Rust downtime “beyond our control,” developer tells Valve

Rust is down on Steam as authorization timeouts leave players unable to connect to servers following weekly maintenance; the team says it has made Valve aware.

Ken Allsop

Updated: Jun 7, 2023

Rust is down on Steam following weekly maintenance, with developer Facepunch Studios saying the situation is "beyond our control." The hugely popular survival game continues to ride high on Steam's most played lists, but Rust players have found themselves unable to connect to servers since the latest Steam weekly maintenance. The developer says it has reached out to Valve to find a solution and is awaiting a resolution.

Following the regular weekly maintenance period, users found themselves hit with a message reading, "Disconnected due to error: Steam auth timeout." After several hours with no resolution, the Rust Twitter account commented, "We’re still seeing large amounts of users unable to connect to servers after Steam's weekly maintenance period. We’re continuing to monitor and have reached out to Valve to find a solution. We apologize for the downtime."

It appears the situation is still ongoing, and Facepunch Studios now says, "We’re continuing to see mass user Steam authentication timeouts across the Rust server network. This issue is beyond our control." It's unclear exactly what the problem is, although the developer adds, "We have made Valve aware of our situation and [are] awaiting a resolution."

Players affected by the Rust outage are worried that the unexpected downtime may interfere with potential raids. YouTuber Bernie ‘BernE’ had been loading up for a large-scale raid and comments in response to the Facepunch update, saying, "87 rockets and an incredible story down the drain. Thanks Steam servers, that's three days I’ll never get back."

We’ll monitor the situation, and will update this story when the Rust servers return to action. In the meantime, you’ll just have to hope that your base and all your hard-earned goodies stay safe during the downtime.

The Rust May update adds a nuclear missile silo to explore, giving some terrifying new ways to wipe. Take a look through all the Rust commands to make the most of your server once you’re back online, or browse all the Rust vehicles to see which one suits you best.