Why Your Palworld Server Restarts Daily
Your Palworld server restarts itself once a day, at 4am. That's on by default, it's deliberate, and this explains why and how to change it.
The short answer
Palworld uses more memory the longer it runs. A restart hands that memory back, and a server that never restarts eventually runs out and stops on its own, at whatever time it happens to reach the limit.
A restart at 4am, when nobody is playing, is better than a crash at 8pm when everyone is.
What happens at 4am
- If anyone is online, they get a message in game at one minute, thirty seconds and ten seconds
- Your server saves the world
- It stops, then starts again
The whole thing takes about as long as any other restart. Your world, your settings and your mods are exactly as you left them, and your address doesn't change.
If nobody is online, it skips the warnings and just goes.
Changing the time, or turning it off
Open your control panel, go to Settings and find the scheduled restart options. You can pick a different time, or switch it off.
Your choice is remembered. If you switch it off, it stays off.
Before you do turn it off, know what you're choosing. Without a daily restart your server will keep climbing until it hits its limit, and then it stops mid game rather than at 4am. Moving the time is usually the better answer if 4am doesn't suit you.
If it stops at other times too
That's a different thing, and it means your server reached its memory limit rather than its restart time. You get a message in the console and an email about it.
A Palworld world needs more memory as it grows, and player count is only part of it. A world that has been played for months, with bases all over it, is heavier than a fresh one carrying the same number of players.
If this keeps happening:
- Cap what gets built. Maximum buildings in the Config tab is unlimited until you set a number, so a server where everyone keeps building has nothing to stop it growing. See Palworld server settings
- Restart more often. Twice a day costs you two short gaps and buys a lot of room
- Move up a plan. If your world has outgrown its plan, more memory is the real fix
Restarting whenever you like
The daily restart is the only one that happens on its own. You can restart any time from the Overview page, and players online get the same warnings.
If your server is stopping and you're not sure which of these it is, open a support ticket and we'll look at it with you.
