Published , by Josh Hawkins
Published , by Josh Hawkins
Whether you’re looking to combat the world-eating bug that’s going around right now, or just looking to back up your Valheim worlds and characters just to be safe, we can help. Below you’ll find detailed steps to help you back up your data to ensure nothing is ever lost.
Backing up your worlds and character files might be daunting, but we’re going to make sure you know exactly what you need to do to pull it off without a hitch.
First, you’re going to want to ensure that your server is shut down, and that your game is shut down as well. This is just to avoid any possible file corruption should you move something that is being used at the time. Once everything is shut down, it’s time to jump in.
First you need to make sure that you have the option to show hidden and system files select in File Explorer. This can be done by typing “show hidden files” into the search bar in the Windows start menu. From here, select the option the Show settings for Change settings to show hidden and system files. Once activated, you’ll be able to see the folders where Valheim stores your character and world data.
Be very careful when activating this option, as messing around with system files could cause issues in your PC. Follow our instructions step by step to ensure you aren’t messing with anything you don’t need to mess with.
Now that you have hidden files set to show, head into your File Explorer and navigate to your C drive. Now select the Users folder and then the username that you have Valheim installed under.
From here, select AppData and then LocalLow.
Once in this window, look for the IronGate folder and click on it to open it and then select the Valheim folder. You should see two folders now, along with several text documents.
If you’re looking to back up your character info, then select the characters folder and then grab all of the files ending in .fch and throw them into a new folder on your desktop. Make sure to leave copies within this folder or you’ll remove the file from the game altogether.
Next, head back out to the Valheim folder and select worlds. Look for the name that you gave your world and then grab the .fwl and .db files. Copy these to another folder on your desktop. While you can put the two together, we recommend separating them into their own subfolders under a main folder called something like Valheim character and world back up. Just to ensure you don’t accidentally put them in the wrong place if something goes wrong.
Now that you’ve backed up your character and world info, you can easily move them back into the needed folders if they get eaten or corrupted for some reason. Because the data on these files is always updating when you’re connected to the world or character, we recommend backing them up after every play session if you’re worried about losing data. For more help, check out our Valheim guide.