How to Stop Your Icarus Server From Auto-Shutting Down

Disable or reconfigure the idle and empty-server auto-shutdown timers on your Icarus dedicated server using ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor and ShutdownIfEmptyFor.

By default, an Icarus dedicated server shuts itself down after 5 minutes if nobody has joined since startup, and again 5 minutes after the last player leaves. This is one of the most surprising defaults for new admins — your server keeps stopping and you have no idea why.

This page shows how to disable both timers or set them to whatever you want.

The Two Timers

Setting	Default	What It Does
`ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor`	`300.000000`	Seconds after server start with zero joins ever before shutdown
`ShutdownIfEmptyFor`	`300.000000`	Seconds after the server becomes empty (last player leaves) before shutdown

Both live under [/Script/Icarus.DedicatedServerSettings] in ServerSettings.ini.

Disable Both Timers (Always-On Server)

Stop the server from Console in the XGamingServer Panel.

Open Icarus/Saved/Config/ServerSettings.ini in Files. Set:

[/Script/Icarus.DedicatedServerSettings]
ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor=0.000000
ShutdownIfEmptyFor=0.000000

A value of 0 disables that timer entirely.

Save and start from Console.

Reasonable Custom Values

Use Case	Recommended
Always-on community server	`0` for both
Friends-only — save resources when nobody is on	`0` for `NotJoinedFor`, `1800` (30 min) for `EmptyFor`
Stress test / temporary lobby	Leave defaults (300 / 300)
One-shot session	`600` (10 min) for `NotJoinedFor`, `300` (5 min) for `EmptyFor`

Why The Defaults Exist

The defaults are designed for hosts (like RocketWerkz's official environment) that want unused servers to free resources quickly. On a dedicated paid host like XGamingServer, you've already reserved the slot — there's no benefit to letting the server stop on its own. Disabling both is the right call for almost every paid hosting scenario.

Confirming the Setting Took Effect

After restart, watch the Console output. If the server logs Server has been empty for X seconds, shutting down after 5 minutes, the setting wasn't saved correctly — verify the [/Script/Icarus.DedicatedServerSettings] header is correct and the line is under it.