So you've been playing Windrose solo and you've built up a world you're proud of. Maybe you've got a solid base, decent gear, and you don't want to start fresh just because you're moving to a dedicated server. Good news – you can upload your singleplayer save. It takes a few minutes and some care with file paths, but it's straightforward.
Where Windrose Saves Live on Your PC
Windrose stores all its save data in your local AppData folder:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\R5\Saved\SaveProfiles\<YourSteamID>\RocksDB\<version>\Worlds\<world-id>\
To get there, press Win + R, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\R5\Saved\SaveProfiles and hit Enter. You'll see a folder named after your Steam ID – open that, then navigate down through RocksDB > <version> > Worlds to find your world folders.
The <version> folder corresponds to the game version when the world was created (e.g. 0.10.0), and <world-id> is a unique identifier for that specific world. You might have multiple world folders if you've started several playthroughs. Sort by date modified and pick the most recent one.
Take note of the <world-id> value. You'll need it later.
Before You Do Anything
Two things. Both important.
Stop your server first. Go to control.low.ms, find your Windrose service, and stop it. Uploading files to a running server is asking for corrupted saves. The server writes to these files actively – if you overwrite them mid-write, you'll end up with garbage data.
Back up the server's existing save. Even if the server is fresh and there's nothing worth keeping, build the habit. In the LOW.MS Control Panel, go to Cloud Backup in the sidebar and create a backup. Takes seconds, saves headaches.
Uploading via File Manager
The panel's built-in File Manager works fine for this. Here's the process:
- Log into control.low.ms and select your Windrose server
- Click File Manager in the sidebar
- Navigate to
R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB/<version>/Worlds/ - If there's already a world folder here from the server's first boot, you can either replace its contents or delete it and upload yours
- Upload your entire
<world-id>folder from your local machine
The File Manager handles folder uploads, but if your save is large – and Windrose saves can grow substantially once you've built a lot – SFTP might be faster.
Uploading via SFTP
SFTP is available on port 8822. You'll need an SFTP client like WinSCP or FileZilla. Your connection details are in Service Settings on the panel.
Connect with these settings:
- Protocol: SFTP
- Host: your server's address (shown in Service Settings)
- Port: 8822
- Username/Password: same as your panel credentials for this service
Once connected, navigate to the same path on the server side:
R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB/<version>/Worlds/
Drag your local world folder across. SFTP handles large transfers more reliably than the browser-based File Manager, and you get a proper progress bar.
Updating ServerDescription.json
This is the step people forget, and then they wonder why the server loads a blank world.
You need to tell the server which world to load. Open ServerDescription.json – it lives in the R5/ directory at the root of your server files. You can edit it through Configuration Files in the panel sidebar or directly through File Manager.
Find the WorldIslandId field and set it to match the <world-id> from the folder you uploaded. If these don't match, the server will either create a new empty world or fail to load properly.
{
"WorldIslandId": "your-world-id-here"
}
Save the file.
Starting Up
Start your server back up from the panel. Give it a couple of minutes for the first load with your imported save – it'll be slower than a normal boot since the server needs to index the world data.
Check Web Console to watch the startup logs. Once you see the server fully loaded, grab your invite code from the panel and connect.\n\nOne thing to watch for: when you launch the game client after doing a save transfer, Windrose might ask whether to use your Local or Cloud save. Pick Local. If you pick Cloud, it could overwrite your transferred world with an older cloud backup. Your world should be there – structures, progress, all of it.
A Few Things to Know
The RocksDB format Windrose uses isn't something you can casually browse or edit with a text editor. It's a binary database format. You're essentially moving opaque data files between locations, which is fine for transferring worlds but means you can't cherry-pick specific structures or items from a save.
Version mismatches can cause problems. If your local game updated but the server hasn't, or vice versa, the save format might not be compatible. Keep both on the same version – use Steam Update in the panel to update the server.
If something goes wrong after uploading, that's what your backup is for. Go to Cloud Restore, pick the backup you made earlier, and you're back to where you started. For more details on server configuration, check the configuration guide.