ARK server admin password and cheats

Admin on an ARK: Survival Evolved server is a password. Type it once in-game and the cheat commands unlock for you until you leave. Here is where the password lives, how to log in, the commands you will use most, and how to give trusted friends admin without sharing the password.

Where the admin password is set

1. Open your server in the dashboard and go to the Startup tab.
2. The Admin Password was generated for your server when it was created, and it shows in its field. To change it, type a new one (8 to 64 letters, numbers, dashes or underscores) and press Save.
3. Restart after any change.

The Startup tab puts the value on the server's launch line as ?ServerAdminPassword=, and a launch-line value wins over the same setting in GameUserSettings.ini (found under ShooterGame/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/ in the File Manager). So if you edit the .ini and the old password keeps working, that is why: change it in the Startup tab instead.

Log in as admin in-game

1. Join the server. ARK: Survival Evolved server: connect, mods covers connecting.
2. Open the console: press Tab (press it twice for the full-size console).
3. Type enablecheats <your password> and press Enter. There is no success message; the next command tells you whether it worked.

You stay admin until you disconnect. Every command below is typed in the same console.

The basic commands

admincheat is accepted in place of cheat everywhere. Most commands need the prefix; enablecheats and showmyadminmanager do not.

Run commands from the panel

The Console tab in your panel is connected to the server's RCON with the admin password already applied, so saveworld, destroywilddinos and broadcast <message> work there without logging in and without the cheat prefix.

Whitelist admins by Steam64 ID

If you want a friend to have admin without handing out the password, whitelist their Steam64 ID. Players on the list can run enablecheats with no password.

1. Find their Steam64 ID: it is the 17-digit number on their Steam profile URL, or paste their profile into a Steam ID lookup site. It starts with 7656.
2. Stop the server.
3. On your computer, create a plain text file called AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt with one Steam64 ID per line.
4. In the File Manager, open ShooterGame/Saved/ and Upload the file. If it's already there, open it instead, add one ID per line and press Save. How to manage your server files covers uploading and editing.
5. Start the server. The file is read on boot, so add and remove names with a restart.

Whitelisted admins have every cheat, the same as the password does. Keep the list short.

Common problems

1. Commands do nothing after enablecheats - the password is wrong, or it was changed in the Startup tab without a restart. Passwords are case-sensitive.
2. The password in GameUserSettings.ini is ignored - expected. The Startup tab's value is on the launch line and wins.
3. giveitemnum gives the wrong item - item numbers changed across ARK versions and mods add their own. Use the blueprint path form cheat giveitem "<path>" 1 0 0 from the wiki when a number is wrong.
4. A whitelisted friend still cannot cheat - the file name must be exact, IDs must be Steam64 (not the short "STEAM_0" form), and the server must be restarted after editing.

If none of these match, copy the exact error from the Console tab and include it when you ask for help.