How to restart your Project Zomboid server only when nobody is online

Open Quick Tasks, click the schedule to open it, switch on Skip while players are online, and under When players are online choose Skip that run or a wait of up to 12 hours for the server to empty. The panel reads who is on from your server, so a restart can wait until the last player has left.

Make a schedule wait for an empty server

1. Open your server in the panel and click Quick Tasks in the left menu.
2. Under Schedules, click the schedule, for example Restart with warnings, to open its steps. Add it first if it is not there yet: How to schedule restarts and backups for your Project Zomboid server.
3. Below the steps, switch on Skip while players are online.

4. A choice appears, When players are online. Pick one:

   • Skip that run: the run is skipped and the next one comes at its usual time.
   • Wait up to 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2, 4, 6 or 12 hours for the server to empty.

The switch saves as soon as you flip it. With a wait, the panel says: "It looks again every 5 minutes, runs as soon as the game reports nobody on, and runs anyway when the wait is over."

What happens then

• When the time comes and nobody is on, the schedule runs at once, as before.
• When players are on, the run is skipped or held. A held run starts within 5 minutes of the last player leaving, or when the wait is over.
• Restart with warnings still sends its in-game warnings, 10, 5, 2 and 1 minutes ahead, when it finally runs. Someone may have joined in the meantime.
• Run now always runs at once, players or not.

Good to know

• The panel asks the server itself who is on, through Steam's server query and, when that is silent, through RCON. If the server cannot report its players, for example while it is still starting, the run goes ahead: "If the server cannot report its players, it runs."
• Restart with warnings, and every schedule you build on Quick Tasks, only runs while the server is online. If the server is stopped while a run waits, the wait ends and the server is not started.
• The ready-made wipes and the Automatic backup also run on a stopped server. With nobody to count there, their run goes ahead.
• The time of a schedule cannot be changed after it is made. For another time, build a new schedule and switch the old one off.
• To restart only when a mod has an update: How to restart your Project Zomboid server when a mod updates.
• The Quick Tasks page step by step: How to use Quick Tasks on your Project Zomboid server.