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Start by finding the directory selected by the server’s -savedir argument. If that argument is absent, use the platform default. Keep the destination outside that source directory, create dated generations, prune old generations by age or count, and schedule copies after a completed world save whenever possible.
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What an automatic Valheim backup should protect
A backup is useful only if it contains the files needed to recreate the world and the server’s associated state. Include the complete configured Valheim save root rather than copying one file at a time. The save root contains the world data and permission-related files that the server needs when it starts.
There are two different failure scenarios to plan for:
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- Recent player mistake or bad change: a local rotating backup is usually the quickest rollback.
- Host, disk, or directory failure: a second copy on another disk or another machine is required, because local rotations can be lost with the live directory.
A backup folder placed inside the live save root is not a second layer. It can be copied recursively into itself, consume the server disk, and disappear along with the source if that disk fails.
Find the save directory the server really uses
The launch configuration is authoritative. Inspect the shell script, batch file, service unit, container configuration, or hosting-panel command that starts the dedicated server and look for -savedir. That argument overrides the platform default, so automation must use the exact path passed to the process.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsDefault save roots
| Platform | Default save root | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | %USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalLowIronGateValheim |
Used only when the launch configuration does not specify -savedir. |
| Linux | ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim |
The tilde means the home directory of the account running the server. A service account may therefore have a different path from your login account. |
For example, a launch option written as -savedir D:ValheimSaves means that D:ValheimSaves, not the Windows default, is the backup source. On Linux, use the service account’s absolute home path when writing a scheduled job; cron and system services do not always expand ~ as you expect.
Confirm the path before scheduling
- Open the file or service definition that launches the server.
- Record the complete value following
-savedir, if present. - Check that the directory contains the current world and permission files, and note the account that owns them.
- Use that same absolute path in every backup script and restore procedure.
If the server is started by a container or a service manager, also check the host-to-container volume mapping. The path visible inside the service may map to a different host directory; the host-side directory is the one an external backup job must read.
Keep Valheim’s built-in rotating backups enabled
Iron Gate documents these dedicated-server arguments and defaults (the guide was published approximately in 2024):
| Argument | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
-saveinterval |
1800 seconds (30 minutes) |
How often the world is saved. |
-backups |
4 |
Number of automatic rotating backups retained. |
-backupshort |
7200 seconds (2 hours) |
Delay before the first automatic backup. |
-backuplong |
43200 seconds (12 hours) |
Interval used for subsequent automatic backups. |
With the documented defaults, the server saves every 30 minutes, creates its first automatic backup after two hours, and then creates later backups at 12-hour intervals while retaining four rotations. These are recovery points on the server environment; they are not a disaster-recovery copy. A failed disk, mistaken deletion, or damaged installation can remove the live data and the rotations together.
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Leave the built-in rotation enabled even after adding an external job. It has the shortest recovery path for a recent world change, while the external archive supplies a separate failure domain.
Choose an external destination and retention policy
Use a destination that is not a subdirectory of the source. Suitable destinations include an external hard drive, a portable SSD, a NAS share, or a directory on another host. A remote destination protects against a complete loss of the game-server machine but introduces network availability and recurring storage considerations.
Store each run as a dated generation instead of continuously overwriting one copy. If the newest copy is corrupt or was captured during a bad save, an older generation remains available. Prune by both age and count so the destination cannot grow without limit.
Retention examples
The built-in policy is four local rotations, with one initial two-hour delay and 12-hour spacing thereafter. A separate container implementation documents hourly external copies with a three-day default age and configurable maximum age and count. That container policy is an example, not a universal Valheim requirement.
| Policy | Example generations | When it fits | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short rollback | Hourly copies for three days | Small communities that mainly need protection from recent mistakes. | Limited protection from problems discovered weeks later. |
| Balanced archive | Hourly copies for several days, then daily copies for several weeks | Servers with regular building activity and enough storage for history. | Requires pruning rules that treat recent and old generations differently. |
| Long recovery window | Daily or weekly generations retained for months | Worlds where a problem may remain unnoticed for a long time. | Higher storage use and slower selection of the correct restore point. |
Choose a window based on how quickly your group would notice corruption, how much world data changes, and how much destination capacity you have. Keep at least one generation that is not on the server’s primary disk.
Schedule an external archive on Windows
The following PowerShell pattern creates a new dated directory, copies the complete save root with robocopy, and removes generations older than 14 days. Replace the source with the path discovered from the launch configuration and choose a destination such as an external drive. Do not point the destination inside the source.
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$Source = 'D:ValheimSaves'
$Destination = 'E:ValheimBackups'
$RetentionDays = 14
$stamp = Get-Date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss'
$Target = Join-Path $Destination $stamp
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $Target -Force | Out-Null
robocopy $Source $Target /E /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:DAT /R:3 /W:5 /XJ
if ($LASTEXITCODE -ge 8) {
throw "robocopy reported a failure: exit code $LASTEXITCODE"
}
$cutoff = (Get-Date).AddDays(-$RetentionDays)
Get-ChildItem -Path $Destination -Directory |
Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -lt $cutoff } |
Remove-Item -Recurse -Forcerobocopy uses exit codes below 8 for success or non-fatal conditions; the script stops when it receives 8 or higher. Test the script manually with a small destination first and confirm that a newly dated directory contains the expected world and permission files.
