Schedules: automatic restarts, backups and messages

What schedules are for

Restarting every day at a quiet time frees the memory that builds up, especially with lots of mods or plugins. Scheduling backups makes sure you have a recent one without remembering. And a scheduled message reminds whoever is playing about an event or a restart.

It's in each server's “Advanced settings” → “Schedules”.

What you can schedule

“Restart the server”, “Make a backup”, “Stop the server”, “Start the server”, “Send a message to players” (in Minecraft, Project Zomboid and Hytale) and “Run a console command”, whichever you like (for example, a Minecraft admin command), without the slash.

When restarting or stopping you can tick “Warn players one minute before”: they get a message in the game and the action comes a minute later.

How to create a schedule

1. Choose what to do

   In “New schedule”, “What to do”. If it's a message or a command, type it next to it.

2. Choose when

   “Every day” at a time, “Some days of the week” (tick the days) or “Every few hours” (every 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 or 12). It's mainland Spain time: in the Canary Islands, one hour less; elsewhere, convert from Madrid time.

3. Decide whether only when it's on

   “Only if the server is online” comes ticked: that way a scheduled restart doesn't start a server you'd left stopped.

4. Press “Create the schedule”

   It appears in “Your schedules” with when it runs next.

Pausing, testing and deleting a schedule

In “Your schedules”, each one's switch pauses it or turns it back on. “Run it now” runs it on the spot, to test it. “Delete” removes it.

Three schedules that work well

Daily restart: “Restart the server”, “Every day”, at 06:00, with “Warn players one minute before”.

Backup before playing: “Make a backup”, “Some days of the week”, Saturday at 17:00 if you play on Saturday afternoons.

Event message: “Send a message to players”, Friday at 21:45, with “Event at spawn at 22:00”.

Scheduled backups: mind the slots

Each paid server has room for 2 backups of your own, besides the automatic daily backup. A backup schedule uses those slots, and when none is left the panel deletes the oldest backup that isn't locked, even one you made by hand. Lock with “Lock” the ones you want to keep.

Bear in mind that the automatic daily backup is already made by itself every night: schedule backups only if you want extra ones, for example right before your session.

Schedules on the free server

The free server has no backups, and a schedule that starts it is no use: a free server started without going through the “Start” button stops by itself within a minute. Messages and commands do work, while it's on.

Frequently asked questions