How to Clean Up a Space Engineers Server Safely

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The safest way to clean a Space Engineers server is to back up the world, inspect entities in the vanilla Admin Screen, delete only confirmed debris, and use automatic trash rules conservatively. Set floating-object and block limits to prevent recurring clutter. Add Torch or a cleanup plugin only when you need remote, scheduled, or repeatable administration, and preview destructive commands before running them.

This workflow removes wrecks, abandoned grids, loose items, and duplicate test builds without indiscriminately deleting active ships or player projects. It also separates grid cleanup from voxel edits, which can permanently reset modified terrain.

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Before deleting anything: make a recoverable backup

Back up the world before changing trash settings, deleting entities, resetting voxels, or stopping a dedicated server. The Admin Screen guidance specifically advises: “Tip: Make backups before changing these settings.” A backup gives you a way to restore an active build if an ownership check, distance rule, plugin command, or mistaken selection catches the wrong grid.

What to include in the backup

• Copy the current world save, not just a screenshot or blueprint. Keep the copy outside the live save directory so a cleanup operation cannot overwrite it.
• Record the server’s current game, Torch, and plugin versions. Cleanup commands and plugin behavior can change between releases.
• Note any world settings you intend to change, including floating-object maximums, block limits, grid-size limits, and automatic trash criteria.
• For a dedicated server, make the backup after a clean save and before maintenance. Do not rely on a forced process termination as a save method.

If you cannot confirm that a backup completed, stop at the inspection stage. Manual review is safer than enabling an aggressive rule on an unverified save.

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Use the vanilla Admin Screen for one-off cleanup

The built-in Admin Screen is the best first response to a single wreck, floating object, half-built structure, duplicate test grid, or accidental-deletion concern. It lets an administrator inspect entity lists, select grids and floating items, teleport to an entity, control it, or delete confirmed debris without introducing another administration layer.

Step-by-step entity review

1. Join the affected world with administrator privileges and open the game’s Admin Screen.
2. Open the entity list and identify the category containing the suspected clutter, such as grids or floating objects.
3. Inspect names, ownership, location, and nearby entities. A wreck may be close to a working base, and a detached subgrid may belong to a ship that is still in use.
4. Use the teleport or control option to verify an unfamiliar entity in-world. Check whether it has a cockpit, production block, power, a respawn point, or player activity.
5. Select only the confirmed debris and delete it. If ownership or purpose is uncertain, leave it in place and investigate with its owner.
6. Reopen the list after deletion to confirm that the intended entity disappeared and that neighboring grids remain.

Manual review is particularly useful when one player reports that trash cleanup removed a legitimate unfinished build. It lets you identify the exact entity and revise the rule instead of deleting more objects blindly.

What not to delete from the list

• Powered or recently active player grids unless the owner has explicitly approved removal.
• Small detached subgrids that may be connected by a rotor, piston, hinge, connector, or merge block.
• Grids containing production, medical or respawn equipment, or the only copy of a player’s work.
• Loose objects that are part of an active construction site. A pile of components can look like trash while a player is using it.

Configure automatic trash removal without catching active builds

Automatic cleanup is rule-based. That makes it useful for recurring debris, but an over-broad rule can remove legitimate unfinished ships or stations. Start with a backup, change one criterion at a time, and watch the result before adding another condition.

Choose the debris conditions

Vanilla cleanup can distinguish stationary, moving, and accelerating debris. A server that wants to remove abandoned wrecks may begin with stationary objects, while a server with many drifting components may need a moving-object rule. Accelerating debris can include objects affected by physics, so treat that condition as more aggressive than a simple inactivity check.

Do not assume that a grid’s motion alone proves abandonment. A ship parked with dampeners off, a station waiting for its owner, or a construction platform with no recent movement may satisfy a stationary condition.

Add protections before enabling the rule

Use exclusions for the kinds of entities your community considers active. Depending on the available Admin Screen settings, protect:

• Powered grids.
• Player-controlled grids.
• Grids with production blocks.
• Grids with respawn points.

