Unreal Insights - Missing Networking Insights Tab

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1

Hello team. I am running into an issue where I’m not able to capture Insights Networking traces after upgrading to UE5.6. I did not run into this issue before. I’m also able to open and view old networking insights I captured before the upgrade. Any help with this is appreciated

Here are the steps I use

  • Launch game server with arguments: -trace=net,cpu,frame -NetTrace=1 -statnamedevents
  • From a connected game client, issue commands “ServerExec Trace.File default,net” and “ServerExec Trace.Stop” to start and stop recording performance data
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2

Hi Ahmed,

Can you please give some more details about the behavior you are observing?

  • Is the .utrace file being generated at all? Does it seem smaller than it should be? Can you open it in Insights and it shows everything as expected with the exception of the “Networking Insights” tab?
  • Please use -NetTrace=4 when launching the server. From the client, also issue command “ServerExec Trace.Status” before and after command “Trace.File”. After stopping, please attach the server logs here.

Also, please try enabling trace on server launch (without requiring the Trace.File command) by adding the commandline argument “-tracefile=MyTrace.utrace”, let’s see if that makes any difference.

Best regards,

Vitor

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3

Ok, escalating now, and I’ll also try to keep an eye on any further developments here. Hope you can get to the bottom of this!

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4

Hi,

Support for capturing partial net traces was actually added in 5.6 (CL 39710956 in Main), but it’s possible this workflow was working prior to 5.6 due to the server being started with “-NetTrace=1”.

After speaking with one of the devs more familiar with the changes made to support partial net traces, it does seem like your setup should be working in 5.6. To get a better idea of the problem, I have a couple questions.

First, just to double check, do you have any local engine modifications, and have you integrated any future changes?

Next, have you run your utrace through the TraceAnalyzer? This should provide a clearer picture of what events are/aren’t present in the trace, as well as if there are any issues with sync events.

If you could provide both the utrace and the output from TraceAnalyzer, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Alex

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5

Hey Alex,

We don’t have any custom changes that should interfere with Unreal Insights. I have not looked into the TraceAnalyzer CLI tool, but I’ll investigate and get you the information requested. Is there a confidential channel we can use for sharing this one?

Edit: We’re at 5.6.1 - CL44394996

Thanks,

Ahmed

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6

Some extra questions:

  • Are you running insights standalone or from within the Editor?
  • On the “Session” tab, under “Analysis Modules”, is “NetProfiler” present?
  • On the Menu, is the “Networking Insights” item enabled or disabled?
  • If open an old .utrace file that contains network profiling information, the “Networking Insights” tab should open for it. If you then drag your newer .utrace file into the Insights window to open it, does the “Networking Insights” tab display the expected information?
  • While running a trace, is UnrealTraceServer running in your server? In Windows Explorer it appears for me like the image below: [Image Removed]

Best,

Vitor

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7

By the way, I looked around for other people experiencing the same issue, and here are some things that were reported by some to fix the issue:

  • Rebuilding the UnrealInsights program: open UE5.sln generated from the source distribution of the engine, and rebuild Programs/UnrealInsights, then try with the newly generated executable
  • Deinstalling UE versions prior to 5.6

If you try these approaches, please let us know if they work, as this might help other people that come across this ticket and might help the devs understand what could be the root cause of the problem.

Best,

Vitor

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8

Hi Vitor, just got back from holiday break. Adding more information/answers below. I’m running a client build connected to a Linux dedicated server (on the cloud)

  • Is the .utrace file being generated at all? Does it seem smaller than it should be? Can you open it in Insights and it shows everything as expected with the exception of the “Networking Insights” tab?
    • Yes, I’m able to get a .utrace file. The file size is smaller than a comparable capture with working network insights. Everything else works as expected
  • Please use -NetTrace=4 when launching the server. From the client, also issue command “ServerExec Trace.Status” before and after command “Trace.File”. After stopping, please attach the server logs here.
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Trace status ----------------------------------------------------------
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Connection: Not tracing
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Memory Used: 5.75 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Block Pool: 0.50 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Fixed Buffers: 4.00 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Shared Buffers: 0.00 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Important Events Cache: 1.25 MiB (1.21 MiB used + 0.05 MiB unused | 0.02 MiB waste)
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Emitted: 22.14 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Traced: 25.60 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Emitted - Traced: -3.46 MiB (-3626406 bytes)
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:127][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Sent: 0.00 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:128][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Enabled channels: Net, Gpu, Screenshot, Region, Bookmark, Frame, Cpu, Log
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:128][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Available channels: Messaging, Bbx, StateTreeDebug, Niagara, PoseSearch, NetworkPrediction, Object, 
    ObjectPro, VSM, , AudioMixer, Audio, ChaosVD, ChaosLocks, RenderCommands, RDG, RHICommands, 
    Slate, SaveTime, ThreadIdleScope, AssetLoadTime, LoadTime, File, StackSampling, ContextSwitch, 
    Module, Metadata, MemAlloc, IoStore, Counters, Callstack, AssetMetadata, MemTag, Task
[2026.01.13-17.31.18:128][181]LogConsoleResponse: Display: -----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2026.01.13-17.31.35:819][711]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Requested channels: 'default,net'
[2026.01.13-17.31.35:820][711]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Trace started (writing to file "C:/Profiling/20260113_093135.utrace").
[2026.01.13-17.31.35:821][711]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Enabled channels: Net,Gpu,Screenshot,Region,Bookmark,Frame,Cpu,Log,
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:430][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Trace status ----------------------------------------------------------
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:430][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Connection: Tracing to 'C:/Profiling/20260113_093135.utrace', session 9AAA7709DB9240DF8000000000006000 trace 439D53F9314A5134A0E3E79EC2B743DB
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Memory Used: 6.32 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Block Pool: 0.50 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Fixed Buffers: 4.00 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Shared Buffers: 0.00 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Important Events Cache: 1.81 MiB (1.78 MiB used + 0.03 MiB unused | 0.02 MiB waste)
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Emitted: 41.99 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Traced: 47.04 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Emitted - Traced: -5.05 MiB (-5296403 bytes)
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Sent: 14.19 MiB
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Enabled channels: Net, Gpu, Screenshot, Region, Bookmark, Frame, Cpu, Log
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Available channels: Messaging, Bbx, StateTreeDebug, Niagara, PoseSearch, NetworkPrediction, Object, 
    ObjectPro, VSM, , AudioMixer, Audio, ChaosVD, ChaosLocks, RenderCommands, RDG, RHICommands, 
    Slate, SaveTime, ThreadIdleScope, AssetLoadTime, LoadTime, File, StackSampling, ContextSwitch, 
    Module, Metadata, MemAlloc, IoStore, Counters, Callstack, AssetMetadata, MemTag, Task
[2026.01.13-17.32.06:431][552]LogConsoleResponse: Display: -----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2026.01.13-17.32.20:609][976]LogConsoleResponse: Display: Tracing stopped.

