How to Set Up an Admin Whitelist on an ARK: Survival Evolved Server

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On an ARK: Survival Evolved (ASE) dedicated server, an administrator whitelist is a text file named AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt. Place it in the server’s ShooterGame/Saved/ directory, add one 17-digit Steam ID per line, save the file while the server is stopped, and restart the server. Each listed player then receives automatic cheat-command privileges without entering the administrator password.

This file controls administrator permissions; it does not prevent unlisted people from joining. Use ASE’s separate player-join whitelist when you also need to restrict who can connect. ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA) uses a different account-ID method, so verify the game edition before creating any file.

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What the ASE admin whitelist does

The ASE administrator whitelist grants cheat and administrator commands to specific Steam accounts. A listed player is treated as authenticated with enablecheats when connecting, so that player can use administrative commands without supplying the server’s administrator password.

The whitelist is an authorization control, not an access-control list. It does not make the server private, reserve player slots, or stop an unlisted person from connecting. Those jobs belong to separate connection-list files and launch settings.

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What it does not use

• Do not enter a character name, display name, nickname, survivor name, or password.
• Do not use the player’s Steam profile URL or a shortened account number.
• Do not put multiple IDs on one line or add commas, quotation marks, or other punctuation.

Every entry must be the player’s complete 17-digit Steam ID, with one ID on each line.

Check the game edition before editing files

This procedure applies to a dedicated server for ARK: Survival Evolved. ARK: Survival Ascended has a separate documented approach based on EOS/account IDs rather than the ASE Steam-ID file. An ASE filename copied into an ASA installation will not produce the intended result.

If you administer several servers, label each server directory and backup by edition. The Steam application identifier commonly associated with the ASE dedicated server is 376030; that identifier can help distinguish an ASE installation when you maintain SteamCMD-based deployments, but it does not replace the whitelist file or an account ID.

Before you begin

• Access to the machine or hosting control panel that contains the dedicated-server installation. The client’s local ARK folder is the wrong location.
• Permission to stop and start the server and to create or edit files in its installation directory.
• The exact 17-digit Steam ID for every administrator.
• A maintenance window, because the server should be offline while the file is edited and must be restarted afterward.

Make a backup of any existing AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt before changing it. Preserve the original filename and extension; a hidden .txt extension added by a text editor can otherwise create a file such as AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt.txt.

Set up the administrator whitelist

1. Stop the dedicated server. Use the host’s Stop control or stop the server process cleanly. Editing while it is running can leave the process using the old file until a later restart.
2. Open the server’s Saved directory. Starting at the dedicated-server installation directory, open ShooterGame/Saved/. On a hosted service, use the file manager or SFTP view for the server instance, not the game files on your personal computer.
3. Create the file with the exact name. Create a plain-text file named AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt. Capitalization and spelling should match exactly.
4. Enter one Steam ID per line. For example:

   76561198000000001
   76561198000000002

   Replace those example values with real IDs. Do not include names, labels, spaces before or after an ID, or a password.

5. Save the file in the Saved directory. The administrator file belongs directly in ShooterGame/Saved/. It is not an INI file and should not be placed in a client profile, a mod folder, or an operating-system configuration directory.
6. Start the server again. A full restart is required for the documented whitelist workflow. Wait until the server has completed its normal startup before testing.
7. Test with a listed account. Have one of the listed players connect and run an administrative command. The player should not need to enter the administrator password because the whitelist grants automatic cheat-command privileges.

Find a player’s correct Steam ID

Names are not reliable identifiers: players can change display names, and several accounts can use similar names. The official ASE configuration documentation identifies the in-game cheat ListPlayers command for displaying connected players and their Steam IDs.

1. Have the account you need to identify connect to the server.
2. Run cheat ListPlayers through the appropriate in-game administrator console or server-console workflow available to your installation.
3. Locate that player in the command output.
4. Copy the full 17-digit Steam ID, rather than the visible character name.
5. Paste the ID onto its own line in AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt, then stop, save, and restart the server as described above.

Check the copied value character by character. A missing digit, an extra space, or an ID from a different account prevents the match.

