Valheim Save Location and the 1.0 World Folder Format

Valheim keeps your world outside the game's install folder, in the user data directory Unity gives it. On Windows that is %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\, on Linux ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/, and on your Valheim server it is .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/ — **not** the server root. Worlds sit in worlds_local/ inside that directory.

What changed on 9 September 2026 is what a world is. Valheim 1.0 replaced the old .db + .fwl file pair with a folder per world, holding the world data split into chunks. If you are reading a guide that tells you to copy two files, that guide predates 1.0.

Where Valheim Stores Worlds

Iron Gate document the Windows and Linux paths in their dedicated-server guide, as the default that the -savedir [PATH] argument overrides — it "Overrides the default save path where Worlds and permission-files are stored."

On your server, saves are not in the server root

Our Valheim startup does not pass -savedir, so Valheim falls back to its own default path. worlds_local/ lives inside .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/, together with adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt, permittedlist.txt and prefs. All of it is reachable from the panel File Manager — open the .config folder rather than looking for worlds_local at the top level, where it does not exist.

BepInEx/ is the exception and genuinely does sit at the server root, because the mod loader is loaded relative to the working directory rather than the save path. See How to install mods.

macOS

Valheim has had a native macOS build since June 2024, on Steam and the Mac App Store, and the two stores lay it out differently — the Steam build under ~/Library/Application Support/, the sandboxed App Store build under ~/Library/Containers/. Iron Gate document the Windows and Linux paths and not the Mac one, and the third-party guides that fill that gap disagree with each other. Use Finder's Go → Go to Folder… and search for worlds_local instead of trusting a path someone handed you, including ours.

Steam Cloud

If Steam Cloud sync is on, your newest world may exist only in Steam\userdata\<your id>\892970\remote and not in worlds_local at all. Select the world in the in-game world list and use Move to Local first. (The Manage Saves screen is the backup restore-and-delete menu, which is a different thing.)

The 1.0 format makes this worth checking. Iron Gate flagged a new constraint when they built it: "There is a new limitation in cloud storage, up until now it was only the total size of all saves. Some platforms have a limit in how many files can be saved, this was previously not a limitation but now there will be way more files saved." A chunked world is many small files rather than two big ones.

Xbox and Microsoft Store (Game Pass)

There is no copyable world folder on Xbox or the Microsoft Store build. Saves live in an opaque WGS container of GUID-named blobs under %LocalAppData%\Packages\. Iron Gate's 1.0 FAQ describes the only supported route between them: "If you are playing on an Xbox, you will be able to access your saves from a PC, provided that you launch the game from the Microsoft store. Beyond this, there will be no cross platform sync for your save files." A Game Pass world cannot be lifted onto a dedicated server by copying files.

What a Valheim 1.0 World Folder Contains

We provisioned a Valheim server on the 1.0 build on launch day, let it generate a world, stopped it cleanly so the world flushed to disk, and read the directory. A freshly generated world called Midgard looked like this:

worlds_local/Midgard/
  _main.1.fwl2       56 B      metadata          (replaces .fwl)
  _main.1.db2        147 KB    world data        (replaces .db)
  _main.1.chunks     21 B      chunk index
  00_00__0_1.chunk   1.4 KB    a terrain chunk
  _main.1.ok         4 B       write-complete marker

Reading that:

• The folder name is the world name. That has not changed — the world's identity is still its name, and your World File Name setting on the Startup tab still has to match it exactly, capitalisation included. It now matches a folder instead of a file pair.
• _main.N.* is a generation counter. Before the first save the files were _main.0.fwl2 and friends; after the world saved they became _main.1.*. The number climbs as the world saves.
• _main.N.fwl2 replaces the old .fwl and is still tiny — it carries the seed and world metadata.
• _main.N.db2 replaces the old .db, but it is no longer the whole world. Terrain is split out into .chunk files, and _main.N.chunks is the index tying them together.
• .chunk files multiply as the world is played. One newly generated world had a single 00_00__0_1.chunk. A world your group has explored will have many, because Valheim only rewrites the chunks that changed.
• _main.N.ok is a completion marker written alongside a finished save.

The folder is the unit — copy all of it, always

Every file in that folder belongs to one world, and a partial copy is not a smaller world, it is a broken one. Copy, back up, move and restore the whole folder. If you upload half of it, Valheim will not find a world it can load under that name and will generate a brand-new one instead, leaving the fragments you did upload unreachable.

Why Iron Gate Changed the Format

The 1.0 patch notes list it under Fixes & Improvements: "New save system: Splits world data across chunks to reduce how much data is serialized and written to improve performance, and is designed to be resilient against mid-write failures."

The mechanism was described in more detail when the system was first put on the public test branch in patch 0.221.13 on 6 May 2026:

• "Instead of saving a world with the .db and .fwl files it's now stored in folders and the world (.db) is split up in multiple files (chunks)."
• "When saving, only the chunks that have been modified are saved."
• "The save system performs extra checks after saving to make sure it saved properly, which reduces the risk of a corrupt save."
• "Backups are stored in separate folders."

That is the practical upside for a server: a world save touches a fraction of the data it used to, so the periodic autosave stalls less. The _main.N.ok marker is the visible part of the "resilient against mid-write failures" design — a save that was interrupted does not leave a plausible-looking but half-written world behind. We have not deliberately interrupted a save to test the recovery path, so we describe the file, not the behaviour.

Only worlds changed

Iron Gate were explicit that "the new save system only affects world saves, character saves remain the same." Characters have always lived on each player's own machine, in characters_local, and still do — which is why nobody's character is on your server and nobody loses skills when a world moves.

