Since Arma Reforger 1.8, servers have been filling their logs with repeating thermal profile errors, at a rate of thousands of lines per second, which pushes console.log and error.log past tens of thousands of lines in a single session and puts real pressure on your disk. It is not only a server-side problem either: the same spam runs silently on connected clients, where it costs them performance rather than showing them errors. There is now a working fix: a small Workshop mod called Thermal Profile Fix. It only works from one specific place in your mod load order, directly before your scenario mod, and the advice circulating about where to put it is only partly right. This guide covers what the spam looks like, the load order rule that actually matters, how to apply it in LoafHub, and how to confirm it worked.
What Thermal Profile Spam Looks Like
The symptom is volume rather than a crash. Your server keeps running, but it writes the same thermal profile error over and over into the logs in the profile folder. The block repeating in console.log and error.log looks like this:
19:49:01.586 RESOURCES : GetResourceObject @"{CC547D988287BF7C}system/thermal/thermalProfileDefault.conf"
19:49:01.586 RESOURCES (E): Failed to open
19:49:01.586 RESOURCES (E): 'system/thermal/thermalProfileDefault.conf' is not a valid thermal profile!
19:49:01.586 RESOURCES : GetResourceObject @"{E3FB46335C508E68}system/thermal/thermalProfileTreeCrownDefault.conf"
19:49:01.586 RESOURCES (E): Failed to open
19:49:01.586 RESOURCES (E): 'system/thermal/thermalProfileTreeCrownDefault.conf' is not a valid thermal profile!
19:49:01.587 RESOURCES : GetResourceObject @"{CC547D988287BF7C}system/thermal/thermalProfileDefault.conf"
19:49:01.587 RESOURCES (E): Failed to open
19:49:01.587 RESOURCES (E): 'system/thermal/thermalProfileDefault.conf' is not a valid thermal profile!
Two separate files are affected, each with its own resource ID: thermalProfileDefault.conf and thermalProfileTreeCrownDefault.conf. The engine asks for one, fails to open it, rejects it as invalid, and immediately asks again, alternating between the two.
Now look at the timestamps. Every line above falls inside two milliseconds, and a real capture shows around twenty entries within the single millisecond 19:49:01.586. This is not a message every few seconds. It is thousands of lines per second, sustained for as long as the server is up.
The give-away is the shape of the log set after a normal session: console.log and error.log both enormous, while script.log stays small.
On the server we tested, a single session left console.log and error.log at roughly 28,000 lines each while script.log sat at around 20 lines. That ratio is the tell. A healthy Reforger server does not produce two near-identical logs of that size from one run.
Three reasons this is worth fixing rather than ignoring:
- It eats disk, and this is the dangerous one. The writing never stops, so the logs grow for as long as the server is up, with no upper bound. They routinely get large enough that the file manager refuses to open them in the editor and offers a download instead. A server that fills its disk cannot write, and that puts your saves and the server itself at risk.
- Real errors get buried. When a genuine mod or scenario fault appears, you will not find it in 28,000 lines of noise.
- It quietly costs your players performance. Clients do not see the spam. It runs silently on their machine, so what they notice is the frame rate getting worse with nothing on screen to explain it, which is why this often gets reported as lag or a hardware problem rather than a mod problem.
Warning: We recommend applying this fix as soon as possible. At thousands of log lines per second the growth is unattended and has no ceiling, so an affected server left running is steadily working its way toward a full disk.
Tip: If you are not sure where these files live, the logs sit in the profile folder under a timestamped session folder, one per restart.
The Fix Mod
The fix is a Workshop mod called Thermal Profile Fix, mod ID 6A2D225741ADFDB4, by streetone. It is version 1.0.1, published on 22 August 2026, built against game version 1.8.0.10, and it is tiny at under 2 KB.
What it does is straightforward. It restores the base game thermal profile values into the default files. Those values had been removed at some point, and their absence is what the engine keeps complaining about. The mod simply puts them back, which is why it is so small.
What is not straightforward is the load order sensitivity. streetone found that behaviour by accident while testing something else, and has been open about not being able to explain why the position matters so much. So the contents of the mod are understood; where it has to sit is empirical.
The Load Order Rule That Actually Matters
The rule in one line: Thermal Profile Fix has to load directly before your scenario mod.
