How to configure Onesync and keep your FiveM server updated
Enable OneSync for higher player caps, update FXServer artifacts safely, and back up server files to ensure clean system rollbacks.
This guide covers scaling your FiveM server past 32 players with OneSync, keeping FXServer updated, and backing up your data. It is the operational handbook once your server is live. Complete the earlier guides first: Setup, Configuring your FiveM server, Running as a Service, and Database and Frameworks.
OneSync and Player Counts
Without OneSync, sv_maxClients cannot be set to 32 or above — that is where the stock GTA networking model stops. OneSync raises the ceiling, and where it stops after that is decided by your Cfx.re licence, not by your hardware.
Free: Up to 48 Slots
Cfx.re's documentation is explicit: "OneSync is free up to 48 slots, after such, you should get one of the following tiers from the Cfx Portal starting from FiveM Element Club Argentum."
set onesync on
sv_maxClients 48 The free ceiling is 48, not 64
Plenty of guides — including an earlier version of this page — say the free tier goes to 64. It does not. 48 is the free limit, and anything above it needs a paid Element Club tier attached to the licence key your server boots with.
Paid: Up to 2048 Slots
Above 48 slots you need an Element Club subscription, with Argentum as the entry tier, managed at portal.cfx.re/subscriptions. Your server key still comes from keymaster.fivem.net — the subscription is what raises the slot allowance attached to it.
sv_maxClients takes an integer from 1 to 2048, and the sync mode you need depends on where you land:
| Slots | What it requires |
|---|---|
| Up to 31 | No OneSync |
| 32 and above | onesync set to on or legacy |
| Above 48 | A paid Element Club tier on your licence |
| Above 64 | onesync set to on — legacy is not enough |
OneSync Infinity is the large-scale entity sync system behind the high counts, and it is on by default: onesync_enableInfinity defaults to true and can only be set at startup. So a high-slot config is just the two lines:
set onesync on
sv_maxClients 128
onesync_enableBeyonddoes nothingCfx.re lists it under deprecated and compatibility variables — "not necessary anymore". If you copied that line from an older guide, including an earlier version of this one, delete it.
Performance Reality Check
OneSync raises the player ceiling, but FiveM remains single-thread bound. A high player count on a low-clock CPU will lag regardless of OneSync settings. If you experience lag spikes with 60+ players:
- Confirm
set onesync on(or Infinity) is actually inserver.cfg - Check your CPU's single-thread performance; 4.0+ GHz is strongly recommended for high counts
- Profile heavy resources (a single badly written script can tank a whole server)
Keeping FXServer Updated
CFX.re publishes new artifacts frequently. Updating is a manual process because the binary lives outside your data folder.
Update Procedure
Stop your FiveM service:
Stop-Service FXServer(Or stop it from txAdmin.)
Download the new artifact build from
runtime.fivem.net/artifacts/fivem/build_server_windows/master/.Back up your current
C:\FXServer\folder first if you want a rollback option.Extract the new
server.7zoverC:\FXServer\.Start the service again:
Start-Service FXServer
Your data folder (
C:\FXServer-data) is not touched by artifact updatesThat separation is intentional and is why you can update the binary freely without risking your config, resources, or world.
Which Build to Choose
- Recommended builds are stable and tested. Use these for production.
- Latest builds are newer but less proven.
- Optional/bleeding-edge builds are for testing only. Do not run these on a live server.
Recommended is the right channel for a live server. What it is not is a decision you make once and forget — see the next section.
Frameworks and resources sometimes lag behind the newest artifact
If you update and a resource breaks, roll back to the previous artifact (this is why you backed up
C:\FXServer\).
Artifacts Expire: End of Support and End of Life
An artifact more than three months past support drops out of the server browser
Cfx.re, verbatim: "Unsupported server artifacts older than three months will not be joinable from the server browser." Your server keeps running, your players keep whatever direct-connect link they have, and it quietly disappears from the list everyone else finds you through. This catches servers that are otherwise perfectly healthy.
