How to Upload a Valheim World to Your Server

Uploading a Valheim world to your server comes down to two files and a name that has to match. Whether the world started as a solo save on your PC or lived on another host, the same procedure moves it across with every base, boss altar and portal exactly where you left it. This guide covers where the files live, how to get them onto your server, and what to check when the server insists on generating a brand new world instead.

What you need before you start

• The world you want to move, saved on your PC or downloaded from your previous host
• Access to your server in the game panel
• Five minutes, and a little longer if the world is old and large

The two files that make up a Valheim world

Valheim splits every world into a pair of files that share one name:

• MyWorld.fwl holds the world identity: the seed, the name, and which bosses you have beaten
• MyWorld.db holds everything you built, terraformed, mined and dropped

Both belong together. A .fwl without its .db gives you an empty map with the right seed, and a .db without its .fwl will not load at all. Whenever this guide says "your world", it means both files.

You will also see files ending in .old next to them. Those are Valheim's own rolling backups from the previous save. Leave them where they are for now, they are useful if something goes wrong later.

Where the files are on your PC

Open the Run box with Windows + R, paste the path below and press Enter:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local

That is where the game keeps worlds stored on your machine. If the folder is empty or missing, check the older location that some installs still use:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds

Playing with cloud saves? Load the world once from the main menu, quit to desktop, then look again. Valheim writes the world to disk when it unloads, so a world that only existed in the cloud shows up locally after a single play session.

Where the files go on your server

/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/

This is the only folder your Valheim server reads worlds from. Files dropped anywhere else are ignored.

Step 1: Stop your server

1. Open the game panel and select your Valheim server
2. Press Stop and wait until the status reads offline

This step is not optional. Valheim writes the running world to disk as it shuts down, so anything you upload while the server is online gets overwritten seconds later by the world already in memory. Nearly every "my upload did nothing" report traces back to this.

Step 2: Copy your world files somewhere easy to reach

From the folder you opened above, copy both files for the world you want, for example Midgard.fwl and Midgard.db, onto your Desktop.

Do not rename them yet. Valheim matches the world by filename, and renaming halfway through is the fastest way to end up with a world the server cannot find.

Coming from another host instead? Download the same pair from their file manager or over SFTP, from their worlds_local folder.

Step 3: Upload the files to your server

Option A: the Files tab

Best for anything up to a few hundred megabytes.

1. With the server stopped, open the Files tab
2. Navigate to .config then unity3d then IronGate then Valheim then worlds_local
3. Click Upload files, or drag both files straight onto the file list
4. Wait for the progress bar to finish before you touch anything else

If worlds_local does not exist yet, start the server once and stop it again. Valheim builds the whole folder chain on first boot.

Option B: SFTP

Large or long-running worlds transfer more reliably over SFTP, and it resumes better on a shaky connection. Our SFTP guide walks through the setup from scratch. Connect, navigate to the same worlds_local path, and drag both files across.

Step 4: Point the server at your world

Your server loads exactly one world, chosen by name, and it does not care which files are sitting in the folder.

1. Open the Startup tab
2. Find World Name
3. Enter the filename without its extension, so Midgard.fwl and Midgard.db means you type Midgard
4. Save

Spelling and capitalisation have to match the files. Midgard and midgard are two different worlds as far as your server is concerned, and asking for one that does not exist is precisely how you end up staring at a freshly generated coastline.

Step 5: Start the server and check it worked

Press Start and watch the Console tab. A world that loaded correctly logs a line naming your world as it comes up, then finishes with the server registering as ready.

Join it and walk to where your base should be. If the ground is where you remember it, you are done.

What comes with you and what does not

Your Viking does not live in the world file. Characters are stored separately on the machine you play from, in characters_local, which means your skills, inventory and equipment follow you onto the server automatically the first time you join. Nothing to upload.

The world file carries the map, the terrain you have flattened, every structure, chest and its contents, boss progress, and any wards you placed. Wards stay keyed to the player who set them, so they keep working for you and keep locking everyone else out until you open them.

Troubleshooting

The server generated a new world instead of loading mine. The name in World Name does not match your files. Compare them character by character, including capitals, and confirm both files actually landed in worlds_local.

The world loads but my base is gone. You probably uploaded a .old backup, or a different world with a similar name. Check the file sizes: the real .db of a played world is far bigger than a fresh one. Re-upload the correct pair.

My upload keeps getting reverted. The server was running. Stop it, upload again, then start it.

The upload fails or stalls near the end. The world is too large for the browser uploader on your connection. Use SFTP instead.

The server starts, then crashes or the world looks broken. The world was built with mods and the server is not running them. Install the matching mods with our Valheim mods guide, then start again.

Everything loads except a chunk of the map. Very old worlds carry terrain from earlier game versions. Valheim upgrades what it can on load, but heavily reworked biomes may look different. That is the game, not the upload.

Frequently asked questions

Does uploading a world delete the one already on my server? Only if the two share a filename. Different names sit side by side in worlds_local, and you switch between them from the Startup tab. Take a copy of the current world first anyway, our world management guide covers it.

Can I move a server world back to solo play? Yes. Download both files, drop them into your local worlds_local folder, and the world appears in your world list at the next launch.

Can I upload a world from Xbox or Game Pass? Not directly. Those saves are sandboxed by the platform and cannot be exported as .fwl and .db files.

Does the seed change when I upload? No. The seed is written into the .fwl file, so it travels with the world.

How large can a Valheim world get? Long-running worlds with heavy building routinely pass a few hundred megabytes. There is no practical ceiling on your server, but anything above roughly 100 MB is worth uploading over SFTP.

Can several worlds live on one server? Yes. Keep as many pairs in worlds_local as you like and change World Name to swap between them. Only the named world is loaded and saved.

Stuck on a step, or the world still refuses to load? Contact our support team with your server name and the world filename and we will take a look. Not running a server yet? Start one on our Valheim server hosting plans.