Your scenario is normally the last entry in the list, on the assumption that the config it loads is the last thing the server needs. That is why the fix ends up second-to-last, and it is where the widely repeated “make it second-to-last” advice comes from. Treat the scenario adjacency as the rule and the second-to-last position as the result of it, not the other way round. Counting to second-to-last without checking what sits either side of it is why people report the fix doing nothing.
What that looks like depends on whether your map is modded.
Modded map with its own scenario mod
- Modded map
- Thermal Profile Fix
- Modded map scenario
Here is the arrangement that tested clean, shown as the last three entries of the mods array in config.json:
{
"modId": "653CB36244ADBE0F",
"name": "Ruha",
"version": "1.0.5"
},
{
"modId": "6A2D225741ADFDB4",
"name": "Thermal Profile Fix",
"version": "1.0.1"
},
{
"modId": "69714ED364116F59",
"name": "RBR Ruha",
"version": "1.0.18"
}
Map first, fix second, map scenario third, with nothing in between.
Vanilla map with a modded scenario
- Thermal Profile Fix
- Modded scenario
If the map is vanilla there is no map mod to sit above the fix, so it goes directly before the scenario and nothing else changes. The rule is the same one: nothing comes between the fix and the scenario it precedes.
In both cases the number of mods sitting above all this is irrelevant. What matters is that the fix lands immediately before the scenario, which in a normal list is the second-to-last slot.
The mod author is not aware of this. His published note describes the generic pattern he saw, any mod, then the fix, then any mod, which is a reasonable read of the same arrangement if you are not specifically running a modded map with a separate scenario mod. He is also upfront that he cannot explain why the position matters, so treat his positioning note as an observation rather than a specification.
Note: Reforger loads mods in the order they appear in config.json, so position is meaningful. It is the same ordering that decides which mod wins when two of them touch the same content.
Installing the Fix in LoafHub
There is one behaviour to know before you start: installing a mod appends it to the bottom of your list and deliberately does not reorder anything else. Since your scenario mod is normally already at the bottom, the fix will land below it, which is the one place it does not work. Moving it up is a required second step, not an optional tidy-up.
- Open the Mod Manager on your server in LoafHub.
- Search for Thermal Profile Fix, or add it directly by mod ID using 6A2D225741ADFDB4.
- Install it. It will appear at the bottom of your installed list, below your scenario mod.
- Go to the Installed tab and move it up so it sits directly after your modded map and directly before that map’s scenario mod. Drag the row, or double-click its position number and type the position you want.
- Restart the server to apply the new mod list.
Tip: On a long mod list, double-clicking the position number and typing the number is far quicker and more accurate than dragging a row up the page.
Reforger applies a changed mod list on restart rather than live, and it only downloads mods that are new or changed, so this loop is usually fast.
Editing config.json by Hand
If you would rather edit the file directly, the list lives in the mods array inside the game object in config.json. The order of the objects in that array is the load order, so applying the fix means moving its object so it sits immediately after your map mod’s object and immediately before your scenario mod’s object, as in the example above.
Warning: config.json is strict JSON. A trailing comma or a missing brace will stop the server booting, and the failure looks unrelated to what you edited. Take a backup before editing by hand.
Confirming It Worked
Do not judge this by eye. Compare the logs.
- Note the current size or line count of console.log and error.log.
- Restart the server with the fix in position.
- Let it run for several minutes with players connected if possible.
- Open the new session folder and check console.log and error.log again.
After the fix is correctly positioned, the repeating thermal profile entries stop appearing and the two large logs stay at a normal size for the session length. Your players should get their lost performance back at the same time, though since the spam was never visible to them there is nothing for them to see either way. If console.log is still growing rapidly, the fix is almost certainly in the wrong slot rather than not working, so recheck its position first.
What Can Undo the Fix
Leaving it where it installed. This is the most common failure by a distance. The Mod Manager appends new mods to the bottom, which puts the fix below your scenario mod. In that position it does nothing, and the server looks exactly like it did before. If the spam did not stop, check this before anything else.
Anything that separates the fix from the map and scenario. The three have to stay adjacent and in order. Reordering the list, removing and re-adding the fix, or moving the map or scenario will all break the arrangement.
Swapping your map or scenario mod. The fix is positioned relative to those two specific mods, not to a fixed slot number. If you change either one, re-position the fix between the new pair.
