Schedule automatic restarts and tasks

The Schedules tab runs tasks on your server while you're away, such as a nightly restart or a backup every Sunday. Each task is one action on a timer, and it keeps running until you pause or delete it.

Open the Schedules tab

1. Log in to the dashboard and press Open on your server.
2. In the left rail, expand More and choose Schedules. On a phone or tablet, pick Schedules from the section menu at the top of the panel.

Turn on the nightly restart (Minecraft and Palworld)

Minecraft and Palworld servers get a Nightly restart with warnings card at the top of the tab. It sets up a daily restart and a 5-minute in-game warning in one go.

1. Pick the hour, then the minute (:00, :15, :30 or :45).
2. Press Enable. The list gains [PYW] Nightly restart - 5 minute warning and [PYW] Nightly restart.

Both run only while the server is online, and the restart goes ahead even if people are playing. The two tasks aren't linked, so change them together. To move the restart, press Remove on the card, then enable it again at the new time. To pause it, pause both tasks.

Rust, ARK: Survival Evolved, Valheim and Garry's Mod servers don't have the card. Follow the steps below for a Power action task set to Restart and Every day.

Create a task

1. Press New Task.
2. On What should it do?, pick an action from the table below and fill in its details.
3. On When should it run?, choose a frequency under How often? and set the time.
4. On Name it, enter a name no other task on this server uses.
5. To skip runs while the server is off, tick Only run when the server is online.
6. Press Create job. The new card shows a Next run countdown.

Pick the timing

How often? offers Every day, Every week, Every month (days 1 to 28) and Every few hours (every 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 or 12 hours). Times move in 5-minute steps.

For anything else, choose Advanced (raw cron) and fill in Minute, Hour, Day of month, Month and Day of week (0 is Sunday). Each field takes *, a number, a range (1-5), a list (4,16) or a step (*/15). For example, 0 in Minute, 4,16 in Hour and * in the rest runs the task at 4:00 AM and 4:00 PM Sydney time, every day.

Schedule times are Sydney time (AEST, or AEDT during daylight saving from early October to early April), and the tab doesn't name the time zone. Convert your hour before you pick it:

Warn players before a restart

• Minecraft: on a new Restart or Stop task, Warn players in chat first is already ticked in the Notifications box on the When should it run? step. Choose 1, 5 or 10 minutes. It adds a linked task that sends, for example, say Server restarting in 5 minutes (shutting down on a Stop task).
• Any game: tick Post to Discord in the same box for a linked heads-up in your Discord channel 1, 5 or 10 minutes ahead.
• Palworld, Rust and Garry's Mod (in-game message): add a Send a command task a few minutes before the restart with the broadcast command from the table below. It isn't linked, so move it whenever you move the restart.

Linked warnings appear as [PYW] Player warning or [PYW] Discord notice tasks and follow their task when you rename, retime, pause or delete it. Raw cron tasks can't have one, and on an every-few-hours task the minute must be at or past the warning's lead.

Palworld needs underscores in place of spaces. See How to become admin and use admin commands on your Palworld server for its other commands.

Get a Discord webhook link

1. In Discord, right-click the channel and choose Edit Channel.
2. Open Integrations, then Webhooks.
3. Press New Webhook, then Copy Webhook URL.
4. Paste it into Discord webhook link in the panel.

Anyone with the link can post in that channel, and the panel doesn't show it again after you save.

Restart only when the server is empty

On a Restart or Stop task, tick Only if the server is empty on the What should it do? step. Before each run we check who's online and skip the run if anyone is playing or if we can't tell. The card shows why (Skipped - 2 players were online.). A skipped run waits for the next scheduled time, so pair this with Every few hours for several chances a day. Run now applies the same check.

A switched-off server counts as empty, so the task still sends its signal. Tick Only run when the server is online too if you don't want that. Also untick Warn players in chat first and Post to Discord: those go out on time even when the restart is then skipped.

Add a backup task

A Create a backup task backs up on a timer. Each run uses one backup slot: the top of the Backups tab shows how many are left, and when they're full the oldest unprotected backup is deleted to make room. How to create and restore backups covers the one-click weekly backup on the Backups tab and how to restore one.

If a task didn't do what you expected

Discord posts, and restarts that wait for an empty server, show a short reason on their card after each run. Match what you see:

• The task ran at the wrong hour - schedule times are Sydney time. Convert your hour with the time zone table above, then edit the task.
• Skipped - couldn't check who was online. - on the games named in the warning above, every run says this: untick Only if the server is empty. On Minecraft or Palworld the check failed once, and the next run tries again. If it keeps happening, check that list gets a reply on the Console (Minecraft), or restart the server (Palworld).
• Skipped - the server wasn't running. - Only run when the server is online is ticked, and the server was off.
• A Failed line on a Discord post - the webhook may have been deleted in Discord. Edit the task and paste a new link.