How To Upload An Existing Valheim Save To Your Server

Did you build an epic mead hall on your solo world, or have you been hosting locally for your friends and finally want to move it to a 24/7 dedicated server? Uploading your existing Valheim world is straightforward, though the steps below now depend on whether your world was last saved before or after the Valheim 1.0 update.

⚠️ Important Warning: If your Valheim world has a little cloud icon next to it in-game, it is saved to the Steam Cloud! You must launch Valheim, click "Manage Saves", select your world, and click "Move to Local" before you can find the files on your computer.

💡 Valheim 1.0 Changed How Worlds Are Saved: As of the September 2026 1.0 update, a world is no longer just two loose files. It's now a whole folder, named after the world, containing several smaller files inside. Worlds that haven't been re-saved since before 1.0 are still the old two-file pair. Step 1 below shows you how to tell which one you have.

Step 1: Locate Your Local Save Files

Press the Windows Key + R on your keyboard to open the Run window.
Type exactly %userprofile%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local and hit Enter.
Look for the item that matches your world's name and check which of these two you see:

📁 Format A: Valheim 1.0 (a folder)

If your world's name shows up as a folder, open it. You'll see several files inside, something like this (the exact names and number of files can vary):

        📁 MyWorld (this whole folder is your world)
                📄 _main.1.fwl2 (world metadata)

                📄 _main.1.db2 (world data)

                📄 _main.1.chunks

                📄 _main.1.ok

                📄 ...plus many .chunk files (terrain data)

Keep this whole folder handy, you'll be uploading everything inside it.

📄 Format B: Legacy (two loose files)

If instead you see two separate files sitting directly in worlds_local, your world hasn't been converted to the new format yet:

        📁 worlds_local
                📄 MyWorld.db (world data)

                📄 MyWorld.fwl (world metadata)

Keep both of these files handy.

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Step 2: Upload Your Save to MintServers

Now we need to put your world exactly where the server expects to find it.

Log into your MintServers panel and click the Stop button. Always make sure your server is offline before modifying files.
On the left-hand sidebar, click on the Files tab.
Navigate through the file structure by clicking through the folders: .config > unity3d > IronGate > Valheim > worlds_local.

📁 If you have Format A (a folder)

Inside worlds_local on the server, create a new folder. Name it exactly what you want your World Name to be, for example MyWorld.
Open that new folder, then upload every single file from inside your local world's folder into it (all the _main.* files and every .chunk file). The server needs the complete set to recognize the world.

📄 If you have Format B (two loose files)

Click the Upload button and select both your .db and .fwl files from your computer to upload them directly into worlds_local (no new folder needed).

📝 Uploading Multiple or Large Files? The browser-based Files tab works fine for most saves, but for large files or folders with many pieces, an SFTP client like FileZilla or WinSCP is faster and more reliable. See our guide to connecting via SFTP to get set up.

Step 3: Tell the Server to Load Your World

Finally, we need to update the server settings so it knows the name of the world you just uploaded.

On the left-hand sidebar, click on the Game Settings tab.
Locate the World Name variable box.
Delete the default name and type in the exact name you used, either your new folder's name (Format A) or your file names without the extension (Format B, for example if you uploaded MyWorld.db, just type MyWorld). Note: This is case-sensitive!
Head back to the Console tab and click Start. Your server will now boot up using your existing save file!

How to Reset or Delete Your World

If your current Viking journey has come to an end and you want to start completely fresh, wiping your server is just as easy as uploading a save.

⚠️ Deletion Warning: Deleting your world files is permanent! If you think you might want to revisit your old base later, always download the whole world folder (or the .db and .fwl files) to your computer as a backup before proceeding.

Generate a New World: The fastest way to start over is to simply go to your Startup (or Game Settings) tab and change your World Name to something completely different. When you restart the server, it will automatically generate a brand new world using that new name. Your old world files will safely remain in the file manager.
Wipe the Current World: If you want to keep the exact same world name but start from day one, go to your Files tab and navigate back to the worlds_local folder. Delete your world's folder (Format A) or its .db and .fwl files (Format B), then restart your server to generate a fresh map.

🛠️ Did It Generate a Brand New World?

If you log in and find yourself at the spawn stones of a completely fresh world, it means the server could not find your files. Double-check the following:

If you're on Format A, make sure you uploaded every file from your local world folder, a missing .chunk file or the .ok file can stop the server from recognizing it.
If you're on Format B, make sure both the .db and .fwl files made it into the correct worlds_local folder.
Make absolutely sure the World Name in your Startup settings exactly matches your folder or file name, including capital letters.

If you are still stuck getting it to load, no worries! Just open a support ticket and our team will gladly jump in and instruct you on how to get your world online.