What you are moving
The steps depend on which save format your world is in. Valheim 1.0 arrived on 9 September 2026 with a chunked save system. Iron Gate's notes say worlds are no longer saved with a .db and a .fwl file: each world is stored in a folder, with its data split across many smaller files, and backups sit in folders of their own.
A world that has not been opened since before 1.0 is still the older pair: WorldName.db with everything built and changed, and WorldName.fwl with the seed and world details. The two share a name and belong together. If you see both a folder and a pair under one name, copy the folder, because that is what the game has been saving to since 1.0.
Three things stay out of the world files. Characters live with each player, and Iron Gate states that the save system change affects world saves only. The permission lists are separate text files in the save path. Mods are installed separately from the world.
- Played on 1.0 or later: one folder named after the world, copied complete
- Last played before 1.0: WorldName.db and WorldName.fwl, copied as a pair
- Backup folders and older backup copies: leave them behind unless you are restoring one
- Characters: stay on each player's own machine
Find the world on your PC
Worlds you host from the game menu sit on the host's PC, so the person who created the world is the one who does this step. Iron Gate gives the save path as AppData/LocalLow/IronGate/Valheim inside your user folder on Windows, and ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim on Linux. Local worlds are in the worlds_local folder inside it.
If your world is not there, it is probably a cloud save. Since 2022 Valheim keeps cloud saves under the Steam userdata folder and local saves in worlds_local, so bring it to local storage before you copy it. Start the game, open Manage Saves from the character selection screen, go to the Worlds tab, select the world and choose Move to local. The world then appears in worlds_local, ready to copy.
This is a good move for a large world anyway. Iron Gate's notes on the folder format point out that some platforms limit how many files cloud storage can hold, and a chunked world has far more files than the old pair.
- Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local
- Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local
- Cloud world: Manage Saves, Worlds tab, Move to local
Move the world, step by step
The order matters more than any single step. The server must be stopped while you copy, because a running server keeps its own copy of the world in memory and writes it out when it next saves, which puts its data on top of yours.
If the server has never run, start it once so that its save path and worlds_local folder exist, then stop it. It will create a world under whatever name you gave it. That one can be removed, and if it has the same name as yours, move it aside first. Never merge two worlds of the same name in one folder.
On a server you run yourself, the save path is the default above unless you set -savedir. With Iron Gate's Docker setup, world data goes to a volume called valheim_server_data by default. On a rented server, use the host's file manager or SFTP, and how game server hosting works explains what access you get.
- Close Valheim on your PC so nothing is halfway through saving
- Copy the world to a safe place and leave that copy untouched
- Update the server to the same game version your players run
- Stop the server
- Upload the whole world folder, or both pair files, into worlds_local in the server's save path
- Check the upload arrived complete: compare the file count and total size with your PC
- Set the -world option to the world's exact name, then start the server
Set the world name so the server finds it
Iron Gate's manual describes -world in one line: it creates a world with the name you enter, or chooses an existing world if one has that name. That is why a typo does not produce an error. The server simply creates an empty world under the mistyped name, and it looks as though your save has vanished.
The name is the folder name for a 1.0 world, or the file name without its extension for a pair. Match it character for character. Linux treats MyWorld and myworld as two different names, so a world that loaded happily on Windows can be missed on a Linux server. If the name has a space in it, keep it inside quotes, as in -world "Viking Home". A hosting panel usually has a world name field that does the same job.
To run the server yourself, Iron Gate suggests editing a copy of start_headless_server.bat, or start_server.sh on Linux, because a Steam update resets the original file. It also needs -savedir set if your worlds are outside the default path.
The first start of a world from before 1.0
When Valheim loads a world that is not yet in the folder format, Iron Gate says it makes a backup first and then converts it. Let that first start finish, and read the server console instead of restarting it if it seems quiet. A folder format world has no conversion and simply loads.
Convert on an up-to-date build. Iron Gate's notes for patch 1.0.15 explain that the earliest 1.0 builds dropped levels and variants from items on item stands and armour stands during conversion, and that this was fixed in patch 1.0.12, so any world converted since then converts correctly. If yours was converted earlier and an item on a stand lost its level, those notes give two options: restore the backup made at conversion, which loses later progress, or copy the backup, carry the affected items out of it on your character, and swap them in your main world.
Keep your untouched pair even after a good conversion, since Iron Gate documents no way to turn a converted world back into a pair. Your explored map stays as it was: the 1.0 FAQ says existing worlds receive the 1.0 content, with biome generation applying only to areas nobody has explored yet.
Admin lists, world modifiers and mods
Moving the world brings none of the server's permission files. Admin, ban and permitted lists are adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt in the save path, with one Platform User ID per line in the case-sensitive format [Platform]_[User ID]. You can read an ID from the server log or the in-game F2 panel. Put your own ID in adminlist.txt and restart. Be careful with permittedlist.txt: Iron Gate warns that adding anyone to it bans everyone else.
If you chose world modifiers when you created the world, check that they behave as you expect after the move. Iron Gate's manual lists three server options for setting them: -preset, -modifier and -setkey. A preset overwrites earlier modifiers, so it has to come first.
A modded world needs its gameplay mods in place on the server and on every player's PC before the first start, at matching versions. Iron Gate offers no official mod support, and tools that read or write world files directly need builds that understand the 1.0 folder format, so test with a copy of the world. Our Valheim mods and RAM guide covers BepInEx, memory and what each mod needs.
Check the world, then keep it safe
Walk through your main base before you retire the old copy, with every player logging in once. If your friends connect by address on a server at home, Iron Gate's guide says the port and the next one up, 2456 and 2457 by default, must be forwarded on the router, and with -crossplay no forwarding is needed. Self-hosting vs renting compares the two setups.
From now on the server's copy is the live world, and the copy on your PC stops changing, so do not keep playing both. The server keeps automatic backups: by default 4 of them, the first after 2 hours and the rest 12 hours apart, with the world saved every 30 minutes. You can change those with -backups, -backupshort, -backuplong and -saveinterval. Those backups sit next to the world, so also download a stopped copy now and then.
- Empty world after starting: the -world name does not match, the world is in the wrong folder, or the upload is incomplete
- Your files were replaced: the server was running during the upload, so stop it and upload again from your safe copy
- Builds missing but the terrain is right: on a pair, the .db did not arrive
- Server not listed: -public 0 hides it from the list, so join by address
- Players refused at login: compare game versions and, on a modded server, mod lists