How to Configure Automatic Wipes on a Rust Server (2026 Guide)

Rust does not have a verified native server.wipe setting. To automate wipes, either rely on Facepunch’s monthly forced wipe, enable Carbon’s optional AutoWipe module, or use a hosting panel’s wipe scheduler. The right choice depends on whether you need the standard first-Thursday wipe, a weekly or biweekly cycle, a new map seed, and pre-wipe player warnings.

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What an automatic Rust wipe actually does

A wipe removes some or all persistent server progress so a new play cycle can begin. In practice, administrators use several terms:

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• Map wipe: generates a fresh procedural map. Buildings, terrain changes and other map-state progress are replaced.
• Full wipe: resets a broader set of server data. The exact files and player progress included depend on the tool and hosting environment.
• Blueprint wipe: removes learned crafting progress when the selected scheduler supports that scope. Do not assume that a map or full wipe also clears blueprints; check the panel or module’s wording.

The monthly Rust wipe is tied to Facepunch’s update cycle and occurs on the first Thursday of each month. A separate scheduler is only needed when you want a different cadence or additional actions.

Choose a scheduling route

There is no verified evidence of a built-in server.wipe variable that can be added to a standard server configuration file. Treat any guide that tells you to set that value as unverified unless it matches current official documentation for your server version.

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Option 1: Use the built-in monthly forced wipe

If your community accepts the normal Rust cycle, do not create a second scheduled wipe. Facepunch’s forced wipe is associated with the monthly update and falls on the first Thursday of the month. Oxide forum guidance likewise treats custom scheduling as necessary for weekly or biweekly wipes, not for the regular monthly event.

What you need to do

1. Tell players the server follows the first-Thursday wipe cycle.
2. Back up configuration, permissions, custom map files and any data your plugins need before the update window.
3. Make sure the server process, plugins and hosting panel can restart after the monthly update.
4. Do not add a separate panel task for the same day unless you intentionally want an additional wipe.

Timing uncertainty

Published snippets disagree about the clock: one gives 19:00 London time and another gives 19:00 UTC. The precise official time zone was not confirmed in the available material, so announce the date first and verify the time against a current Facepunch announcement before promising an exact hour.

As of 14 October 2026, the next expected first Thursday is 5 November 2026. That date is calculated from the calendar; it is not a substitute for an official update notice. On 5 November 2026, the United Kingdom is on GMT because its clocks change on 25 October, so 19:00 London and 19:00 UTC coincide that day. This coincidence should not be generalized to other months.

Option 2: Configure Carbon AutoWipe

Carbon AutoWipe is an optional module in the Carbon framework. It is not enabled merely because Carbon is installed. The module uses cron-style scheduling and can perform map or full wipes, then run commands or delete files after a wipe. Because the exact configuration syntax was not established in the available documentation, use the current AutoWipe configuration reference that ships with your Carbon version rather than copying an outdated snippet.

Prerequisites

• A working Carbon installation compatible with your Rust server build.
• File-system access or panel access sufficient to install and enable Carbon modules.
• A backup of server configuration, plugin data and any custom files that a full wipe could remove.
• A maintenance window long enough to stop the server, replace the map or data, and restart it.

Setup procedure

1. Install or update Carbon. Confirm that the framework starts cleanly before adding AutoWipe. Resolve framework errors first.
2. Enable AutoWipe. The module is optional, so explicitly enable it in Carbon’s module management or configuration interface.
3. Select the wipe scope. Choose a map wipe or full wipe according to the reset you promised players. Do not select full wipe when you only intend to rotate the map.
4. Define the cron schedule. Enter the desired weekly, biweekly or other interval using the syntax accepted by your installed AutoWipe release. A cron schedule is more flexible than a fixed first-Thursday preset, but that flexibility also makes an incorrect expression easy to schedule on the wrong day.
5. Configure post-wipe actions. If your process needs commands or file deletion after the wipe, add them through the module’s supported action fields. Limit deletions to files that are safe to regenerate.
6. Review map selection. AutoWipe can use a randomised map pool. Check the pool and map-size settings so a new map remains within your server’s performance limits.
7. Save, reload and inspect logs. Confirm that Carbon reports AutoWipe as enabled and that the next-run time matches your intended schedule.
8. Run a controlled test. Test on a staging instance or during a maintenance window. Verify the wipe scope, generated map, restart behavior and preservation of required plugin data before enabling it on a live community server.

Carbon-specific failure modes

• The schedule never fires: AutoWipe may still be disabled, Carbon may have failed to load, or the cron expression may not parse. Check module status and logs before changing the schedule.
• The wrong type of wipe occurs: inspect the selected map/full-wipe action and any post-wipe file-deletion rules.
• The server starts without the expected map: review the randomised map-pool settings and confirm that the generated map was written to the path used by the server startup configuration.
• Plugin data disappears: remove broad deletion rules and restore the affected data from backup. A full wipe or post-wipe command can remove more than the map itself.

Option 3: Use LoafPanel’s Rust Wipe Scheduler

LoafPanel presents wipe timing as presets rather than requiring you to write a cron expression. The documented choices are weekly, biweekly, monthly and first Thursday. It also offers an optional new map seed and an optional RCON warning before the wipe.

