SCUM server not working?
Start here.
SCUM trips people in the plumbing: players connect on a port two above the one the server starts on, the game rewrites its own settings file every boot, and # commands only work for Steam IDs on its admin list.
# what fixes most SCUM problems 1 Friends can’t connect → Use the panel address, port and all 2 Setting didn’t stick → Change it on the Settings tab 3 # commands do nothing → Add your SteamID64 as an admin
My friends can’t connect, or a status checker says the server is offline.
DLL signature verification failed, disabling multiplayer, the server is up and nobody can join. That one is ours — we fix its cause on every boot — so tell us.Use the address the panel prints
Copy the address under your server’s name at the top of the panel — host and port. SCUM takes players on a TCP port two above the one it starts on, so the game port, or a port from a guide, is the wrong one.
Wait for the world to tick
The port opens about 15 seconds into a boot, but the world isn’t running until roughly 40–47 seconds, when the Console starts printing LogSCUM: Global Stats. A join before that stalls. The panel only calls the server online after that line.
Ignore Steam query checkers
SCUM doesn’t answer Steam server queries (A2S), so query tools and status sites call a healthy server offline. Your panel’s player count comes from the game’s own database instead.
Two boot lines that look bad and aren’t
AddMultiplayerDisabledReason: NoPlayOnlinePermissions appears on every SCUM boot, native Windows included, and means nothing. Dll Verification result: 0, printed twice, is a pass.
Why: SCUM runs its own response channel — server info, Steam login, profile creation — on that TCP port, and works the number out from its start port by itself. We publish exactly the three sockets it opens.
I edited ServerSettings.ini and my change didn’t stick — or the file looks different from what I wrote.
PartialWipe, GoldWipe or FullWipe switched on in that file. They wipe on the next restart, and we haven’t measured whether SCUM switches them back off afterwards — if it doesn’t, every restart wipes again. That’s why none of them is a panel setting.Panel fields win, every start
Everything on the Settings tab is written into the file on every start, over whatever is there. Change those on the Settings tab and Apply & restart; a hand edit to one of them is reset at the next start.
Hand-edit the rest in Files
Any key the panel doesn’t carry keeps your edit — every rule the game has is in that file. SCUM reads it only when it starts, so restart after editing. Raid protection type is one of these: set it in the file.
Keep every key under a section header
Each scum. key must sit under one of the six headers — [General], [World], [Respawn], [Vehicles], [Damage], [Features]. Which one doesn’t matter; a key under no header is silently thrown away. Booleans are True/False, not 1/0.
Expect the file to change shape
SCUM rewrites the file on every boot: numbers get padded (10 becomes 10.000000) and missing keys come back at their defaults. Your values survive that.
My # admin commands do nothing.
Add your SteamID64 on the Settings tab
Admin SteamID64s under Identity & Access: comma-separated, 17 digits each, starting 7656119. Apply & restart — it’s written to AdminUsers.ini on every start. An entry that isn’t a SteamID64 is skipped with a warning.
Or keep the file yourself
Leave that field empty and the panel never touches Saved/Config/WindowsServer/AdminUsers.ini: edit it in Files, then restart. SCUM doesn’t rewrite that file, so your edits stay.
Type them in game chat
Admin commands start with # — #Teleport X Y Z, #SpawnItem, #Ban. The admin commands list linked below has the rest.
Players on the Map tab are a minute or more behind where they really are.
That’s SCUM’s own cadence
The game writes player positions to its save database only on its entity auto-save, about every 90 seconds. The Map tab draws them as soon as they’re written.
No setting speeds it up
We looked: no server setting or console variable changes that interval. The panel says about every 90 seconds rather than live for that reason.
New arrivals appear once logged in
A player shows up in the count and on the map once they’ve finished logging in, not the moment they connect.
Why: The world itself is written every few seconds; only positions wait for the 90-second auto-save.
SCUM is using over 9 GB with nobody on.
That’s SCUM at rest
An empty server on our node held 9.40 GB seven minutes after boot and 9.57 GB ten minutes later, peaking at 9.67 GB while it loaded. Compare Memory used on your server card.
Why plans start at 12 GB
On a 10 GB plan that idle figure would be 96% before anyone joined. 12 GB leaves about 2.4 GB above idle for a few players.
A busy island isn’t measured yet
Every number here is an empty server. Players spreading across the map is the growth that matters and we haven’t measured it — if your group is big, start a rung up.
Restarts cost seconds here
SCUM commits its world every few seconds, so a restart loses almost nothing. If memory creeps over a long session, a scheduled restart on the Schedule tab is a cheap habit.
The server went down mid-session. Did we lose anything, and can I roll back?
Saved/Metadata.json where it is. SCUM deletes a Saved/ folder that lacks it at startup — world included. We write the game’s own copy back whenever it’s missing, so leave it alone and it can’t bite.A stop costs seconds, not minutes
SCUM keeps the whole world in one database and commits to it every few seconds, even with nobody on. A crash, a Stop or a restart loses the last few seconds. Every SCUM stop here is a hard stop, and the world reopened clean every time we tried it.
Roll back from Worlds & backups
Press Restore on a nightly restore point, one of your own saved copies, or the copy taken before your last game update. A backup of a running SCUM server is a real copy: we take it with the database’s own online backup and check its integrity.
Keep today’s state first
A restore replaces the whole world. Press Save here under Your own saved copies before you restore if you might want today back.
Bringing a world from another host
Stop the server, upload your SCUM.db into Saved/SaveFiles/ in Files, and start. Copy it off the old server while that server is stopped — a SCUM.db copied from a running server without its -wal file can be missing the newest changes.
How do I ban a griefer — and does it work with the server off?
Players tab → Ban
Pick the player and press Ban. In our test the running server re-read its ban list within about four seconds, the player was out 0.2 seconds after that, and their rejoin was refused.
Off works too
A ban is a line in BannedUsers.ini. With the server stopped it’s written straight to the file, and SCUM reads it as it boots.
Unban per row
The banned list shows each player by name with an Unban beside them; it takes effect the same way.
In-game bans land in the same list
An admin’s #Ban in chat writes the same file.
How do I add mods to SCUM?
There’s no official mod support yet
SCUM has no Workshop and no mod loader on the current build, so there’s no mod button for it in the panel. That’s the game, not the plan.
Customise with the game’s own files
Under Saved/Config/WindowsServer/ in Files: EconomyOverride.json (traders), the Loot override trees, Quests/Override and CustomQuestList.json, RaidTimes.json (raid windows), Notifications.json (scheduled messages). They live on your save volume, so they survive restarts and updates.
Don’t drop .pak files into the install
Unofficial pak mods would have to sit inside the game install, which is replaced on every update and recreate here — they’d vanish — and SCUM’s pak signing is on.
None of these, or still stuck?
Check the problems every game shares
Connections, settings that will not take, where your world is, lag: the answers that hold on every game are on the support page.
Write to us
The form arrives with SCUM already set; tell us what you tried and it saves a round trip. Pressing Need help? in your panel does the same and attaches your server, so there is nothing to look up.