Fix GMod "Download Failed! Timed Out!"

"Download Failed! Timed out!" shows up in your server's Console while it fetches Workshop addons on boot, and players can hit the same family of "Download Failed!" errors when they join. Facepunch's developer says Steam hosts the Workshop files and handles their download, so the cause is rarely something you set wrong in the panel. There are still a few things worth trying, from quickest to most thorough.

What it looks like

In the Console the failure sits right under the addon that could not be fetched:

Addon needs downloading...
Download Failed! Timed out!

Facepunch's issue tracker has server logs with lines like these, in reports from 2021 and 2025. In 2021 Facepunch's developer said it should be fixed and told server owners to update. In September 2025 he said a Steam update or Steam maintenance most likely cleared it, yet comments reporting the same message kept arriving into January 2026. Treat it as a fault to work around, not a mistake to hunt for in your own files.

1. Restart the server once

Every time the server starts it checks that its Workshop addons are up to date, so a restart is also a retry. Open the Console tab, press Restart, and watch the addons download. If the timeout was Steam having a bad moment, it often clears on the second go.

2. Check whether it is one addon

In the first September 2025 reports, the whole collection downloaded except addons that were newly published or had just been updated. Later comments in the same issue also name older addons, so it is not a rule. If the same addon fails on every restart:

1. Open the Workshop tab and find it in the list. The search box finds an addon by name.
2. On Steam, open your collection and take that addon out. The server picks up the change on its next restart.
3. Restart the server and see whether the rest of the collection loads.

3. Refresh the server's Steam files

On a dedicated server, the Facepunch developer reported that updating the server files fixed this for at least two people, some of whom also cleared a cache folder. Our servers have no such folder, so the full update is the step to try:

1. Open the Startup tab and find Updates in the Server card.
2. Choose Full update every start and press Save changes.
3. Press Restart now in the message that appears. This boot is slow because it runs a full Steam update.
4. Once the addons download cleanly, set Updates back to Smart update (recommended) and save again.

4. If players are the ones seeing it

Steam does the Workshop downloading, and it can do it with Garry's Mod closed. Ask the player to open the failing addon's Workshop page, press Subscribe, and let Steam finish before they try joining. If the download fails there too, the developer's view is that this shows the problem is on Steam's side, and the next step is Steam Support.

If nothing helps

Open a support ticket and include the addon's Workshop link and the lines around "Download Failed" from the Console.