Panel setup

1. Open the Rust server in LoafPanel and locate Rust Wipe Scheduler.
2. Select the cadence that matches your community announcement: weekly, biweekly, monthly or first Thursday.
3. Choose whether the task should generate a new map seed. Enable that option only if the wipe plan includes map regeneration.
4. Enable the RCON player warning if you want connected players notified before the restart. Set the warning lead time offered by the panel and make sure it is long enough for players to return safely.
5. Choose the wipe scope exposed by the panel, then save the task.
6. Check the next scheduled run in the panel and compare it with the server’s configured time zone.
7. Test the task with a small maintenance window. Confirm that the warning is sent, the server stops once, the intended data is reset and the new map loads.

When this route is preferable

A panel preset is usually easier to audit than a hand-written cron rule. It is a practical choice when you need a standard weekly or biweekly wipe, want an optional seed change, and do not want to maintain a mod-framework installation. The trade-off is that you are limited to the schedules and controls exposed by the panel.

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Option 4: Use Host Havoc’s wipe-day task

Host Havoc’s “Wipe on Rust Wipe Day” task checks on each run whether the current date is the first Thursday of the month. Because the check is date-based, the task must be scheduled to run daily so it can detect that day. Configure one daily run at a sensible maintenance hour rather than a task that repeats every few minutes.

Safe configuration

1. Open the server’s scheduled-task area and add Wipe on Rust Wipe Day.
2. Set the task frequency to daily, at the time you want the monthly wipe process to begin.
3. Confirm the panel’s time zone and compare it with the time communicated to players.
4. Save the task and verify that it reports a single next run each day.
5. On a non-wipe day, confirm that the task exits without changing the server.
6. On the first Thursday, monitor the task and server console to ensure it performs one wipe and one restart.

A TCAdmin community report describes a server that was wiped repeatedly because the task was left running every 15 minutes on the first Thursday. That is the key operational warning: the date check prevents wipes on other days, but it does not make repeated executions safe on the matching day.

How to plan the schedule for your community

Monthly, first-Thursday cycle

Use the Facepunch forced wipe alone, or select a panel’s first-Thursday preset if you need a new seed, RCON notices or other panel actions. Do not stack both systems with the same destructive action unless you have confirmed that one of them is only sending notifications.

Weekly cycle

Choose Carbon AutoWipe with a validated cron rule or a panel’s weekly preset. Publish the weekday, approximate maintenance window and whether blueprints are affected. The available evidence does not establish that every weekly option performs a blueprint wipe.

Biweekly cycle

Use Carbon’s cron flexibility or LoafPanel’s biweekly preset. Decide in advance whether the second-week wipe is a map-only reset or a broader reset, then match the selected wipe scope to that announcement.

Irregular or event-driven wipes

Carbon is the flexible route when the interval cannot be expressed as a simple panel preset. For a one-off wipe, disable or pause the recurring task after the event so it cannot perform an unexpected second reset.

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Pre-wipe checklist

• Announce the exact date, expected time zone and estimated downtime.
• State whether the event is map-only, full, or includes a blueprint reset.
• Back up plugin data, permissions, economy data, custom maps and server configuration.
• Record the current map seed and any procedural-generation settings you may need to restore.
• Check that the server has enough disk space for a new map and temporary files.
• Stop conflicting restart, update or backup tasks during the wipe window.
• Confirm that only one wipe mechanism will perform the destructive action.
• Send an RCON warning when the selected panel or module supports it.

Verify the result after the wipe

1. Watch the task log and server console until the process reports completion.
2. Confirm the server starts once, not in a restart loop.
3. Join as an administrator and check the map, seed and wipe scope.
4. Verify that required plugins load and that intended persistent data remains.
5. Check that players can connect and that the server listing shows the expected map information.
6. Archive the log and note the actual start and finish times for the next announcement.

Troubleshooting automatic wipes

The server wiped twice

Look for overlapping systems: the monthly forced wipe plus a panel task, two panel tasks, or a daily wipe-day task configured to repeat every few minutes. Disable all but one destructive action and leave only a single execution on the intended wipe day.

No wipe occurred

Check that the task is enabled, the host time zone is correct, Carbon AutoWipe is loaded, and the schedule is valid for the installed module version. A daily date-check task will intentionally do nothing on days other than the first Thursday.

Players received no warning

RCON warnings are an explicit option in LoafPanel’s scheduler, but they are not established for every route. Confirm that RCON is enabled, the warning option is selected and the server can accept the panel’s RCON connection.

The map changed but progress did not reset as expected

The task may have been configured as a map wipe rather than a full wipe, or the host’s definition of “full” may differ from your announcement. Compare the selected scope with the tool’s current documentation and restore only the data that should persist.

The wipe happened at the wrong hour

Compare the panel, operating system and Rust update times. Do not convert 19:00 London to 19:00 UTC without checking daylight-saving status for that date; the two clocks coincide on 5 November 2026 but not throughout the year.

Recommended decision

For the standard Rust experience, use the first-Thursday forced wipe and avoid adding a second wipe task. For weekly or biweekly communities, use a panel preset when its controls match your needs; choose Carbon AutoWipe when you require cron-level flexibility and can maintain the Carbon framework. Whichever route you choose, run the destructive action once, back up data first and test the complete restart path before putting it on a live server.

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