Turn on the built-in backups
The switch is one key in PalWorldSettings.ini, the server's settings file. Pocketpair's configuration table describes bIsUseBackupSaveData simply as enable world backups, with one caution: enabling it increases disk load. On a normal server that cost is worth paying.
The file is at Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini on Linux and Pal\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\PalWorldSettings.ini on Windows. Pocketpair warns that editing DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini in the server's main folder changes nothing. All settings sit on one long OptionSettings line, and our Palworld server setup guide explains that format. If you would rather not edit by hand, the Palworld server settings generator builds a complete line for you.
Stop the server, set the value to True, save the file and start the server. Check the value in your own file even if you think it is on, since Pocketpair does not state a default for it.
- Key: bIsUseBackupSaveData=True inside the OptionSettings line
- Linux: Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini
- Windows: Pal\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\PalWorldSettings.ini
- Edit with the server stopped, then start it again
What the server keeps, and how far back you can go
With the setting on, Pocketpair says the server creates a folder named backup in the save data directory and fills it on four schedules at once. That gives you fine grained copies for the last few minutes and coarser ones going back a week.
Read the schedule as a guide to how far back each tier reaches. The 30 second copies cover the last couple of minutes, which helps after a crash. The 10 minute copies cover about an hour, the hourly copies about half a day, and the daily copies about a week. A problem you notice two days later can only be undone from a daily copy.
- 5 copies, 30 seconds apart
- 6 copies, 10 minutes apart
- 12 copies, 1 hour apart
- 7 copies, 1 day apart
Where the world and its backups live
Pocketpair's guide does not describe the save folder layout, so this part is community knowledge, consistent across hosts and the long-running host save fix project. The world sits in Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/ inside the server folder, in a folder named with a long string of letters and numbers. That folder holds Level.sav, the world itself, LevelMeta.sav and a Players folder with one file per player.
The server loads the world named by DedicatedServerName in GameUserSettings.ini, in the same Config folder as PalWorldSettings.ini. If there are several world folders, that value tells you which one is live.
The backup folder appears inside the live world's folder once backups are on. Hosts that document restores describe a backup/world folder there, with one dated folder per copy, each holding its own Level.sav, LevelMeta.sav and Players. Look at the folder names and dates on your own server before you choose one.
- World: Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/<world folder>/
- Inside it: Level.sav, LevelMeta.sav and the Players folder
- Which world loads: DedicatedServerName in GameUserSettings.ini
- Backups: in the backup folder inside the world folder
Restore a backup, step by step
Treat this with the care that community steps deserve, and keep an untouched copy of everything before you start. The idea is simple: replace the live world files with the same files from a backup, while the server is stopped.
The server must be stopped because a running server writes the world from memory on its next save and would put its data over yours. Use /Shutdown with a delay and a message so players get a warning, which needs admin rights from /AdminPassword first. /DoExit force stops the server and is a last resort.
On a rented server, do the copying through the panel's file manager or SFTP; how game server hosting works explains both.
- Shut the server down, for example /Shutdown 60 Restoring a backup
- Download a copy of the whole world folder as it is now, and keep it
- Open the backup folder inside the world folder and pick a dated copy
- Copy that copy's Level.sav, LevelMeta.sav and Players into the world folder, replacing the live ones
- Leave the backup folder and the world folder name as they are
- Start the server and check the world with one player before announcing it
Take your own copies too
The built-in backups live next to the world they protect, on the same disk. They undo a crash, a griefing or a bad decision, but not a lost or wiped server. Download your own copy now and then, and always before a game update, so a patch that changes the save format cannot take your only copy with it.
Before a manual copy, run /Save as an admin, which Pocketpair describes as saving the world data, so the files on disk are current. Better still, stop the server so nothing is written while you copy. Copying the whole Pal/Saved folder takes both the worlds under SaveGames and your settings under Config in one go.
If what you are restoring is a co-op world moved from your own PC, the host's character is a separate problem with its own fix, covered in our Palworld host save fix guide.
- Run /Save or stop the server before copying
- Copy the whole Pal/Saved folder: worlds and settings together
- Keep a copy off the server, especially before updates
If the restored world does not load
An empty world after a restore usually means the server is loading a different folder. Check that DedicatedServerName still matches the world folder's name exactly, and that you copied the files into that folder and not into a new one beside it.
If the server crashes on the restored copy too, the damage may be older than that copy. Put your untouched copy aside, try the next older backup, and work back through the tiers. If players are missing but the world is fine, their files in Players did not come across, so copy that folder again from the same backup. Keep notes of which copy you tried, so you never overwrite the one good version.