Cfx.re publishes a support window per channel, counted from the release that supersedes yours:
| Channel | Supported until |
|---|---|
| Recommended | Six weeks after the next release in line |
| Latest | Two weeks after the next release in line |
Past that point the artifact is out of support. Nothing breaks the same day — outdated artifacts do not stop functioning, Cfx.re simply will not help with issues on them — but players start seeing a warning when they join, and the warning has two levels:
| Warning | What it means |
|---|---|
| Grey — end of support (EOS) | Shown on join. The server is still joinable |
| Red — end of life (EOL) | The connection can fail outright, and only a server-side artifact update fixes it |
The practical rule: put artifact updates on the calendar rather than waiting for a complaint. Every six to eight weeks on the Recommended channel keeps you inside both the support window and the three-month browser cut-off. Do it in a maintenance window with the previous C:\FXServer\ still backed up, so a resource that breaks against the newer build is a five-minute rollback instead of an outage.
That same cut-off is an item on the pre-launch checklist in FiveM Server Monetisation, for the obvious reason: a server nobody can find in the browser reaches nobody.
Backups
Back up C:\FXServer-data and your database regularly. The most important things:
server.cfg(your config)resources/(all installed resources, especially anything you have customized)- MariaDB database dumps (player data, characters, money, inventories all live here)
Automated Nightly Backup Script
Create a PowerShell script and schedule it via Windows Task Scheduler to run nightly:
$date = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd"
Compress-Archive -Path "C:\FXServer-data" -DestinationPath "D:\backups\fivem-$date.zip"
& "C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.11\bin\mysqldump.exe" -u root -pYOUR_PW fivem > "D:\backups\fivem-db-$date.sql" (Adjust the MariaDB path to match your installed version.)
What to Back Up and How Often
| Data | Frequency | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Database (player data) | Nightly | mysqldump |
| server.cfg and resources | Nightly or on change | Compress-Archive |
| Full FXServer-data folder | Weekly | Compress-Archive |
| Off-machine copy | Weekly | Copy backups to another drive or cloud |
The database is the most important thing to back up
If it is lost, every player loses their character, money, and progress. A nightly
mysqldumpis non-negotiable for a roleplay server.
Rotating Old Backups
Add a cleanup step to your script to delete backups older than, say, 14 days:
Get-ChildItem "D:\backups" -Filter "fivem-*.zip" |
Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-14) } |
Remove-Item Troubleshooting
- "Could not connect to server": Firewall ports closed. See Configuring your FiveM server firewall section.
- "Couldn't load resource X": Check the console for the actual error, usually a missing dependency or a syntax error in the resource's
fxmanifest.lua. - License key error: The key is tied to the IP it was generated for. If you moved IPs, regenerate the key on keymaster.
- Lag spikes with 60+ players: OneSync is off, or single-thread CPU performance is the bottleneck. Confirm OneSync is on and check CPU clock speed.
- Server crashes after an artifact update: A resource is incompatible with the new build. Roll back to the previous artifact from your backup.
- Server missing from the server browser: check the age of your artifact before anything else. Unsupported artifacts older than three months are not joinable from the browser no matter how healthy the server looks.
- Database connection lost after MariaDB update: The connection string or user permissions may have reset. Verify both.
Getting Help
- The official Cfx.re docs at
docs.fivem.netare excellent and frequently updated - ESX Legacy docs at
docs.esx-framework.org - QBCore docs at
docs.qbcore.org - Cfx.re forums at
forum.cfx.refor community resources and troubleshooting
For help from us specifically, open a ticket. We can assist with firewall, networking, and Windows-side issues even though FXServer itself is community-managed.
What to Read Next
- Setup and Configuring your FiveM server to revisit the basics
- Database and Frameworks for the database your backups protect
- Running as a Service for the service management your restarts depend on
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