How do I make myself admin on my 7 Days to Die server?

Join your server, then type admin add, your name or ID, and 0 into the live console in your Game Panel. Level 0 is the top admin level. The game writes you into serveradmin.xml straight away, so you stay admin after a restart.

Make yourself admin

1. Start 7 Days to Die and join your server.
2. Open the live console in your Game Panel.
3. Type listplayerids (or lpi for short). It lists everyone online with their IDs.
4. Type admin add, then your name or ID from that list, then the level. For example: admin add 171 0.
5. Back in the game, press F1 to open the console. Admin commands now work for you there, so you can add other people from inside the game.

If your name has spaces or odd characters in it, use the ID instead. To take someone off the list, use admin remove with their name or ID.

Permission levels

Levels run from 0 to 1000, and a lower number means more power.

• 0 is full admin, with every command.
• 1000 is a normal player. Anyone who isn’t in the file counts as 1000.
• A player can run any command whose level is the same as theirs or higher.

Commands you haven’t given a level need level 0. So a moderator you add at level 1 can’t do anything extra until you open commands up to them with cp add. For example, cp add kick 1 lets anyone at level 1 or lower kick players. cp list shows what’s set.

Where it’s saved: serveradmin.xml

The game keeps admins, the whitelist and bans in serveradmin.xml, in your server’s Saves folder. One file covers every world on the server. Open it in your Game Panel’s file manager and you’ll find sections like these:

<adminTools>
  <users>
    <user platform="Steam" userid="76561198000000000" name="You" permission_level="0" />
  </users>
  <whitelist>
  </whitelist>
  <blacklist>
  </blacklist>
</adminTools>

• <users> is the admin list. platform is Steam, EOS, XBL or PSN, and userid is the player’s ID on that platform. For Steam that’s the 17-digit SteamID64.
• <whitelist> lists the players allowed in.
• <blacklist> holds bans, each with an unban date and a reason.

Older guides show an <admins> section and a steamID attribute. That’s the old format, so follow your own file’s layout instead.

The console commands are the safer way to change the file. If you do edit it by hand, download a backup from your Game Panel first, stop your server while you edit, and start it again when you’ve saved.

Whitelist and bans

• whitelist add with a name or ID lets a player in. whitelist list shows who’s on it, and whitelist remove takes someone off.
• ban add takes a name or ID, a length and a unit, then an optional reason: ban add 171 2 days griefing. Units go from minutes up to years. ban list and ban remove do what they say.