Troubleshooting

Running into issues with your Discord bot on FPS.ms? This guide covers the most common problems and their solutions for both Python and Node.js bots.

Bot won't start

"No such file or directory: app.py"

1. Go to the Files tab in the panel
2. Make sure you have a file named exactly app.py in the root directory (not inside a subfolder)
3. If your main file has a different name, rename it to app.py

"Cannot find module" (Node.js)

1. Verify you have a package.json in the root directory
2. Make sure discord.js is listed under dependencies in your package.json
3. Do not upload the node_modules folder — FPS.ms runs npm install automatically
4. Restart your server to trigger a fresh install

"ModuleNotFoundError" (Python)

1. Create a requirements.txt file in the root directory
2. Add discord.py (and any other packages your bot uses) to the file
3. Restart your server — FPS.ms installs packages from requirements.txt on startup

discord.py

Token errors

"TOKEN_INVALID" or "Improper token"

1. Open your .env file in the Files tab on the FPS.ms panel
2. Check that BOT_TOKEN= contains your full token with no extra spaces or line breaks
3. If in doubt, reset your token in the Discord Developer Portal and paste the new one

"Used disallowed intents"

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal
2. Select your application and click Bot in the sidebar
3. Scroll to Privileged Gateway Intents
4. Enable the intents your bot uses
5. Restart your bot on FPS.ms

Bot goes offline

Bot starts then immediately stops

1. Check the Console tab for error messages — the last few lines before it stops will tell you what went wrong
2. Common causes:

• Missing environment variable — see environment variables guide
• Syntax error in your code — fix and re-upload via SFTP or the panel
• Missing dependency — add it to requirements.txt or package.json

Bot runs for a while then disconnects

1. Memory limit: Free servers have limited RAM. Check if your bot uses a lot of memory (large caches, storing data in memory). Consider using a database instead.
2. Unhandled errors: Add error handling to catch exceptions that would otherwise crash your bot:

@bot.event
async def on_error(event, *args, **kwargs):
    print(f'Error in {event}: {args}')

client.on('error', error => {
    console.error('Client error:', error);
});

process.on('unhandledRejection', error => {
    console.error('Unhandled rejection:', error);
});

3. Rate limiting: If your bot sends too many requests to Discord's API, it gets rate limited. Add delays between bulk operations and avoid sending messages in loops.

Bot goes offline at the same time every day

• Check your server renewal status on the panel
• Set up a schedule to auto-restart your bot

Slash commands not working

Commands not appearing

1. For Python (discord.py): Make sure you call await self.tree.sync() in your setup_hook()
2. For Node.js (discord.js): Run your deploy-commands.js script
3. Try using guild-specific commands for instant registration during development

"Unknown interaction" or "Interaction failed"

@bot.tree.command(name='slow', description='A slow command')
async def slow(interaction: discord.Interaction):
    await interaction.response.defer()
    # ... do slow work ...
    await interaction.followup.send('Done!')

await interaction.deferReply();
// ... do slow work ...
await interaction.followup.send('Done!');

Dependency issues

Python package version conflicts

discord.py==2.5.2
aiohttp==3.11.14

Node.js "ERESOLVE unable to resolve dependency tree"

1. Remove the node_modules folder and package-lock.json from your server files
2. Restart the server to trigger a fresh npm install
3. If the issue persists, update your package.json to use compatible versions

Still need help?

1. Check the Console tab on the FPS.ms panel — error messages usually tell you exactly what's wrong
2. Join the FPS.ms Discord server for community support
3. Review the official documentation for your bot library:

• Python: discord.py docs
• Node.js: discord.js guide