Count on the automatic save, not on the stop. A Sons of the Forest server on PlayNHost saves the island by itself every 600 seconds (10 minutes). In PlayNHost's own tests, a Stop or Restart from the panel ended the game without a final save, so the island on disk was the last automatic save. Wait 10 minutes after the last change in the game before you stop or restart, and nothing is lost.
Why a stop may not save
Endnight's notes for Patch 08 (July 2023) say dedicated servers "will now immediately save before shutdown to avoid data loss". Endnight's dedicated server is a Windows program, and on PlayNHost it runs on Linux through a compatibility layer. When you click Stop or Restart, the panel asks the server to shut down and ends it after about 10 seconds if it is still running. In PlayNHost's tests the game did not write that final save in time, and its log ended at the last automatic save. Until that changes, plan as if a stop does not save.
Kill never saves.
How often does the server save?
Every SaveInterval seconds. Endnight's dedicated server guide describes the setting as "how often the game server automatically saves the game to SaveSlot, in seconds". The dedicatedserver.cfg your server was installed with sets 600, which is 10 minutes. Each automatic save writes the island of the current Save Slot.
To save more often, lower SaveInterval in serverconfig/dedicatedserver.cfg with the server stopped, for example to 300 for every 5 minutes: How to set up your Sons of the Forest server.
How do I restart without losing progress?
- Tell players a restart is coming and ask them to stop building, crafting or fighting.
- Wait 10 minutes (one full
SaveInterval). The server has then saved at least once since the last change. - Click Restart or Stop on the Overview page.
Scheduled restarts work the same way, so put them at an hour when nobody plays: How to restart your Sons of the Forest server on a schedule.
Where are the saves?
In Files, under serverconfig/Saves/DedicatedServer/Multiplayer. Each save slot the server has used has its own folder there. Beside the slot folders, the game keeps its own backup archives, .zip files named with the slot and the time.
These game archives are not PlayNHost backups. For a copy you can restore with one click, use Backups: How to back up and restore your Sons of the Forest world.
