Updating Your Server Manually

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Your changes have been made and it's time to get them to your server, but your server doesn't support FTP. Here's how to do it.

While Nitrado servers have a fully automated way to apply changes, and most PC servers have FTP support, Xbox and PlayStation servers hosted with other providers such as GPortal have to receive their updates manually.

This tutorial uses a PS4 server hosted with GPortal, but the instructions will be similar for most hosting providers.

1. Stop Your Server

Config file changes must happen while the server is stopped. Before doing anything else, make sure the server is fully stopped.

2. Load a Configuration File

Find the section for your server's configuration files. For GPortal, this is a tab up top that says Configuration Files.

The two files you are interested are called Game.ini and GameUserSettings.ini. Find the menu to select your Game file and press the Load button.

If the server is brand new, start it briefly. New servers that have never been started are often missing their Game.ini and GameUserSettings.ini files completely. Starting the server, waiting for it to start, and stopping it again is a good way to generate default files.

3. Copy Your Game.ini Content

Your Game.ini file may be blank, this is ok. You can skip this step.

The easiest way to copy your entire Game.ini content is to click the large text area, then press Control-A to select everything, and press Control-C to copy it. Mac users should substitute their ⌘ (Command) key for Control instead.

4. Have Beacon Apply Changes to Your Copied Game.ini

With your Game.ini content copied, the next step is to press the Export button in Beacon. It looks like a square with an arrow pointing out to the upper right: Export is a box with an arrow facing outward.

In the list on the left, select Game.ini. The right section will fill with only Beacon's new lines. You can use this to review the changes, but many of Ark's config lines are hard to read, so don't worry if you can't make sense of it all.

Since you've copied your Game.ini content, Beacon's Rewrite Clipboard button below the exported config lines will be enabled. If it isn't, then something is wrong. Maybe you copied something else after copying your Game.ini or you copied the wrong file.

If you skipped step two because your Game.ini is blank, you should use Beacon's Copy All button instead.

Click the button. That's it, Beacon just took your the config file you copied, made the correct changes, and copied the new config file for you.

5. Paste Your New Game.ini to Your Server

Back to your server's control panel, hopefully you still have your Game.ini file loaded. Once again click in the large text area, press Control-A to select everything, but this time press Control-V to paste the new content on top of it.

If you did everything correctly, your new Game.ini content is ready. Press the big Save button before doing anything else.

6. Repeat for GameUserSettings.ini

The steps for updating your GameUserSettings.ini file are identical. Just select GameUserSettings.ini in Beacon's export window instead.

7. Start Your Server

Assuming you have no other changes you want to make, go ahead and start your server.

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