My server is stuck in "Starting" status and never comes online

When a server gets stuck in "Starting" indefinitely, the process has started but has not reached a ready state within the expected window.

Open the Console page immediately after clicking Start and watch the output. The most useful information is usually the last line printed before the server stalls.

Common causes:

Workshop download stall: For GMod, a failed or very slow Workshop download causes the server to wait indefinitely. Look for "Downloading item" lines in the Console that stop updating. A CDN failure or permission error on a specific addon causes this. Try removing the stalling addon from your collection and restarting.

Plugin loading hang: Some Minecraft plugins with startup-time HTTP requests (for licensing or update checks) can cause the startup to hang indefinitely if the request times out. The Console will show the startup progress pause after a specific plugin loads. Remove that plugin temporarily to confirm, then check its configuration for a timeout setting.

Insufficient memory: If the server never prints any output after launch, it may have been killed immediately by the OS for exceeding the memory limit. Check the Server Vitals page for memory usage at the time of the start attempt.

If the server is stuck for more than 5 minutes with no Console output at all, use the Force Stop button on the panel, wait a moment, and try starting again.