What Happens to a World Made Before 1.0

It still works. Iron Gate's 1.0 FAQ answers "What happens to my saves at the 1.0 launch?" with "Nothing. Your old saves will still be where you last left them, and you can continue to play with them if you like."

Loading one converts it. From the 0.221.13 notes: "When loading a world that is not chunked, a backup is made first so no data is lost in case of potential new bugs." So the sequence on first open is back up, then convert the pair into a folder.

Two consequences worth planning around:

1. The conversion is one-way in practice. Once a world has been opened on 1.0 it is a folder, and moving it back to a pre-1.0 build is not something Iron Gate support. Take your own backup before the first 1.0 load — do not rely solely on the automatic one.
2. Old worlds only get new content where nobody has been. Per the same FAQ: "your world will receive new content even if it was created before the update, although biome generation will only work properly on areas that have not yet been explored."

Old instructions now fail silently

Guides written before today tell you to wipe a world by deleting its .db and .fwl. On 1.0 those files do not exist, so the delete removes nothing and the server restarts into the world you meant to destroy. The wipe procedure in the settings guide has the correct version: delete the world's folder.

Backing Up a World

The Backups tab in the panel snapshots the whole server volume, which includes worlds_local/ and everything in it, so a folder-based world is captured correctly with no change to how you work. We took a real backup of a 1.0 folder world on launch day to confirm it: 2.13 GB, reported successful. How to create a backup covers creating, restoring and downloading them, and the retention allowance.

For a copy you keep yourself, pull the world's folder down over SFTP. Drag the whole folder, not files out of it, and stop the server first so you are not copying a directory mid-save.

Valheim also keeps its own rolling automatic backups, controlled by -backups, -backupshort and -backuplong — see the launch argument reference. Since 1.0 these are stored in their own folders rather than as timestamped files. They are a convenience, not a backup strategy: they live on the same disk as the world they protect.

Moving a World Onto or Off a Server

The unit is the folder, and it goes into worlds_local/ with its name intact. The full walkthrough — stopping the server, uploading through the File Manager or SFTP, setting World File Name, and verifying the world actually loaded — is in How to Upload Your Existing World to Your Valheim Server.

Two things to check before you start, both of which come from the format rather than the procedure:

• Check what you actually have. If you have launched 1.0 and opened the world since, worlds_local holds a folder. If you have not, it still holds a .db and .fwl pair. Both can be uploaded; a pair gets converted by the server on first load. What you must not do is upload a mixture, or rename anything.
• Check the versions match. A world saved by a newer build will not load on an older server. If the server is behind your client, fix that first — see version mismatch and update problems.

What Is Still Undocumented

Being straight about the edges, as of 9 September 2026:

• The naming and location of the automatic backup folders. Iron Gate say backups get their own folders. We have not observed one on a 1.0 server, so we are not going to tell you what it is called.
• The exact recovery behaviour when a save is interrupted. The design intent is published; the failure mode is not, and we have not tested it.
• Modded servers. Iron Gate's 1.0 FAQ is blunt: "Since we don't have any official mod support, we cannot guarantee that any mods will be functional when 1.0 releases." Anything that reads or writes world files directly is the category most likely to break on the new format.
• The client layout on every platform. The file listing above is from a Linux dedicated server on the 1.0 build. Iron Gate describe the change as applying to world saves generally, not to servers specifically.

FAQ

Where does Valheim save worlds?

In worlds_local/, inside Valheim's save directory: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\ on Windows and ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/ on Linux. On a GameServerKings server the save directory is .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/, reachable from the File Manager, and not the server root.

Where is the Valheim save location on a dedicated server?

.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/ unless the server passes -savedir to move it. Ours does not, so that is where it is. adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt sit alongside worlds_local/ in the same directory.

Where did my .db and .fwl files go?

Valheim 1.0 replaced them. Your world is now a folder named after the world, containing _main.N.fwl2 (the old .fwl), _main.N.db2 (the old .db), a .chunks index, terrain .chunk files and an .ok marker. Nothing was lost — the pair was converted, after Valheim took a backup of it.

Can I still use my pre-1.0 world?

Yes. Iron Gate: "Your old saves will still be where you last left them, and you can continue to play with them if you like." The first load converts it to the new folder format, taking a backup first.

What do I copy to back up a Valheim world?

The entire world folder from worlds_local/. Not individual files out of it — a partial copy will not load as your world, and the server will generate a fresh one over the top of the name instead.

Does the panel backup handle the new folder format?

Yes. A panel backup snapshots the whole server volume, so the world folder and its chunk files are captured together. We verified this against a real 1.0 folder world on launch day.

Where are Valheim character saves?

In characters_local, in the same save directory, on each player's own computer. Characters are never stored on the server, and the 1.0 save changes did not touch them — Iron Gate: "the new save system only affects world saves, character saves remain the same."

Where are Xbox and Game Pass saves?

In a WGS container of GUID-named blobs under %LocalAppData%\Packages\, with no world folder to copy. Iron Gate support reading those saves from a PC through the Microsoft Store build only, and no other cross-platform save sync.

What to Read Next

• How to Upload Your Existing World to Your Valheim Server — the step-by-step move, once you know what you are moving
• Valheim Server Settings and Launch Arguments — -savedir, -world, the backup arguments and the wipe procedure
• Managing your Valheim server — restores, scheduled restarts and the routine that keeps the world safe
• How to create a backup and How to upload files via SFTP — the two mechanics this page keeps pointing at
• Valheim Console Commands — admin and dev commands, including the nineteen new ones added in 1.0

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