These protections are not interchangeable. A powered grid can still be abandoned, and an unfinished project may have no production block. Decide which protections match your server’s building and survival practices, then test the combination against known active and abandoned examples.

Apply block, distance, and owner filters

Block count can keep tiny fragments or deliberately minimal abandoned grids from occupying the entity list, while distance from players can prevent cleanup near an active base. Owner logout time adds an inactivity window so a player who briefly disconnects is not treated like a long-term abandonment case.

Use these filters together rather than relying on one universal threshold. For example, a distance rule may protect a base but still delete a remote project that its owner is actively developing. A logout-time rule may protect a vacationing player’s ship only if the configured period is long enough for your community.

When to suspend automatic cleanup

Turn off automatic trash removal while you are still learning how the criteria interact, after a suspicious deletion, or when the server contains many unusual builds. Return to manual entity-list review until you can identify which condition selected an object. Automatic cleanup should be a controlled maintenance policy, not a substitute for understanding the entity list.

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Clean voxels separately from grids

Voxel cleanup is a different operation from deleting a grid or floating object. Resetting modified terrain can restore it to its starting state, removing tunnels, mined areas, excavation, or terrain used by a base. Treat voxel cleanup as a destructive world edit and back up first.

Use voxel cleanup only for a terrain problem

• Use it when modified terrain itself is the performance or maintenance issue.
• Do not use it merely because the entity list contains abandoned ships or loose components.
• Confirm that players understand which terrain will be restored and which builds depend on it.
• Keep a pre-reset world copy so you can roll back if a mine, road, base foundation, or other construction area is affected.

Deleting grids will not clean modified asteroids or planets, and resetting voxels will not remove floating components. Handle each category with the tool designed for it.

Set world limits to prevent recurring clutter

Cleanup is easier when the world limits recurring object growth. Current Space Engineers World Settings documentation lists the following ranges:

The floating-object limit is a safety valve for loose components, dropped tools, and other non-grid items. Because the oldest objects are removed first after the limit is exceeded, players should not use the floating world as long-term storage. A low limit can surprise builders during large construction sessions; a high limit permits more clutter and may increase simulation work.

Maximum blocks per player and maximum grid size address different problems. The first limits a player’s total block allocation; the second limits one grid. Enable them only after considering whether your server’s scenarios, factions, and shared builds depend on unusually large projects.

Maintain a dedicated server safely

The dedicated-server GUI exposes lists of grids, characters, floating objects, planets, and asteroids. Use those lists to inspect the category causing the problem before stopping the service or changing settings.

Inspection procedure

1. Open the dedicated-server administration interface and review the relevant entity list.
2. Identify whether the load or clutter comes from grids, characters, floating objects, or voxel bodies such as planets and asteroids.
3. Use the vanilla Admin Screen or the dedicated-server controls to remove only confirmed debris.
4. Save the world and verify that the save timestamp advances before ending maintenance.

Graceful shutdown command

On Windows, stop the dedicated-server process with:

taskkill /IM SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe

This requests a normal termination. Avoid adding /f unless you accept the risk: forced termination can stop the process without saving the world, losing recent player actions and potentially leaving the save in an unsafe state.

After the process exits, copy the saved world and retain the pre-maintenance backup. A clean stop is part of the recovery plan, not merely an administrative convenience.

When Torch and plugins are worth adding

Torch is an optional administration layer for servers that need remote chat, an entity manager, configuration editing, or plugins. Its project README describes it as the successor to SE Server Extender and a toolkit for keeping Space Engineers servers running smoothly. It complements the vanilla Admin Screen; it does not remove the need for backups or ownership checks.

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Vanilla versus Torch-based cleanup

Preview Torch commands before executing them

A current command reference lists examples including:

!cleanup delete notype noownership

!cleanup delete blockslessthan [n]

The second form uses [n] as the block-count value you supply; enter it only in the command’s documented syntax. Both examples are version-sensitive. Before running a destructive command, use the plugin’s listing, preview, or dry-run equivalent if one exists. If the installed release does not provide a preview, start with a narrow condition, confirm the affected entities, and keep the server stopped only long enough to restore the backup if the result is wrong.

