How to back up and restore your Valheim world

Your Valheim 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, under .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/. Since version 1.0 each world is a folder named after the World Name (for example worlds_local/Dedicated/) holding the save files; the server writes a new numbered save each time it saves, so several appear. The permission files adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt live in .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/.

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

Stop the server and wait until it shows Offline so the last save is complete, then create a backup in the panel. The panel backup covers the whole server, which includes the world folder and the permission files adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt. Because the game files are in the same volume, a full backup is large (roughly 2 GB) and can take several minutes, so make sure it fits your backup storage.

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 Valheim world.