How to schedule a wipe on your Project Zomboid server

Open Quick Tasks, go to Schedules, and under Ready-made for Project Zomboid add Map wipe, Character wipe, World wipe or Full wipe. Each one warns players in the game, saves, makes a backup, wipes and starts the server again. They arrive switched off: switch one on and it runs on the first day of every month.

The four wipe schedules

The same four wipes can be run by hand on the World page: How to wipe your Project Zomboid server.

Add one

1. Open your server in the panel and click Quick Tasks in the left menu.
2. Scroll to Schedules, then Ready-made for Project Zomboid. Each card says when it runs and that it arrives off.
3. Click Add on the wipe you want.

4. The schedule appears in your list, switched off. Switch it on with the switch on its card when you want it to run.

What a scheduled wipe does

The steps, in order:

1. A message in the game: for example "Map wipe in 10 minutes."
2. Five minutes later: "Map wipe in 5 minutes."
3. One minute before: "Map wipe in 1 minute. The server saves and stops now."
4. The wipe step saves the world, stops the server and makes a backup named after the wipe, then waits for the backup to finish before it deletes anything. If the backup fails, nothing is wiped.
5. The server starts again once the wipe has finished.

A scheduled wipe may replace your oldest unlocked backup when every backup slot is full, the same way the nightly backup does. Lock the backups you want to keep with Lock this backup: How to back up and restore your Project Zomboid world.

See when the next one runs

The World page shows Next scheduled wipe at the top, with the kind of wipe, the date and a countdown. With no wipe schedule switched on it says "None is on" and offers Open Quick Tasks.

Change the day or stop it

The panel cannot change the time of a schedule. You can:

• Switch it off with the switch on its card, or delete it from its menu.
• Run it at once with Run now on its card. The warnings run first, so the wipe follows about ten minutes later.
• Wipe by hand on the day you choose from the World page, with the warning you pick.

The World Wipe task

Under All tasks, the task World Wipe runs a Full wipe now, accounts included. Its window says "This wipe always backs the server up first and waits for the backup to finish." It runs through the Full wipe schedule, so players get the ten minute warning first, and that schedule then stays on your list, switched off. To keep accounts, use World wipe or the World page instead.

More about schedules and restarts: How to schedule restarts and backups for your Project Zomboid server.