How To Install Mods On Your Factorio Server

Mods are the lifeblood of the Factorio community, allowing you to tweak small quality-of-life features or completely overhaul the game with massive new technology trees. Installing mods on your MintServers host is a straightforward process, but it requires you to manually upload the mod files and enable them in your configuration.

Important Warning: Before adding or removing mods, always create a manual backup of your server in the Backups tab. Mod changes can permanently alter or corrupt your existing factory saves!

Step 1: Download Your Mods

First, you need to grab the mod files from the official source.

1. Visit the official Factorio Mod Portal.
2. Find the mod you want to use and click the Download button. You will receive a compressed .zip file.
3. Do not unzip this file! Factorio requires mods to remain in their compressed .zip format to work properly on the server.

Step 2: Upload to Your Server

Next, we need to place the mod files into your server's directory.

1. Log into your MintServers panel and click the Stop button to safely shut down your server.
2. Navigate to the Files tab on the left-hand sidebar.
3. Click to open the mods folder. If this folder does not exist yet, you can create it by clicking "New Folder" at the top of the file manager and naming it exactly mods.
4. Drag and drop your downloaded .zip mod files into the panel to upload them. Alternatively, if you are uploading multiple large mods, we highly recommend using an SFTP client like FileZilla for faster transfers. If you need help getting connected, check out our guide on How to Connect to Your Minecraft Server via FTP (the steps are exactly the same for Factorio!).

Step 3: Enable the Mods

Now that the files are uploaded, you must verify that the server is set to load them.

1. While still inside the panel's file manager, click through to locate your mod-list.json file inside the mods directory.
📁 factorio (or your main server directory)
📁 mods
📄 mod-list.json (Click to edit this file)
2. Click on mod-list.json to open the text editor.
3. Inside the file, you will see a list of mods. You need to add a new entry for your downloaded mod. Make sure the name matches the mod name exactly (without the version number or the .zip extension). It should look like this:

{
  "mods": [
    {
      "name": "base",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "name": "YourModNameHere",
      "enabled": true
    }
  ]
}

4. Ensure there is a comma separating each mod block, but no comma after the very last mod in the list.
5. Click the Save Content button at the top of the editor.

Step 4: Connecting as a Player

When you return to the Console tab and Start your server, it will begin loading the new mods.

Factorio makes joining modded servers incredibly easy for your players. When you or your friends try to connect to the server from your game clients, Factorio will automatically detect a mod mismatch. It will display a "Sync mods with server" button. Clicking this will force your personal game client to download the exact same mods and versions the server is using, ensuring a seamless connection.

If your server crashes on startup after installing a mod, it is usually caused by a missing dependency (another mod that your new mod requires to run) or a typo in the mod-list.json file. Check your server console for specific error messages, or open a support ticket and our team will jump in to help you out!