File location on Windows and Linux

The administrator whitelist itself is documented in the common ShooterGame/Saved/ directory. Do not confuse that location with the platform-specific directories used for INI configuration.

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The different slash styles in the table reflect the documented platform paths. Your file manager may display them with its own separators, but the relative directory relationship is the same: the text file is under ShooterGame/Saved/, not inside the platform INI subdirectory.

Admin whitelist versus join whitelists

ARK provides several similarly named files with different purposes. Select the control based on the outcome you need.

When both controls are needed

A private community server may need two independent policies: an exclusive join list to keep strangers out and AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt to give selected staff administrative commands after they join. Add each person to the appropriate list for the permission they need. Being on the administrator list does not automatically authorize that person to connect when an exclusive join policy blocks them, and being on a join list does not grant cheat commands.

Restart and reload behavior

Use the same disciplined cycle whenever you change the administrator file:

1. Stop the server completely.
2. Edit or replace ShooterGame/Saved/AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt.
3. Confirm the filename, location, and line format.
4. Start the server and wait for it to finish loading.
5. Test with the affected account.

A live file transfer or an in-panel “save” action is not a substitute for the restart required by the documented file workflow. If a host automatically restarts after a file change, verify that the restart actually completed before testing.

Security and password implications

Whitelist membership is powerful: it grants the ability to run cheat and administrator commands. Give it only to accounts you trust, and remove an ID promptly when a staff role ends or an account is compromised.

An administrator password can still be configured for the server. However, the documented behavior means a non-whitelisted player who knows that password may also authenticate and gain administrator privileges. Therefore, an admin whitelist by itself is not a complete replacement for protecting, rotating, or removing the password. If you want whitelist-only administration, do not distribute the password and review who can access the server’s configuration and console.

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Troubleshooting: when a listed player has no admin powers

The server is actually ASA

Confirm the edition first. ASA uses EOS/account IDs and a separate configuration method. Follow the ASA-specific documentation rather than creating the ASE Steam-ID file.

The filename is wrong

Verify that the name is exactly AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt. Check for misspellings, capitalization changes, a second .txt extension, or a file saved as rich text instead of plain text.

The file is in the wrong directory

Navigate from the dedicated-server installation to ShooterGame/Saved/. A file in the client’s local ARK folder, an INI directory, or a hosting account’s unrelated home directory will not be read by the server process.

The ID is not a 17-digit Steam ID

Compare the entry with the value returned by cheat ListPlayers. Replace a display name, nickname, shortened ID, or copied profile text with the complete 17-digit value on one line.

The server was not fully restarted

Stop it, wait for the process to exit, then start it again. Test only after the new session has loaded.

The account is joining but should be blocked

That is expected: AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt controls administrator privileges, not connection access. Configure PlayersExclusiveJoinList.txt and enable -exclusivejoin or the documented UseExclusiveList setting when the goal is to restrict who may join.

A password still grants access

Review the administrator password separately. According to the documented behavior, a non-whitelisted player who has the password can still obtain administrator privileges. Change or remove the password if it has been shared beyond the intended staff group.

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The host cannot read the file

Confirm that the server process has permission to read the file and its parent directory. Check ownership and access rights on Linux, or the service account’s permissions on Windows. Keep a backup, then restore a simple plain-text file containing only verified IDs.

Managing changes safely

Adding an administrator

1. Obtain the person’s Steam ID from the server’s player listing.
2. Stop the server.
3. Add the ID as a new line without altering existing entries.
4. Save a backup and restart.
5. Ask the new administrator to connect and verify a harmless administrative command.

Removing an administrator

1. Stop the server before editing.
2. Delete only the departing account’s line.
3. Save the revised file and retain the previous backup in a secure location.
4. Restart the server so the removal takes effect.
5. If the person knew the administrator password, rotate or remove that password as well.

Auditing the file

• Keep one canonical backup with a dated filename outside the live directory.
• Record who approved each addition and removal without placing notes inside the ID file.
• Periodically compare every line with the current staff roster.
• Use the smallest possible administrator group because each listed account can issue cheat commands.

