Valheim Save Location & How to Upload Your World

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. If you still need somewhere to put that world, you can order a Valheim server with LOW.MS in a couple of minutes.

One thing first, because it's tripped up a lot of people since launch week. Valheim 1.0 changed what a world looks like on disk, and older guides (this one included, until 1.0 shipped) describe files you may not find any more. We've had tickets from people hunting for a .db and a .fwl that simply aren't there. Everything below covers both the new layout and the old one.

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, so go up one level to AppData, then into LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local.

What you'll find in there:

• A folder with your world's name. That's a 1.0 world, or an older world you've opened since 1.0. Inside are a load of files ending .chunk, plus four starting _main. and a number, ending .db2, .fwl2, .chunks and .ok. Don't pick through them or rename anything. The whole folder is the world.
• <WorldName>.db and <WorldName>.fwl. A world you haven't opened since before 1.0. You need both.
• Folders ending _backup_auto- and a date and time. Valheim's own rolling backups since 1.0. You don't need to upload them.
• .db.old and .fwl.old files, and <WorldName>_backup_<date>.db/.fwl. On a world that's been converted, those are the pre-1.0 originals and the safety copy Valheim took before converting. Handy to keep on your PC, not needed on the server.

Take note of the world name, capitals and all. You'll need it later when telling the server which world to load.

Playing through Game Pass rather than Steam? Your world sits in cloud storage first. From the Valheim main menu choose Manage Saves, then Move to Local, and it drops into worlds_local with everything else. Worlds created on an Xbox console can't be exported at all.

What changed in Valheim 1.0

Before 1.0, a world was a pair of files: <WorldName>.db (the world data) and <WorldName>.fwl (the header, with the name and seed). Since 1.0 launched on 9 September 2026, Valheim saves each world as a folder named after the world, with the world data split into lots of smaller chunk files inside it. Iron Gate made the change for faster saves and so a world is harder to corrupt if something dies mid-write.

Old worlds aren't lost. The first time Valheim 1.0 loads a .db and .fwl pair, whether that's your game or your server, it converts the world into a folder and keeps a copy of the original files first. Character saves didn't change at all, only worlds. Characters live on each player's own PC and never go to the server, which is worth telling your group once.

So depending on the world, you'll be uploading one of two things: a folder, or a .db and .fwl pair. Both work.

Where worlds live on the server

A Valheim dedicated server loads worlds from whatever folder its -savedir argument points at, and inside that it uses the same worlds_local name your PC does. On a LOW.MS server, open the Files tab and go into config/valheim/worlds_local/. Watch the path: it's inside config/valheim, not at the top level. There's also a config/valheim/worlds/ folder, which is where Valheim kept older server-created worlds. Uploads go in worlds_local.

On a server that's been running since before 1.0, expect a bit of clutter in there. Say your world is called Midgard. You'd see:

• Midgard/, the live world.
• Midgard.db.old and Midgard.fwl.old, the original pair from before the conversion.
• Midgard_backup_20260909-134827.db and .fwl, the safety copy Valheim took just before converting.
• Folders like Midgard_backup_auto-20260912-173107/, Valheim's rolling backups since 1.0.

Leave all of that alone unless you know exactly what you're replacing.

Before you do anything

Two things. Both important.

Stop your server first. Uploading a world while the server is writing to it is the fastest way to corrupt a save. On our panel the power controls are at the top of the server page.

Back up the server's existing world. Even if the server is fresh, build the habit. On the Backups tab, Create backup. Takes a moment and means the next ten minutes can't cost you anything.

Uploading a 1.0 world (a folder)

The rule that matters more than any of the steps: if the server already has a folder with that name, delete it before you upload (you took a backup a minute ago). Copying a world over the top of a different world with the same name leaves chunk files from both mixed together, and that's not a world you want to load.

On a LOW.MS server:

1. On the Files tab, open config/valheim/worlds_local/.
2. Delete any existing folder with the same name as the world you're uploading.
3. Click Upload folder and pick the world folder on your PC. Or drag the folder straight onto the file listing. Either way it arrives as a folder with the same name, files inside.
4. Open the new folder and check the _main. files are in there.

