How to back up and restore your Terraria world

Your Terraria world is the thing you cannot get back if it is lost, so back it up before you change settings, install mods or update.

Before you start: stop the server so the backup holds complete files. See How to start, stop, restart and force-stop your server.

Where the world is stored

Inside Files, in the saves folder, then Worlds. The world is a file named after your World Name with .wld on the end (with the default name it is saves/Worlds/world.wld). Settings live in serverconfig.txt in the main server folder. This is for the standard Terraria server type; on the TShock type the world file is your World Name with .wld on the end, in the main server folder instead.

Make a backup

1. Open your server in the panel and click Backups in the left menu.
2. Click Start backup with Files selected. The backup copies the whole server folder, so the world is included.
3. To keep a copy outside PlayNHost, open the ... menu of the backup and choose Download.

The server folder also holds the game's own files, which can be large, so check the size on the Backups page. If it does not fit your backup space, ask support what to leave out. Do not guess an ignore pattern, because a wrong one can leave your world out of the backup. See How to create, download and restore backups for scheduling, locking and limits.

What to make sure is included

Before you start a backup, type save in the Console tab or stop the server, so the world file is complete. The panel backup covers the whole server folder, which already includes saves/Worlds and serverconfig.txt. Files ending in .bak are the game's own older copies and are not needed for a normal restore.

Restore a backup

A restore replaces the current files with the backup, and anything changed since is lost. Take a fresh backup of the current state first if you may want it back.

Choose Restore to server from the backup's ... menu, confirm, and start the server when it finishes.

To bring a world from another computer instead, see How to upload your own Terraria world.