Server stuck: will not stop or restart

Server stuck and no longer responding

When your server sits on “stopping” or “starting” and neither Stop nor Restart does anything, Force Stop gets you out. To avoid losing progress, save once through the console first. Two steps, under two minutes:

1. Open the Console tab in the panel and send your game’s save command (Save for Palworld, save-all for Minecraft).
2. Switch to Overview and click Force Stop. After that the server starts normally again.

Why does a server get stuck at all?

Stop and Restart are polite requests: the panel sends the game server a stop signal or a console command and waits for the process to end itself. If the game server no longer answers on that channel, the request just sits there and the status hangs.

The most common causes:

Cause	Typical for	How you spot it
RCON or the server’s own API stops answering	Palworld, games with a REST interface	Status jumps to “stopping” and stays there
The process is saving a very large world	Minecraft with big worlds, Palworld with many bases	It takes a long time but eventually finishes on its own
A mod or plugin blocks the shutdown	modded servers in any game	The hang started with a newly installed mod
The game crashed while starting	all	Status “starting”, with an error in the console

How do I save before forcing a stop?

Send the command in the Console tab. It goes in without a leading slash — the server console is not the in-game chat.

Game	Command
Palworld	Save
Minecraft (Vanilla, Paper, Spigot)	save-all
other games	see the relevant game guide

If the server still accepts the command, it confirms it in the console. If nothing comes back, that channel is blocked too — then Force Stop is all that is left, and your state is whatever the last auto-save wrote.

What does “Force Stop” actually do?

Force Stop ends the server process immediately without waiting for it — technically the same as pulling the plug. That is why the panel keeps it separate from Stop and asks for confirmation first.

Afterwards the server sits cleanly at Offline and starts again normally. Your files, mods and configuration are untouched; only what was still in memory since the last save is affected.

When it keeps happening

A single hang is normal. If it happens regularly, something is behind it:

• Since a new mod? Remove the most recently installed one and watch. More in Mods not loading.
• Always while saving? The world may have outgrown the plan. RAM recommendations are in the game guides.
• No pattern at all? Open a ticket with the server ID and the time. We can see in the node’s log what the process was waiting on.

Frequently asked questions

Do I lose my world if I use Force Stop? Only whatever was not written to disk since the last save. With the save command first, you lose next to nothing.

How long should I wait before forcing? Two to three minutes. If the status has not moved by then, it is not saving, it is stuck.

Does a stuck server keep costing money? Yes, as long as it counts as running. That is exactly why it is worth not leaving it stuck for hours.

Why does auto-stop not stop a stuck server? Auto-stop needs a confirmed player count. If the server stops answering, that count is unknown, and we never stop without a confirmed count — otherwise we would shut down servers with players on them.

Can I automate force stopping? No, and that is deliberate: killing a process should always stay a conscious decision.

Related guides

• Using the console — send commands and read logs
• Server will not start — when it never comes up in the first place
• Backups — save and restore states
• Rent a game server — every game, online in under 90 seconds