Choosing a management approach

For a single server, manually maintaining the text file is usually the most direct method: it has one filename, one ID format, and a restart after changes. Operators running several servers may prefer a graphical server-management tool or a hosted control panel to coordinate SteamCMD installation, configuration files, permissions, and restarts. Those tools change the workflow but do not change the ASE requirements: the generated file must still contain valid Steam IDs in the server’s Saved directory, and the instance must reload the file after a restart.

The official dedicated-server setup guidance names Ark Server Manager as one maintenance option. A manager can make copying a file and restarting an instance more convenient, but it should not hide the underlying path or format from the operator. Keep an independently accessible backup so that you can recover if a panel overwrites the file.

Before relying on any management product, verify that it supports ASE rather than only ASA, exposes the exact AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt path, preserves one-ID-per-line formatting, and performs a real server restart. A control panel that edits INI files alone will not necessarily manage this text-file whitelist. For a hosted service, confirm that you can stop and start the correct server instance, access its Saved directory, and retrieve a copy of the file; otherwise a panel may make a successful-looking edit to the wrong installation.

Common setup decisions

Use the purpose of the list as the first decision. If the requirement is “staff can run commands,” use the administrator file. If the requirement is “only approved players can connect,” use the exclusive join list. If the requirement is “these players should not count against the ordinary maximum-player check,” use the no-check list. These controls can coexist, but they do not substitute for one another.

The identifier decision follows the edition. ASE uses 17-digit Steam IDs in the text file. ASA’s documented process uses EOS/account IDs, so copying an ASE Steam ID or filename into ASA is the wrong configuration surface. The operational decision is whether you will edit a text file yourself or have a manager perform the same edit; either way, the restart and validation steps remain necessary.

Quick verification checklist

• Edition confirmed as ARK: Survival Evolved.
• Server stopped before editing.
• File named exactly AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt.
• File stored under the dedicated server’s ShooterGame/Saved/ directory.
• Every line contains one complete 17-digit Steam ID.
• No character names, passwords, commas, or extra punctuation appear.
• Server restarted after the change.
• Listed account tested with an administrative command.
• Join restriction configured separately if strangers must be blocked.
• Administrator password reviewed because it can independently grant privileges to anyone who knows it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I whitelist admins on my ARK server?

For an ASE dedicated server, stop the server, create ShooterGame/Saved/AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt, add one complete 17-digit Steam ID per line, save it, and restart. A listed account receives automatic cheat-command privileges.

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Where does AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt go?

Put it directly in the dedicated server’s ShooterGame/Saved/ directory. Do not place it in the client’s local ARK folder or in ShooterGame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/ or LinuxServer/.

Do I use a Steam ID or a player name?

Use the player’s full 17-digit ASE Steam ID. Names, nicknames, profile URLs, and shortened account numbers are not the documented value. Use cheat ListPlayers to see connected players and their IDs.

Why can an admin whitelist let someone use cheats but not stop them joining?

AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt controls permissions after connection. It does not restrict connections. To control who may join, configure PlayersExclusiveJoinList.txt and enable -exclusivejoin or UseExclusiveList.

Do whitelist changes work without restarting the server?

Use a full stop-and-start cycle. The documented file workflow requires a restart so the server reads the changed list.

Can a player still become an admin with the server password?

Yes. A non-whitelisted player who knows the configured administrator password may authenticate and gain administrator privileges. Protect, rotate, or remove the password if administration should be limited to listed accounts.

Does this file work for ARK: Survival Ascended?

No. ASA has a separate documented method using EOS/account IDs. Confirm the edition before applying the ASE filename or Steam-ID format.

What is PlayersJoinNoCheckList.txt for?

It is a separate join-control list that lets listed players bypass the normal maximum-player check. It does not grant administrator or cheat-command privileges.

The Bottom Line

For an ASE dedicated server, create ShooterGame/Saved/AllowedCheaterSteamIDs.txt, put one verified 17-digit Steam ID on each line, and restart the server. Treat that file as an administrator-permission list only; use the separate exclusive-join controls when you also need to control who can connect.

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