Palworld server troubleshooting: saves, crashes, lag

Fix common Palworld server problems: corrupted saves after patches, servers that won't start, pal AI lag, REST API hiccups, and players who can't connect.

Palworld is still in early access, and that shows up in the kinds of problems that hit servers: occasional save corruption after patches, the odd binary mismatch, and lag from pal AI on busy bases. This page covers what tends to go wrong and how to get back on your feet.

Save corruption or world reset after a patch

Easily the most common Palworld server problem, and almost always tied to a Steam patch. Symptom: your world loads but progress is missing, or the server starts on a fresh world.

What to do:

Open your dashboard and head to the Backups tab.
Find the most recent backup taken before the patch landed.
Restore it.

We take daily backups automatically, so there's almost always a good copy. If you know a patch is coming, hit Manual backup beforehand; see Manual backups.

Server won't start after a Steam patch

The Palworld dedicated server's binary version has to match what the client expects. After a patch, our image refetches on restart, but occasionally a node sticks on an older binary.

If your server keeps trying and failing to start after a patch:

Try one full restart from the dashboard.
If it still won't come up, raise a ticket with your server name. We'll force a refresh on our side.

You won't be charged downtime on a patch-related fix.

Lag, stutters, and TPS dips

Palworld lag almost always comes from three places, in this order of likelihood:

Pal AI: every working pal at every base is running pathfinding and task logic. A base with 30 pals on conveyor belts is doing a lot of thinking. Trim the headcount or split work across bases.
Too many bases: each player can have several bases, and each base ticks independently. Communities with a dozen active builders can swamp the CPU.
Save bloat: long-running worlds accumulate drops, structures, and history. Lower DropItemMaxNum in PalWorldSettings.ini and consider an occasional cleanup pass.

Palworld is CPU-thirsty more than RAM-thirsty. If the CPU panel in your dashboard is sitting near the ceiling, you're CPU-bound, and the Elite tier (with priority CPU scheduling) is the lever that helps.

REST API actions stopped working

If the dashboard's announce, save, kick, or ban buttons return an error, it's usually a transient auth issue with the in-container REST endpoint. The fix is almost always a restart:

Restart the server from the dashboard.
Wait for the Ready badge.
Try the action again.

If it persists past one restart, raise a ticket.

Players can't connect

Run through this list in order:

Is the server actually ready? The dashboard status badge shows Ready when the REST endpoint responds, which is the same moment players can actually join. If it shows Starting, wait.
Right address and port? The full join string lives on the dashboard; copy it from there rather than typing from memory.
Password? If you set a ServerPassword in PalWorldSettings.ini, players need it. Share it carefully.
PC only? Palworld has no PC-to-console crossplay yet. Steam players only.
Firewall on their end? Rare, but if one specific player keeps timing out and others connect fine, it's almost certainly local to them.

Full connection walkthrough in Connecting to your Palworld server.

Asking about mods

Palworld doesn't have a third-party mod ecosystem yet. No official loader, no Modrinth/CurseForge-equivalent for it. The dashboard has no Mods & Plugins tab for Palworld because there's genuinely nothing for it to install. If a player asks "can we install X mod", the honest answer is "not yet, the game doesn't support it". Config tweaks in PalWorldSettings.ini are the customisation lever for now.

Still stuck

Open a ticket from your dashboard with the server name and a rough timestamp of when the problem started. We'll dig into the logs from our side. For console-related questions (Palworld doesn't have a traditional console, but the question still gets asked), see Why is the console blocked on some games?.

Last updated 2026-05-20. Notice a mistake? Tell us.