So you've been running a Prospect in ICARUS — maybe an Open World you've slowly kitted out with workshops and outposts, or a mission you're partway through — and you want to continue it on a dedicated server with friends. You can move a Prospect across in a few minutes. It's mostly a matter of finding the right .json file, putting it in the right folder on the server, and pointing ServerSettings.ini at it.
Where ICARUS Saves Live on Your PC
ICARUS stores Prospects in your Local AppData folder, organised by Steam ID:
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\Icarus\Saved\PlayerData\<YourSteamID>\Prospects\
To get there quickly, press Win + R, type %LocalAppData%\Icarus\Saved\PlayerData and hit Enter. Open the folder named after your SteamID64 (if you have more than one, it's the one with recent activity), then open Prospects.
Each Prospect is a single file — <ProspectName>.json. Open Worlds and Outposts keep the name you gave them; mission Prospects use a code like Olympus_J1.json. You may also see .json.bak rolling backups alongside them. Don't rename these files and don't hand-edit them — the server will refuse to load a tampered save, and in some cases the file becomes unrecoverable.
Before You Do Anything
Stop your server first. Head to control.low.ms, find your ICARUS service, and stop it. Uploading a Prospect while the server is writing to disk is the quickest way to corrupt it.
Back up whatever the server currently has. In the LOW.MS Control Panel, go to Cloud Backup in the sidebar and create a backup. If the new Prospect doesn't behave, you can Cloud Restore to exactly where you are now.
It's also worth noting the ICARUS version you've been playing on locally. Prospects save the game version they were created under, and loading a save made on a much newer build than the server can trip up the dedicated server on start. If you've been on the current Steam public branch, you're fine — just make sure your server is up to date via Steam Update in the sidebar before you upload.
Uploading via File Manager
For a single Prospect file, the panel's File Manager is the fastest path:
- Log into control.low.ms and select your ICARUS server.
- Click File Manager in the sidebar.
- Navigate to
Icarus/Saved/PlayerData/DedicatedServer/Prospects/(if theProspectsfolder doesn't exist yet, create it). - Upload your
<ProspectName>.jsonstraight into that folder. - Overwrite if prompted — and keep the original filename exactly as it was on your PC.
Uploading via SFTP
If you're moving several Prospects, or the .json is large because the world has been played for a while, SFTP is more reliable than a browser upload.
SFTP on LOW.MS runs on port 8822. WinSCP or FileZilla both work. Connection details are under Service Settings for the server.
- Protocol: SFTP
- Host: as shown in Service Settings
- Port: 8822
- Username / Password: the panel credentials for this service
Connect, navigate to Icarus/Saved/PlayerData/DedicatedServer/Prospects/, and drop the .json in. Filename stays exactly as it was.
Pointing the Server at Your World
ICARUS doesn't auto-pick a Prospect — you have to name it in the server config.
In File Manager, open Icarus/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/ServerSettings.ini and set:
LoadProspect=<ProspectName>(the filename without the.jsonextension)ResumeProspect=True
Save the file. CreateProspect should be left blank when you're loading an existing save — if both CreateProspect and LoadProspect are set, the server can get confused about which one wins.
Starting Up
Start the server from the panel. Open Web Console and watch the startup logs — you want to see ICARUS report that it's loaded the named Prospect, not that it's generating a fresh one. Connect from the ICARUS client via Join Dedicated Server and you should land back where you left off.
A Few Things to Know
Prospects are plain JSON but they're not meant to be edited by hand. Whitespace changes, renames and merged saves all tend to break them.
The .json.bak rolling backup is your friend. If a save goes sideways, stop the server, rename the .bak over the top of the live file, and start again.
Version mismatches between local and server are the most common reason a Prospect "won't load". Run Steam Update on the server before uploading an actively-played save.
And if none of it behaves the way you expected, Cloud Restore from the backup you took at the start puts the server back exactly where it was.