How to Update Your Enshrouded Server After a Patch

On a hosted Enshrouded server, updating is usually one action: restart the server. The startup routine checks Steam for a newer build of the dedicated server and pulls it before the game process launches, so a restart after a patch normally is the update.

What makes Enshrouded updates worth a page of their own is everything around that restart — knowing whether an update is even needed, knowing which build you are actually on when the version number is ambiguous, what to do when the automatic update is the problem rather than the fix, and the fact that your log file is deleted every time the server starts.

Not Every Enshrouded Patch Needs a Server Update

This is the single most useful thing to know, and Keen Games tell you directly. Every changelog states whether dedicated servers are affected. A few examples, verbatim:

Many Enshrouded hotfixes are client-side — shader fixes, GPU driver workarounds, localisation links. Those change nothing on the server and restarting to chase them buys you nothing but downtime.

Read the changelog before you restart

Keen publish a changelog for every patch and hotfix on the game's Steam news feed, and they say in it whether servers are affected. Thirty seconds of reading saves an unnecessary restart, and — more importantly — tells you when a restart is genuinely required rather than optional.

The Version Number Is Not the Build

Enshrouded's displayed version string is not unique to a build, and this catches people out when they are trying to work out whether a server and a client actually match.

Both Hotfix #41 and Hotfix #42 shipped as v0.9.1.2. What separates them is the revision number, which Keen state at the top of every changelog: 1024233 for #41, 1076226 for #42. Similarly, Hotfix #36 and Hotfix #35 were both v0.9.0.4, and Keen noted that the revision "is still 893400" for #36 — same build, different changelog.

So:

• The revision is the build identity. Two servers on "the same version" can be on different revisions.
• "Revision unchanged" is a strong hint that servers are unaffected. In the cases above where Keen wrote "still" or "no change" next to the revision, they also said dedicated servers did not need an update. It is not a rule they have stated as a rule, so treat it as a hint and read the sentence about dedicated servers rather than inferring it from the number.

How Updating Works on a Hosted Server

Your server's Startup tab carries two variables that govern this, and they are worth understanding because they are the difference between a server that heals itself and one that does not.

With Auto Update on — which is how a server ships — the update procedure is simply:

1. Take a backup. Panel Backups tab, with the server stopped. See Enshrouded server backups and restoring a world.

2. Stop the server and wait for it to come to a full stop rather than killing it. A clean stop writes the world.

3. Start the server. The console shows the Steam update running before the game process appears.

4. Wait for the session line. The server is genuinely up when the console prints:

   [Session] 'HostOnline' (up)!
   [Session] finished transition from 'Lobby' to 'Host_Online' (current='Host_Online')!
   

5. Join it yourself before announcing it. A server that boots is not the same as a server that accepts a connection.

Your log file is deleted on every start

The startup routine removes the previous enshrouded_server.log before launching the game, so the console you are looking at only ever covers the current session. If a server crashed or refused to boot and you want to know why, retrieve the log before you restart it — the restart is what destroys the evidence. Download it from the file manager or over SFTP before you touch the power controls.

When to turn Auto Update off

Auto Update is editable, and there is one situation where turning it off is the right call: when you deliberately need the server to stay on the build it is on. If a new build has broken something for your group and you would rather sit still until a hotfix lands, switching Auto Update off keeps the restart from pulling the new build.

Two caveats:

• It does not stop your players updating. Steam updates clients automatically. Holding the server back means holding it back from clients that have already moved, which produces the mismatch described below.
• Turn it back on. A server left with Auto Update off will silently miss every future update, and the first symptom is nobody being able to join weeks later.

When to turn Validate on

Validate is the repair tool. Turn it on for one boot when:

• the server crashes on startup with no useful error,
• an update was interrupted — a stop, a node restart, a failed download mid-way,
• or the server files are behaving as though something is missing.

Validate makes the start slower because Steam checks the whole installation, so turn it back off afterwards rather than leaving it on for every boot.

Validate does not touch your world or your config

It verifies the game's own files against Steam's manifest. savegame/ and enshrouded_server.json are yours, not Steam's, and validation leaves them alone. That is the intended behaviour — but back up first anyway, because "it should not have touched that" is a poor thing to be relying on after the fact.

Version Mismatch: When Clients and Server Disagree

The most common post-patch complaint is not that the server is down — it is that one or more players cannot join a server that is plainly running.

Enshrouded's client and dedicated server have to be on the same build. After a patch, clients update on Steam's schedule and the server updates when it restarts, so there is always a window where they disagree.