Do not copy a command from an older Torch or plugin guide without checking the documentation shipped with the version on your server. A command name can remain familiar while its ownership, block-count, or exclusion semantics change.

Use Sclean for grid-group policies, not every kind of trash

Sclean can list or delete grid groups. Its safety policy keeps groups based on player ownership or power and on configured player or scrap-beacon safe areas. That makes it useful for applying a consistent policy to related grids rather than evaluating every grid in isolation.

Where Sclean fits

• Use it when abandoned structures are organized into grid groups and you need a repeatable group-level action.
• Review its ownership, power, player-area, and scrap-beacon-area settings before enabling deletion.
• Use the listing function to identify groups before deleting them.
• Continue using the Admin Screen or another tool for floating objects and individual loose items.
• Do not expect it to reset modified voxels; terrain cleanup remains a separate operation.

Sclean complements, rather than replaces, vanilla cleanup. Its exact behavior is tied to the installed plugin version and configuration, so record those settings with your backup.

Troubleshoot the most common cleanup problems

An active ship was deleted

1. Stop automatic cleanup immediately.
2. Preserve the current save and restore the pre-cleanup backup in a separate test location.
3. Compare the deleted ship’s state with the configured stationary, movement, distance, block-count, and logout-time criteria.
4. Add the appropriate protection, such as powered, player-controlled, production, or respawn-grid exclusion.
5. Test the revised rule on a copy of the world before re-enabling it on the live server.

Floating objects keep returning

Identify whether players are intentionally dropping components or whether a production or connector setup is ejecting them. Set a documented floating-object maximum between 16 and 1,024, taking the default of 100 as the starting reference. Explain to players that exceeding the limit removes the oldest loose objects, then use manual review for valuable items already on the ground.

The server still struggles after deleting wrecks

Check whether the load comes from floating objects, excessive blocks, large grids, characters, or modified voxels. Use the dedicated-server lists to separate those categories. Adjust floating-object, per-player block, or grid-size limits only when that category is actually contributing to the problem. Do not claim a fixed UPS or percentage improvement: no published benchmark establishes a universal gain from a particular cleanup setting.

A Torch command does nothing or reports an error

• Confirm that Torch is installed and that the cleanup plugin is loaded.
• Check the command spelling and syntax in the documentation for the installed release.
• Verify that the executing user has the required administrator permission.
• Try a listing or preview command before changing the filter.
• Review server logs for a version or dependency mismatch, then test on a backup copy.

The world did not save after maintenance

Do not repeatedly force-terminate the process. Restore the last known-good backup, restart the server, allow it to save normally, and use taskkill /IM SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe for the next clean stop. A forced /f termination can end the process without saving.

A repeatable maintenance schedule

Before every cleanup session

• Make and verify a world backup.
• Record game, Torch, and plugin versions.
• Announce a maintenance window so players stop building and disconnect safely.
• Decide whether the target is grids, floating objects, grid groups, or voxels.

During the session

1. Inspect entities before deleting anything.
2. Protect active, powered, controlled, production, and respawn grids according to your policy.
3. Preview plugin actions where possible.
4. Delete the smallest confirmed set first.
5. Recheck the entity list and save the world.

After the session

• Confirm that active player builds remain and that the intended debris is gone.
• Keep the pre-cleanup backup until players have verified their projects.
• Document changed rules, thresholds, exclusions, commands, and affected areas.
• Watch the next maintenance cycle for false positives before making the rules more aggressive.

Recommended decision path

For a one-time wreck or a player complaint, use the vanilla Admin Screen. For recurring loose-item clutter, set the floating-object maximum and educate players about oldest-first deletion. For abandoned grids, combine conservative automatic rules with explicit exclusions and owner logout time. For group-level policies or remote and scheduled administration, evaluate Torch and an appropriate plugin, but treat every command as version-dependent. For terrain damage, back up and handle voxels separately. This sequence addresses the actual source of clutter while minimizing the chance of deleting a legitimate build.

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