Adding other mods. Mods added elsewhere in the list, above the map or below the scenario, do not split the run of three. Recheck console.log after any mod list change anyway rather than assuming the fix held, because the ordering behaviour here is empirical and not documented by the engine.
Accepting a load order change without reading it. The Fix load order tool in the Mod Manager is the only thing that automatically reorders a list, it runs only when you click it and accept the plan, and it shows you the plan before applying. It only moves mods that a dependency relationship forces to move, and Thermal Profile Fix has no dependencies and nothing depends on it, so it should be left alone. Read the plan before accepting it anyway.
If you want this handled on hardware that is already set up for modded Reforger, our Arma Reforger server hosting includes the Mod Manager, load order tooling and the crash dump reader referenced above.
Credits
Credit to Rubber Band Rangers for the hard testing that pinned down the exact working load order, and thanks to streetone for creating Thermal Profile Fix.
Frequently Asked Questions
What causes thermal profile spam in Arma Reforger?
It appeared with Arma Reforger 1.8. The server repeatedly writes a thermal profile error into console.log and error.log, and the same spam is sent to connected clients. It does not crash the server, but it makes the logs unusable and consumes disk.
What does “is not a valid thermal profile” mean in my Reforger logs?
It means the engine asked for a thermal profile file, could not open it, and rejected it as invalid. Two files are involved, system/thermal/thermalProfileDefault.conf and system/thermal/thermalProfileTreeCrownDefault.conf. Since 1.8 the base game values those files need have been missing, so every attempt fails and the engine immediately retries. It is the exact error the Thermal Profile Fix mod resolves.
Can thermal profile spam fill up my server disk?
Yes, and that is the main reason to treat this as urgent rather than cosmetic. The log timestamps show thousands of lines per second, sustained for the whole time the server is up, with no ceiling. The files routinely grow too large to open in a text editor. A server that runs out of disk cannot write, which puts saves and stability at risk.
Which mod fixes Arma Reforger thermal profile spam?
A Workshop mod called Thermal Profile Fix, mod ID 6A2D225741ADFDB4, created by streetone. It is version 1.0.1, built for game version 1.8.0.10, and is under 2 KB. It works by restoring base game thermal profile values that had been removed from the default files.
Where exactly does the Thermal Profile Fix mod go in the load order?
Directly before your scenario mod, with nothing in between. On a modded map that reads map, then Thermal Profile Fix, then the map’s scenario. It is commonly described as needing to be second-to-last, which is what that arrangement usually looks like because the scenario normally sits at the bottom, but the position number is not the requirement. The adjacency to the scenario is.
What if I am running a vanilla map with a modded scenario?
Put the fix directly before the modded scenario. There is no map mod to sit above it, so the pair is simply Thermal Profile Fix then your scenario. The rule does not change: nothing goes between the fix and the scenario.
Does the fix work if it is the last mod in the list?
No. If it sits below your scenario mod, which is exactly where the Mod Manager puts it when you install it, it does nothing and the spam continues. It has to load before the scenario.
Does thermal profile spam affect players or only the server?
Both, but they show up completely differently. On the server it is visible, filling console.log and error.log. On clients it is silent: players see no errors at all, and the only symptom is their performance degrading while the spam runs in the background. That invisibility is why it usually gets reported as lag or a hardware issue instead of a mod issue. Correctly positioning the fix resolves both.
Do players need to download the fix mod manually?
No. Reforger sends the server’s mod list to connecting players automatically, so anyone joining downloads it as part of the normal join process.
Will adding another mod break the fix?
Only if it separates the fix from your map and scenario mods or changes their order. Mods added above the map or below the scenario leave the run of three intact. Since new mods append to the bottom, the thing to watch is that you have not pushed the scenario mod out of last place or dropped something between the map, the fix and the scenario. Recheck console.log after any mod list change.
Does the Fix load order tool move the thermal profile fix?
It should not. That tool only reorders mods that a dependency relationship forces to move, and Thermal Profile Fix has no dependencies and nothing depends on it. It also shows you a plan before applying anything, so review the plan before accepting.
Why does the fix work at all?
The mod restores the base game thermal profile values into the default files. Those values had been removed, and the engine spams because they are missing, so putting them back stops it. What is still unexplained is the load order sensitivity. The author found that by accident and cannot account for it, and the narrower rule about sitting directly before the scenario came out of our own repeat testing rather than from the mod page. The contents are understood; the positioning is empirical but reproduces reliably.