How to read the logs of your Project Zomboid server

Project ZomboidUpdated Oct 23, 20264 min read

Click Logs in the left menu to read the log files Project Zomboid writes for each kind of event: chat, admin actions, PvP, joins, commands, skills, actions and more. Turn kinds on and off with the buttons at the top, search the lines, pick a player or a boot, and download a file. With Live tail on, new lines appear as the game writes them.

Open the page

Open your server in the panel and click Logs in the left menu.
The bar at the top says Live, when it was updated, and which boot you are reading, for example "Boot of" a date and time in UTC.
The lines show below, newest at the bottom, each with its time and its kind.

The Logs page of a Project Zomboid server with the kinds of log and the lines

Choose what you see

The kinds: Chat, Admin, PvP, Joins, Commands, Skills, Actions, Debug and Items. Each button shows how many lines it has. Click a button to turn that kind on or off. "Debug and Items are large. They are read in 256 KB pieces, newest first."
Search the lines finds a word.
Any player narrows the lines to one player. Clear player shows everyone again.
This boot, Last 24 hours or Pick a boot. The game starts a new set of logs each time the server starts. After a restart the page says "The server restarted. Showing its new boot."
Load older lines reads further back. "That is everything this boot logged." means you reached the start.

On a line, the link "Open <name> in Players" opens that player on the Players page, and "Open on the live map" shows the spot where it happened.

Download a log

Click Download and choose the kind. Only kinds that are turned on are offered: "Turn on a kind of log to download its file." The file is the game's own log of that kind for the boot you are reading.

What each kind is for

Kind	Use it to
Chat	Read what was said in the game's chat.
Admin	See kicks, bans, access level changes and other admin commands. Passwords are never shown.
PvP	See who hit or killed whom, when PvP is on.
Joins	See who connected and left, and when.
Commands, Actions, Skills, Items	Follow what players did in the game.
Debug	The game's own technical log, for support.

Good to know

Times are the game's clock, which on our servers is UTC.
The page needs the permission to read file contents. Player links and SteamIDs also need console access.
Before the first start the page says "This server has not started yet": the game writes its logs the first time it starts.
A file too big to show here says "A file is too large to read here. Download it instead."
The console of the server, with the start and stop lines, is a different place: How to use the Console on your Project Zomboid server.

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