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9

Adding more answers/information to your questions above

  • Are you running insights standalone or from within the Editor?
    • I’m running a packaged client build, connected to dedicated Linux server hosted on the cloud. Did not have any issues acquiring captures before with this setup
  • On the “Session” tab, under “Analysis Modules”, is “NetProfiler” present?
    • Yes, I can see the “NetProfiler” module available under the “Analysis Modules” section (including ones missing the networking insights tab)
  • On the Menu, is the “Networking Insights” item enabled or disabled?
    • It’s disabled for traces missing the “Networking Insights” tab. For ones that don’t exhibit this issue, it’s enabled
  • If open an old .utrace file that contains network profiling information, the “Networking Insights” tab should open for it. If you then drag your newer .utrace file into the Insights window to open it, does the “Networking Insights” tab display the expected information?
    • No, it’s still missing networking insights information (the tab shows up, but no profiling data is available)
  • While running a trace, is UnrealTraceServer running in your server?
    • Yes, I can see it on my Windows machine when testing a local packaged client/server builds
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10

Sharing a couple more tests I tried:

  • Removed all instances of UnrealInsights.exe on my machine, rebuilt it from source and still no luck (using Trace.File and Trace.Stop for capture)
  • Launching a server with arguments “-trace=default,net -NetTrace=4 -tracefile=ServerTrace.utrace” works. I can see networking insights in the generated server trace file
    • It seems the issue is with traces captured using ServerExec Trace.File and Trace.Stop commands
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11

Hi Ahmed, hope you had a great holiday break!

Also, I’m glad that enabling trace on server launch worked, so that you are not completely blocked by this.

I noticed that UE-198342 can be related to the problem you are experiencing. Can you please check if CL 42537230 (ue5-main branch: 42540754), or GitHub commit deddaa1, is integrated into your engine?

If the fix above is already integrated: I believe you can check if the generated utrace file contains NetTrace information by simply opening it in a text editor (despite it being binary), or in a hex editor, and searching for a literal string “NetTraceInitEvent” anywhere. This can help us determine with more certainty whether the problem is in the trace reporting or analyzing.

Best regards,

Vitor

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12

Thanks Vitor. I tested after integrating that CL, and it did not fix the issue for captures using the `Trace.File` and `Trace.Stop` route. I Looked into the trace file using my Hex editor, I could not find any instance of “NetTraceInitEvent”

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13

Ok, so at least we know it is a problem with the reporter, not the analyzer. It’s a long shot, but can you try to send these commands to the server before Trace.File? Both of them in order, to try to make sure that the switching of the trace verbosity from zero to nonzero gets acknowledged.

NetTrace.SetTraceVerbosity 0
NetTrace.SetTraceVerbosity 4

If this still does not work for the Trace.File and Trace.Stop route, I’m afraid I might not be able to help you further. But if you want to keep investigating, I can try to bring an engine dev in here to talk to you directly. Just let me know!

Best,

Vitor

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14

Hey Vitor, I gave that a try and did not see any acknowledgement/log messages in response to issuing those commands. It would be great if we can escalate this please. Thanks

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15

Hi,

Thank you for that info!

As for sharing those files, this question can be converted to private, so only Epic and members of your organization can view it.

If that isn’t preferable, I could create a Box file share folder and invite you as a collaborator.

Thanks,

Alex

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16

Hey Alex, a Box share folder sounds like a good idea, can do that

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17

Hi,

Sounds good, I’ve created that folder and invited you!

Thanks,

Alex

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18

Thanks Alex, uploaded both a trace file and the output from TraceAnalyzer

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19

Hi,

Thank you! Just confirming that we’ve received those, and I’ve looped in one of the developers familiar with this area to take a look as well.

Thanks,

Alex

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20

Hi,

When opening the trace file in more recent versions of Unreal Insights (i.e. 5.7), we were able to see the Networking Insights tab as expected.

Vitor mentioned this previously, but the dev agreed that it does seem as though you’re running into issue UE-19834, which was fixed in 5.7.

You can fix this locally by changing the following line to return true in FNetTraceAnalyzer::OnEvent and then rebuilding Unreal Insights, at which point you should be able to view the networking insights trace as expected:

// check that we always get the InitEvent before processing any other events
if (!ensure(RouteId == RouteId_InitEvent || NetTraceVersion > 0))
{
    // This should be changed to return true
    return false;
}

I just tried this in my own local 5.6 workspace, and I was able to rebuild Unreal Insights and view the net trace in the utrace file provided. Please let me know if you run into any issues with this.

Thanks,

Alex

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