How do I Force Stop my server?

Some games (Palworld is a common one) hang on a normal Stop and never leave the “stopping” state. This usually happens because the game’s server process doesn’t respond properly to the shutdown signal the panel sends it, so it just sits there indefinitely instead of closing. It’s a quirk of how that particular game’s server software handles shutdown, not something wrong with your server itself. If this happens, Force Stop is there to get you unstuck.

When to Use Force Stop

1. Click Stop as usual.
2. Wait about 60 seconds. Some games take a little while to shut down properly, especially if they’re saving the world first.
3. If the server is still stuck in “stopping” after that, use Force Stop.

Force Stop kills the process immediately, which is exactly what you want when it’s genuinely stuck. That said, prefer a normal Stop whenever the server responds to it, since it gives the game a chance to save properly before shutting down. Only reach for Force Stop once you’ve given it that 60-second window and it still hasn’t stopped.

What Force Stop Actually Does

A normal Stop sends a shutdown signal and waits for the game’s server process to close itself, saving the world and cleaning up on its own terms. Force Stop skips all of that and ends the process immediately, the same as unplugging the server’s power.

Because of this, Force Stop carries a small risk: if the server was in the middle of writing save data when it gets killed, you could lose progress since the last proper save, or in rare cases end up with a corrupted world file. This is uncommon, but it’s why Force Stop should be a last resort, used only after a normal Stop has had a real chance to work, not a shortcut to skip waiting around.

After a Force Stop

1. Start your server as usual, and check Console for any errors as it boots back up. Most of the time, the server starts normally and nothing was actually affected.
2. If it won’t start, check Files to make sure nothing is missing or looks obviously broken, like a save file that’s unusually small or a world folder that’s empty. See our guide on an empty Files folder if that’s what you’re seeing.
3. If your world loads but recent progress seems to be missing, check Backups for a recent save you can restore from.
4. If Stop and Start both keep hanging repeatedly, that’s not normal, even for games known to hang occasionally, and is worth having a closer look at. Contact support with your server ID, and we’ll dig into it with you.

Tip: Save Before You Stop

If you know you’ll be stopping your server soon and want to minimize any risk, use your game’s in-console save command (if it has one, for example /save-all in some games) right before clicking Stop. This forces a save immediately, so even if the server does end up needing a Force Stop, you’ll have a very recent save to fall back on.