Factory stopped working?
Check input, blockage, output, Water, and transport in that order.
Troubleshooting hub
Sandustry troubleshooting by visible symptom
Quick answer: start from what you can actually see on screen: no Gold, disappearing Water, Residue backup, conveyor jam, or slow production. Each route below narrows the first check before you rebuild the whole line.
Start With the Visible Symptom
Pick the symptom first, then inspect only the smallest part of the factory that can cause it.
No Gold
Wet Sand, Shaker state, drop space, and Collector path are the first checks.
Diagnose Gold line →Water disappears
Look for flat wandering, missing basins, diagonal leaks, or Steam conversion.
Fix Water shortage →Residue backs up
A byproduct path can bury the input and make a good Shaker line look broken.
Clear Residue backup →Conveyors jam
Direction, drop points, mixed materials, and blocked outputs usually explain it.
Fix conveyors →Production is slow
Separate ratio math from transport, input, output, and byproduct problems.
Find the bottleneck →Power route fails
Trace generation, storage, connectors, and the last machine that still had Energy.
Check Energy routing →Symptom Matrix
This table keeps the first check small. Do not rebuild until the visible cause has been isolated.
| Problem | Likely Cause | First Check | Fix | Related Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Gold appears | Dry input, short sample, blocked drop space or stuck Shaker | Confirm Wet Sand reaches the Shaker and Gold has open space below | Restore Wet Sand input, clear foreign solids, then test longer | Factory Not Working |
| Water keeps vanishing | Flat wandering, diagonal leak, no basin or Steam route | Watch one droplet from source to mixing zone | Shorten the route, seal corners and contain the basin | Water Shortage |
| Residue covers the line | Byproduct has no exit or exits into the input area | Follow Residue from the Shaker or downstream machine | Give byproduct a separate downhill/side path before adding input | Residue Backup |
| Conveyor backs up | Wrong direction, wrong drop point, full output or mixed materials | Inspect the last moving item before the jam | Reverse or reroute the segment and separate incompatible materials | Conveyor Problems |
| Everything runs, but too slowly | Ratio mismatch, underfed input, transport cap or blocked byproduct | Test one stage with known input and clear output | Fix the physical bottleneck before scaling ratios | Slow Production |
Factory Not Working
No Gold, stuck Shaker, Residue backup or blocked output path.
Water Shortage
Water not working, disappearing or failing to create Wet Sand.
Residue Backup
How byproduct blockage affects Gold lines and later machines.
Conveyor Problems
Direction, overflow, blocked output and wrong drop point checks.
Use the smallest diagnostic loop
The faster path is usually observe, isolate, fix one tile range, then reconnect.
Start with the last moving pixel before the problem.
Check whether input, machine body, output or byproduct path is responsible.
Open a mechanic page only after you know which system is causing the symptom.
Use the troubleshooting helper when the visible symptom is clear but the page choice is not.
Why this works
Visible symptoms usually point to the right inspection page faster than a full rebuild does. Narrow the path first, then change only the part of the factory that proves wrong.
How to pick the next inspection
Follow the symptom to the shortest failing path, then open the specific machine, mechanic, or troubleshooting route that matches that failure.
Featured Questions
How do you troubleshoot a Sandustry factory?
Start from the visible symptom, then inspect the smallest material path that can cause it: input, machine body, output, Water, or transport.
What should you check first when Sandustry stops working?
Check the last place where the expected material was still moving correctly. That gives you a smaller and more reliable first check than rebuilding the whole line.
Source note: Use the linked source for the underlying reference. Early Access details can change.
Official source