Moved a save to your server, the world loaded fine, but players spawn in as brand new characters? Their progress is still there. The characters just need to be linked to your server's world again.
Pick the fix that matches the save you moved:
Use Fix 1. It takes a few minutes.
Use Fix 2. Single-player characters are stored differently and need converting.
Stop your server before downloading or uploading players.db, and keep a backup copy of the original file. A mistake here can affect every character in the save, not just one.
This guide uses
MintServers, the default server name on our panel. If you changed your server's name, use your own name everywhere you see MintServers. To check it, open the Files tab, go to .cache/Server, and look at the name of your .ini file. You can ignore the servertest files, those are the game's built-in defaults.
Fix 1: Update The World Name
Every character in players.db is tagged with the name of the save it came from. Once your world is renamed to match your server name, the game can't match the characters on its own, so you update that tag.
players.db from your world's save folder (.cache/Saves/Multiplayer/MintServers, or the folder named after your server).Open Database, and select the players.db file you downloaded.Browse Data tab and select the networkPlayers table from the dropdown.world column to your server's exact name (MintServers by default). It must match your world folder's name, including capital letters.Write Changes to save.players.db back into the same save folder, overwriting the existing file, then start your server.Player using a different account or Steam username than before? Also update that row's
username column, or they'll still spawn in as new even with the world column fixed.
Fix 2: Convert Single-Player Characters
Single player stores characters in a different table from multiplayer, so Fix 1 won't work. Your character has to be copied into a fresh multiplayer players.db. You can do it yourself with the steps below, or have our support team do it for you.
Haven't uploaded your single-player world yet? Upload it first, taking the world from your game mode's folder (for example Zomboid\Saves\Sandbox) instead of Multiplayer. The full upload steps are in Related Guides below.
.cache/Saves/Multiplayer/MintServers, or the folder named after your server). Download players.db and rename the downloaded copy to oldPlayers.db. This file holds your single-player character.players.db from that folder on the server.players.db the server just created and rename it to newPlayers.db.oldPlayers.db in DB Browser for SQLite, click the Browse Data tab, and select the localPlayers table. Write down your character's x, y, and z values.data cell, choose Copy as SQL, and paste it into a text file. You only need the part inside VALUES( ), which starts with X'.newPlayers.db, select the networkPlayers table, find the row with your username, and write down its id.Execute SQL tab and paste the code below. Replace PASTE_DATA_HERE with the text from step 06, the three coordinates with your values from step 05, and YOUR_ID with the id from step 07.Execute all) to run it, then click Write Changes to save.newPlayers.db to players.db, upload it to your world's save folder, and start your server. Your single-player character will be waiting for you.Related Guides
Upload your world first, whether it's a co-op save, a single-player save or from another host.
🛠️ Troubleshooting Common Issues
Still spawning as a new character after Fix 1
Check that the world value matches your world folder's name exactly, including capital letters, and that the username matches the account you log in with. Also make sure you clicked Write Changes before uploading, and that the server was stopped when you uploaded the file.
I can't find my username in networkPlayers
Your account has never joined this world, so it has no row yet. Join the server once, then Stop it and download players.db again. For Fix 2, redo steps 02 to 04.
Server won't start or crashes after uploading players.db
The file was most likely uploaded before the changes were saved, or the wrong file was uploaded. Upload your backup copy to get the server running again, then repeat the fix and click Write Changes before uploading.
SQL error when running the code in Fix 2
Make sure you only pasted the part inside VALUES( ) from step 06, starting with X' and ending with the closing ', and that every placeholder in the code was replaced with a value.
Still stuck?
Our team is happy to help. Open a ticket through the live chat button in the bottom-right corner of our website, or join our Discord and open a ticket there.
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