What it looks like: the server appears in the browser, or does not appear at all, and joining fails. The player's client is on a different build to the server.

How to fix it:

• Restart the server. With Auto Update on this pulls the current build and closes the gap from the server side.
• Have the player verify their own update. Steam sometimes defers a download; in the Steam library, the game should not be showing a pending update.
• Check Auto Update is actually on. A server that was pinned to an old build months ago will fail this way and nothing about the symptom points at the cause.
• If the server was mid-update when it was stopped, run one boot with Validate on.

Connection problems that are not build mismatches — the server not appearing in the list, role passwords being rejected, ports — are covered separately in Enshrouded server connection troubleshooting.

Config Files and Updates

Two things about enshrouded_server.json across an update:

Reinstalling does not delete your config. The installation routine checks for an existing enshrouded_server.json and leaves it in place, downloading a default file only when there is none. So a reinstall keeps your roles, passwords and difficulty settings.

A config carried across versions can go wrong. Keen warn about this directly: "previous versions of the server.json can sometimes be incorrectly updated. In this case you can delete the file to let it be created freshly on the next startup." If a server refuses to start after an update and the console complains about the config, that is the escape hatch — copy the file somewhere safe first, delete it, let a fresh one generate, then reapply your settings by hand rather than pasting the old file back wholesale.

Note that a hosted server writes several values into that file from your Startup tab each time it boots — the server name, the port, the slot count and the four role-group passwords. If you are reapplying settings after a regeneration, set those on the Startup tab rather than in the file, and put the difficulty block, chat toggles and tags in the file. Enshrouded server settings and config file is the full reference.

A Repeatable Update Routine

For a routine patch where Keen have said dedicated servers are affected:

1. Read the changelog. Note the revision number.
2. Tell your players there is a restart coming.
3. Stop the server cleanly.
4. Take a backup from the Backups tab.
5. Start the server; watch the Steam update run in the console.
6. Wait for the HostOnline line.
7. Join and move around for a minute.
8. Take a second backup, so your restore point is the post-update world.

For a large update — the kind that reworks systems rather than fixing bugs — add one step at the front: keep the pre-update backup for longer than usual. Enshrouded's Update 8 in April 2026 reset character skill trees and refunded skill points on first load, which is the kind of one-way change that makes a week-old world worth keeping around. Update 7, Wake of the Water, added an entirely new default role called Visitor to the roles system. Large updates change more than numbers.

Before the 1.0 release

Enshrouded leaves Early Access on 15 October 2026. That update is larger than any patch this routine was written for, and what it does to existing worlds has not been announced. Enshrouded 1.0: what server owners know so far covers what Keen have and have not said, and what to do about it in advance.

What to Read Next

• Enshrouded server backups and restoring a world — the step this routine starts with.
• Enshrouded server connection troubleshooting — for join failures that are not build mismatches.
• Enshrouded 1.0: what server owners know so far — the biggest update the game has had.
• Enshrouded server settings and config file — the config reference.
• Enshrouded admin commands, roles and server settings — roles, passwords and how administration actually works.

FAQ

How do I update my Enshrouded server?

Restart it. With Auto Update on — the default — the startup routine checks Steam for a newer dedicated-server build and installs it before launching the game. Back up first.

Does every Enshrouded patch require a server update?

No. Many hotfixes are client-only, and Keen say so explicitly in the changelog. Hotfixes #29, #33, #36, #37 and #42 all stated that dedicated servers did not need an update.

How do I tell which build my server is on?

By the revision number Keen publish in each changelog, not by the version string. Two different builds have shipped as v0.9.1.2, distinguished only by revision.

My players get a version mismatch after an update. What now?

Restart the server so it pulls the current build, and have the player confirm Steam has finished updating their client. If the server has Auto Update switched off, that is the cause.

Will updating delete my world or my settings?

No. Updates replace the game's own files; savegame/ and enshrouded_server.json are left alone, and a reinstall preserves an existing config rather than overwriting it. Back up before every update anyway.

The server will not start after an update

Retrieve the log before restarting, because the log is deleted at every start. Then try one boot with Validate on. If the console points at the config, save a copy of enshrouded_server.json, delete it, let the server generate a fresh one, and reapply your settings by hand — Keen recommend exactly this when an old config upgrades incorrectly.

Should I turn off Auto Update?

Only deliberately, to hold a server on its current build while you wait out a bad patch — and turn it back on afterwards. Clients update regardless, so a pinned server eventually becomes a server nobody can join.

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