How to Add Mods to a Factorio Server

Last modified on Aug 10, 2023 in Factorio

By ApexHosting

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Overview

Factorio is a game with so much content, you could spend countless hours playing on vanilla without seeing everything it has to offer. Even so, when you’ve logged 100+ hours in-game, things might start to get stale. Whether you’re longing for new research paths, updated visuals, or brand new gameplay opportunities, the modding community is here to bring a new spin to the game. One of the many excellent things about Factorio is that the base game has modding built-in, so there’s no need to install a special version of the game or even leave the game itself to find mods. Once you have installed the mods on your client or downloaded them from the Factorio mods site, all you will need to do is upload them to your Apex server. We’ll be teaching you every step of the process so you can have your modded Factorio server up and running in no time.

Downloading Mods From the Official Website

1. Navigate to the Mod Portal which is linked on the top menu of the official Factorio website.
2. You will need to log in with a Factorio.com account in order to download mods. You can create your free Factorio.com account at their Sign Up page.
3. Select your Factorio version to ensure you will be downloading mods that are compatible with your server.
4. Please note: Your Apex server will be running the latest version of Factorio by default.
5. Click the green Download button on the bottom right of any mod to download it.
   
6. Optional: Create a new folder on your desktop and move the downloaded mod files inside of it to keep them accessible for uploading to the server.

If you’ve downloaded all of your mods straight from the website, you can now move on to installing the mods on your server.

Downloading Mods In-Game

1. Launch Factorio on your computer.
2. Click Mods, then open the Install tab.
3. Select any mod to read the description.
4. Click Install on the bottom right to add it to your game.
   
5. Once you’ve installed all the mods you wish to use, click Confirm.

At this point, the game will close briefly so that it can reopen and load the new mods. Once it is finished your mods are ready to play on single player, or you can proceed to retrieve the files from your computer and install them on the server.

Please note: Players will not have to manually install the mods in order to join your server.

Retrieving the mod files from single-player

1. In Windows Explorer, type %appdata% and click on it or press enter to open it
   
2. Open the Factorio folder.
3. Find the Mods folder and create a copy of it.
   
4. Put the copied folder somewhere accessible such as your desktop so that you can easily install them to your server.

Installing the Mods on Your Server

1. Navigate to your Apex server panel and login.
2. Be sure to stop your server before making any changes to it.
3. Connect to the server using a 3rd party FTP program such as Filezilla.
4. In your FTP program, click into the default folder or your custom Factorio profile if you are using one.
5. Open the mods folder, then click on the Upload button in the menu on the left side of the page.
6. Drag and drop your mods to upload them to the server.
   
7. Once you have finished uploading the files, return to the main panel page.
8. (Optional) Scroll down and press the Change World button, then follow the prompts to create a fresh world.
   
9. Restart the server, and you’re ready to play!

Every player needs to have the same mods installed on their game in order to join a modded Factorio server. Thankfully, all they need to do to install the correct mods is attempt to connect to the server and then click Synchronize when prompted to automatically install the correct mods and join the server.

Common issues

Factorio says that my active mods don’t match the server’s
This can happen when you upload mods from the mods folder on your computer, but they were not activated in your single-player game. To fix this, you can either go into the server and delete the mods that you don’t want to use, or you can click Synchronize in-game when prompted to enable the right mods on your game and join the server.

Filezilla/WinSCP won’t connect.
Make sure you’re using the exact information shown on your control panel’s FTP Login page. It’s important that you use the FTP Username shown on this page rather than your Apex panel username, your password will be the same one you use to login to your panel account.
We also have an in-depth dedicated guide that can show you how to connect to your server via FTP.

My mods are on the server, but they aren’t working in-game.
If the mods are correctly installed but still aren’t working as intended, they may not be compatible with the latest version of Factorio. To prevent this from happening, be sure to test out the mods on single-player first. Then you can retrieve the files from your game to upload them to the server. You can also filter mods by version when browsing the Factorio mods website. In some cases, you may have downloaded the right mod but it still won’t work. This may be due to an issue with the mod itself, or it could be missing a dependency. If you install and activate the mods on single-player first, the game will automatically add any dependency mods that you need.

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