Factorio Forums

Every time I update Factorio Space Age using the setup file my server settings file is deleted causing the server to fail to load. I have always kept my server-settings.json in the factorio/data folder in the install with the server-settings.example file. I just moved my start.bat and server-settings.json file outside of my install folder which I expect will fix this issue for me. I am on Windows 10 using the installer from factorio.com/download.

I run a server on a spare pc for myself and some friends. This was frustrating the first time I updated to 2.0.9 and had to figure out why it wouldn't start. Luckily I have backups and easily recovered the file once I understood what was happening. I am not extremely savvy but am decent with this kind of stuff and I could see a newer user struggling and giving up when confronted with this issue. I kept my start.bat file in the factorio/bin/x64 folder and it was not affected which made me less likely to check on the server-settings.json file also kept within the Factorio install. Seems like it shouldn't be very difficult to exempt the serversettings.json file from being overwritten. Enjoying the expansion so far.

Thanks, Drokido

Hello, thanks for the report.
What do you mean "update Factorio Space Age using the setup file"? There is in-game updater which doesn't touch files that are not part of the game package (as far as I know), but I don't know what you mean by the setup file.

"I am on Windows 10 using the installer from factorio.com/download"

I login to factorio.com/download and use the "download space age for windows" button. I then extract the files from the .zip folder and run the Setup_FactorioSpaceAge_*Version_Number*.exe file. The game install is updated to the new version but if my server_settings.json file is located inside the install folders it gets deleted. I run it as a headless server and don't usually launch the gui on this computer. Are you saying there is an updater built into the gui? Running as a healdless server doesn't auto-update unless there is a setting or command I should be using.

I see, yes there is updater in GUI. I don't think we have command line parameter to do the update.

Anyway, currently you are reinstalling the game, not updating it. I don't know if the installer clears destination directory by default or if we have it configured like that intentionally because leaving files from super old versions might cause problems, but I don't desire to mess with it. Just store the files that you want to preserve outside of the Factorio folder.

I see, I just thought it odd that it doesn't touch my start.bat file or save files, but does delete the server_settings.json file. Like I said in the original post I figured it out and solved it for my own use case by moving the files outside of the install as you said.

A update command would be helpful but I can see how this is likely a low priority.

Currently when you google "factorio headless server update" the top result is a forum post from less than a month ago telling people to download the server archive to update. Maybe a note on the download page that running the gui will update for you could be helpful for people running a server.

Thanks for the help.