How to Fix a The Forest Server That Lost Its World

The most common The Forest problem is a world that resets. It is almost always a config setting rather than a fault, and it is fixable if you catch it before too many restarts.

The cause: initType left on New

In _TheForestDedicatedServer.cfg:

initType New
slot 1

New means "generate a fresh world in this slot" and it does that every single start. It is intended as a one time action. Set it back after the first start:

initType Continue

Stop the server, make the change, start it. From then on the server loads the existing world.

The other cause: the slot changed

slot takes 1 to 5 and each is a separate world. If the slot number changed, the server is loading a different, empty world and your original is still on disk untouched. Set the slot back to the one you were using.

Check what is actually on disk

In the panel open Files and look in the server's save folder. Each slot has its own directory. Comparing the folder sizes and modified dates tells you which slot holds your real world.

Recovering after the world was overwritten

If a slot has already been regenerated, the previous world in that slot is gone. Check:

• Any other slot, in case the server had been running on a different one.
• Your own downloaded backups.
• The Backups section in the panel, if you have taken a backup of the server.

Back up properly from now on

1. Stop the server so the world is written out fully.
2. In Files, download the save folder for your slot.

Do this before changing difficulty, before a game update, and before any experiment with initType. A downloaded copy is the only backup that survives a mistake on the server.

Other things that look like data loss

• Buildings gone, world intact. Check allowBuildingDestruction and whether a cannibal raid happened while nobody was online.
• Everything reset after an update. A save from an older game version usually still loads. Confirm the slot and initType before assuming the update did it.
• Players lost their inventories. Player data is tied to the save. If the world reverted to an older state, an autosave was the last thing written before an unclean stop. Use save in the console before stopping the server.