So you've been playing Valheim solo or with friends and you've built a settlement you're proud of. Maybe you've tamed a few boars, cleared a boss or two, and you don't want to leave it behind when you move to a dedicated server. Good news – you can upload your world. It takes a few minutes and some care with file paths, but it's straightforward.
Where Valheim Saves Live on Your PC
Valheim stores world saves in LocalLow:
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local
To get there, press Win + R, type %APPDATA% and hit Enter. You land in Roaming – go up one level to AppData, then into LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local.
Each world is a set of files with a shared name: <WorldName>.db, <WorldName>.fwl, and usually <WorldName>.db.old and <WorldName>.fwl.old as rolling backups. The .db is the world data and the .fwl is the header – you need both at minimum. Sort by date modified to find the world you want to upload.
Take note of the world name. You'll need it later when telling the server which world to load.
Before You Do Anything
Two things. Both important.
Stop your server first. Go to control.low.ms, find your Valheim service, and stop it. Uploading a world while the server is writing to it is the fastest way to corrupt a save.
Back up the server's existing world. Even if the server is fresh, 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:
- Log into control.low.ms and select your Valheim server
- Click File Manager in the sidebar
- Navigate to the server's
worlds_local/folder - Upload
<WorldName>.dband<WorldName>.fwl– and the.oldpair too if you want the extra safety net - If files with the same name already exist on the server, overwrite them
Uploading via SFTP
SFTP is on port 8822. You'll need a client like WinSCP or FileZilla. Your connection details are in Service Settings on the panel.
- 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 worlds_local/ on the server side and drag your world files across. SFTP handles large transfers more reliably than the browser File Manager, and you get a proper progress bar.
Pointing the Server at Your World
The Valheim dedicated server picks which world to load from its startup command – specifically the -world <WorldName> argument. That name needs to match the files you just uploaded, or the server will quietly start a fresh world with whatever name the command specifies and leave your uploaded files sitting untouched.
On LOW.MS, you can set this through Service Settings in the panel, under the server's startup options. Find the world name field and set it to <WorldName> – no extension, just the name.
Starting Up
Start the server back up from the panel. First boot with a pre-generated world is usually quick, since the map is already done.
Check Web Console to watch the startup logs. Once you see the world loaded successfully, grab your server address from the panel and join.
A Few Things to Know
Valheim's .db files are a proprietary binary format. You can't edit them in a text editor, though there are community tools that'll parse and modify them if you need to. For a straight server transfer, you're just moving opaque files between machines.
The .old pair is a rolling backup the game rotates in on each save. If your main .db ever corrupts, the server will often fall back to it. Keep them alongside your main files when you upload, and keep your own local backup on top of that.
Version mismatches can cause problems. If your local game updated but the server hasn't, or vice versa, the world might refuse to load. 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 where you started.