Rust Force Wipe Checklist: Everything Server Owners Need to Do Before Wipe Day

Write down every plugin your server runs and which ones it can’t run without: your economy, kits, shop, teleport, base protection. These are the ones you test first after the update.

• Check each plugin’s page, changelog or Discord for wipe-day notices. Developers often post when an update is needed, or when a plugin works as it is.
• Look for plugins that haven’t been updated in a long time. If an abandoned plugin breaks on wipe day, there may be no fix coming. Pick a maintained alternative before the wipe, not during it. See plugin compatibility.
• Announce the wipe time to your players: in your Discord, on your server’s banner or description, and in game.

If your host panel restarts the server on a schedule or updates it on boot, pause that for wipe day. An automatic restart halfway through your update can start the server on the new Rust build without its framework, or before you’ve backed up.

Some hosts update Rust and OxideCarbon together on every restart. If yours does, you can let it, but still take the backup in step 3 first and do the checks in step 7 afterwards.

Run server.save in the console, then stop the server. Copy these folders somewhere off the server, such as your own PC:

The identity folder holds the map save, blueprints, server.cfg and users.cfg. The oxidecarbon folder holds every plugin, its config and its data, plus your groups and permissions. With both copied, any mistake from here on can be undone.

Wait until Facepunch has released the update. Clients update through Steam, so a server that updates early or late gets a protocol mismatch and players can’t join.

On a game host, use the panel’s Update or Reinstall game files button. On your own machine, update with SteamCMD. The Rust dedicated server is Steam app 258550:

steamcmd +force_install_dir "C:\rustserver" +login anonymous +app_update 258550 validate +quit

Change the folder to your own server folder. validate checks every game file and replaces any that are wrong. This is also why the framework has to go on afterwards.

With the server still stopped, delete the wipe files from your identity folder (server/rust/ or your own identity name). A force wipe requires a map wipe. Blueprint wipes are only forced now and then, when Facepunch announces one, so check the update notes before you decide.

The wipe files table lists what to delete for each kind of wipe. If you want a new map, change server.seed in your startup command or panel now, or update server.levelurl if you run a custom map.

Plugins keep their data in oxidecarbon/data/, as one file or folder per plugin. A map wipe doesn’t touch it, so data from the old wipe carries over unless you reset it.

• Usually reset: data that belongs to one wipe, like leaderboards and wipe stats, cooldowns, saved homes and teleport points, claimed kit counts and anything tied to positions on the old map.
• Usually keep: data players paid for or earned across wipes: purchased perks, VIP time, store balances and long-term ranks.
• Many plugins reset their own wipe data when they detect a new map, or have a config option for it. Check each plugin’s page before deleting a file by hand. A deleted file can’t be brought back without your backup.

Never delete oxide.groups.data or oxide.users.data. They hold your groups and permissions, and a wipe doesn’t change them.

Leave Carbon’s own permission and group data in place. A wipe doesn’t change your groups or permissions.

Start the server and watch the console while it loads. Each plugin that fails to compile or load prints an error with its name. When the server is up, run these in the console or RCON:

Then join the server yourself and try the features your players use the most: open the shop, claim a kit, set a home, check your permissions as a VIP. A plugin can load without errors and still misbehave after a Rust update.

Turn your automatic restarts back on, then open the server and announce that it’s live.