Gotcha: one upload takes up to 500 files. A small world is a few dozen chunk files, but a well-explored one can go past that. If the panel refuses, zip the world folder on your PC instead (right-click it, Send to, Compressed (zipped) folder), click Upload, pick the zip, and say yes when the panel offers to extract it. It extracts into the folder you're in, so do it from worlds_local and the world folder lands in the right place.

Uploading an older world (.db and .fwl)

1. On the Files tab, open config/valheim/worlds_local/.
2. If the server already has a folder with the same name as your world, delete that folder first. With both a folder and a pair of files by one name, the server is likely to keep loading the folder and ignore what you uploaded.
3. Click Upload and pick <WorldName>.db and <WorldName>.fwl. You need both. If files with the same name already exist, overwrite them.

Your server runs 1.0, so on its first start with this world it converts it. Afterwards you'll see your files renamed to .db.old and .fwl.old, a <WorldName>_backup_<date> copy beside them, and a new <WorldName> folder. That's all expected. The first load takes longer than normal on a big world, so let it finish rather than restarting it.

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 what you just uploaded, or the server will quietly start a fresh world with whatever name the command specifies and leave your uploaded world sitting untouched.

On a LOW.MS server that argument is the World Name field on the Manage tab. Capitals count, so type the name exactly as it appears on the folder (or the files, without .db or .fwl), then hit Save.

Gotcha: the World Name field doesn't recognise 1.0 world folders yet. Its suggestions only pick up old-style files, and on a folder world it can show "No world called ... exists on this server yet". We know, a fix is on the way. Until then, don't read that notice as proof your upload failed. Check the Files tab instead: if worlds_local has a folder with exactly the name you typed, you're fine. And don't pick a suggestion ending in _backup_ and a date. Those are snapshots, and loading one puts you back on the world as it was when the snapshot was taken.

Starting up and checking it loaded

Start the server and watch the log (the Console tab, if you're with us). You're looking for ZNet.LoadWorld: with your world's name in it. Then Game server connected, which is the point people can join. First boot with a pre-generated world is usually quick, since the map is already done (the conversion of an older world is the exception, see above).

If you see a brand new world when you log in, the name didn't match and Valheim made a fresh one. Your upload is still sitting there untouched. Stop the server, fix the name, start again, and delete the empty world Valheim just made so it doesn't confuse you later.

Backups after 1.0

Valheim still makes its own rolling backups, but each one is now its own folder, named <WorldName>_backup_auto- and a date and time. They sit in worlds_local right next to the live world. That makes them good for a crash and useless if the server's copy is the thing that's gone wrong, and swapping one in by hand is fiddly. On our servers the schedule for those is the Saves & Backups group on the Manage tab, and if you need an older one restored, open a ticket and we'll do it.

The Backups tab is the one that saves you from the bigger stuff: a bad upload, a mod that chewed through the world, a restore of the wrong thing. It copies your worlds and mod settings off the server, and Restore puts them back with the server stopped. For an automatic copy, add a Backup task under Scheduled tasks on the Settings tab. I'd set that up on day one rather than the day you need it. Want a copy on your own PC as well? Download on a backup row gives you the zip, or Download on the world folder's row in the Files tab gives you the folder as a zip. The backups and restore guide goes through all of it.

A few things to know

Valheim's world files are a proprietary binary format. You can't edit them in a text editor. If you use community tools that open or modify worlds, check they've been updated for 1.0, because anything built around the old .db file won't understand the new folder layout. For a straight server transfer, you're just moving opaque files between machines.

Version mismatches cause problems. If your local game updated but the server hasn't, or the other way round, players get bounced and the world can refuse to load. Keep both on the same version. A restart doesn't update a dedicated server; on our panel the Game updates card on the Overview tab tells you when an update is waiting, and Update installs it. Valheim's current build is 1.0.12, from 11 September 2026.

Starting over instead? Don't delete world folders by hand, and hold off on the New World action for now: it was built for the old pair of files and doesn't clear a 1.0 world folder yet. Take a backup and open a ticket, and we'll wipe it properly.

If anything about your world looks wrong after an upload, stop, don't start it five more times, and open a ticket from the panel. That's what the backup you took at the start is for, and we'd much rather look at it while it's fresh. For what does and doesn't carry across, including why your character stays on your own machine, see How to Move a Valheim World to a Dedicated Server.