recurring backups so you always have a known-good state to fall back to.
Steam Update – patch the server. Validate Files option here fixes most corruption.
Current Activity & Stats – CPU, RAM, player count, tick rate. First place to go when somebody says "server feels laggy".
Commandline Manager – startup arguments. Change it here rather than hacking batch files.

Still stuck after all of that? Open a ticket with your server ID and the last 200 lines of Log Viewer. That context alone solves about half of what comes in.

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