7 Days to Die server settings are not applying

The most common 7 Days to Die ticket is a config change that appears to do nothing. Work through these in order.

1. The server was running when you saved

Stop the server, edit serverconfig.xml, save, then start it again. Editing during a session at best does nothing until the next restart.

2. World and seed changes never rewrite an existing world

This catches almost everyone. GameWorld, WorldGenSeed and WorldGenSize are used when a world is generated. Once the save exists, the terrain is on disk and those values are ignored.

1. Stop the server.
2. Take a backup if the old world matters to you.
3. Change GameName in serverconfig.xml to something new. That alone makes the server generate a fresh save with your current world and seed values, and leaves the old save untouched.
4. Start the server. Random world generation can take several minutes and the console will look idle while it works.

3. The value is also set on the Startup page

Some fields are applied at boot from the panel. That page is not linked in the sidebar, so open your server in the panel and add /startup to the end of the address. If the setting you are fighting with is listed there, change it there as well, otherwise it is reapplied on every start.

4. The first boot writes the defaults

Several in game values are written into the save the first time the world is created and are then read from the save, not from the config. If you changed something before ever starting the server, it applied. If you changed it afterwards and nothing happened, a new save is the fix.

5. The file is no longer valid XML

• A missing /> at the end of a line, or a stray quote inside a value, makes the server fall back to defaults.
• Read the first 30 lines of the console after a start. Parse errors are printed there.
• Apostrophes and quotation marks inside a server name are the usual culprit. Remove them.

6. Nobody can see the server in the list

• Set ServerVisibility to 2.
• Give players Connect to IP with your IP and port while the public list catches up.
• Check that everyone is on the same game version.

If none of this explains it, open a ticket with the property you changed, the value you set and a copy of the first console lines after a restart.