Create the scheduled task
- Save the script as, for example,
C:ScriptsValheimBackup.ps1. - Open Task Scheduler and choose Create Task, not the basic wizard, if the server runs under a dedicated account.
- On General, select the account that can read the save root and write to the backup destination. Enable Run whether user is logged on or not when appropriate.
- On Triggers, create an hourly trigger or another interval that matches your recovery objective.
- On Actions, start
powershell.exewith arguments such as-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:ScriptsValheimBackup.ps1. - On Settings, enable a time limit and prevent overlapping runs. A slow external disk should not allow a second copy to start before the first finishes.
- Run the task on demand and inspect both its history and the destination before relying on it.
An hourly trigger is only a scheduling example. If the task starts while the server is writing a save, use a coordinated pause or move the trigger to a known point after a completed save.
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Use an absolute source path and run the job as the same account that owns the server data, or grant narrowly scoped read access. This example creates a temporary directory on the destination, synchronizes the source into it, then renames it to an immutable-looking timestamped generation. The temporary directory prevents an interrupted copy from appearing to be complete.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
SOURCE='/srv/valheim/saves'
DEST='/srv/backups/valheim'
RETENTION_DAYS=14
mkdir -p "$DEST"
STAMP=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S)
TMP="$DEST/.incomplete-$STAMP"
FINAL="$DEST/$STAMP"
cleanup() { rm -rf "$TMP"; }
trap cleanup EXIT
mkdir "$TMP"
rsync -a -- "$SOURCE/" "$TMP/"
mv "$TMP" "$FINAL"
trap - EXIT
find "$DEST" -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -name '20*'
-mtime +"$RETENTION_DAYS" -exec rm -rf -- {} +Set SOURCE to the configured -savedir path. If the server runs under a system account, a path such as /home/valheim/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim is more reliable than a tilde expression in a system-wide scheduler.
Prevent overlapping jobs
If a copy can take longer than its interval, wrap the script with a lock so two runs cannot read and write the same destination at once. On systems with flock, invoke it as follows:
flock -n /run/lock/valheim-backup.lock /usr/local/sbin/valheim-backup.shRun the command from cron or a service timer under the account that has access to the save root and destination. Log standard output and errors so a full disk, disconnected mount, or permission change produces an alert rather than a silently missing generation.
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Use a scheduler interval that matches your save behavior
A cron entry such as 17 * * * * starts the job at 17 minutes past every hour, but the minute value does not prove that a world save has finished. Choose an offset only after observing the server’s save timing, or briefly stop or quiesce the service for the archive step when your player population allows it. A systemd timer can provide the same hourly cadence with persistent execution after a host reboot; the important properties are a non-overlapping job, a logged result, and a destination outside the live directory.
Make the copied files internally consistent
A Valheim world save is made up of multiple files. Reading one while the server is writing it and another before or after the write can produce a generation whose files do not belong to the same save point. Community container implementations warn that active-file reads require consistency checks or retries for multi-file world saves.
Use one of these approaches:
- Copy after a known completed save: schedule the archive after the server’s save interval and allow enough time for the write to finish.
- Quiesce the service: stop the dedicated server briefly, copy the save root, then start it again. This gives the cleanest snapshot but disconnects players.
- Use coordinated tooling: if your service or container provides a save-and-backup hook, use its documented ordering and failure reporting rather than launching an independent copy at an arbitrary instant.
- Retry and validate: keep incomplete generations separate, retry transient read errors, and do not promote a failed copy to the normal dated naming scheme.
Never delete the previous good generation before the new copy has completed and passed basic checks.
Verify that backups are usable
A successful scheduler status only proves that a process ran. Verification should confirm that data reached the intended destination and that the archive can be read.
- After each run, check that a new timestamped generation exists and that its size is plausible compared with earlier generations.
- Confirm that the world and permission files are present under the expected directory structure.
- Record failures from the copy command and alert when the destination is unavailable, read-only, or out of space.
- Periodically copy one generation to a separate test directory and walk through the restore procedure without overwriting the live server.
- Keep the original failed or replaced directory until the test world has loaded and the expected map and player state have been confirmed.
A restore drill also exposes practical problems that file listings cannot: wrong service ownership, an incorrect -savedir value, an archive that was captured mid-write, or a scheduler account that cannot access the destination.
Restore a Valheim world safely
Restore into the path the server actually uses, not automatically into the platform default. Stop the server before changing live data.
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- Stop the dedicated server through its service manager, hosting panel, or normal shutdown method. Do not replace files while the process is running.
- Preserve the current directory. Rename the configured save root to a dated name such as
Valheim.failed-2026-10-15, or copy it to a separate diagnostic location. Keeping it allows you to recover files that were not damaged. - Select a generation. Start with the newest archive known to predate the problem. If it was captured during a write or does not load, try the next older generation.
- Restore the directory contents into the configured save root. Copy the complete generation, including world and permission files, rather than only a visible world file.
- Fix ownership and permissions on Linux. The service account must be able to read and write the restored files. Use the ownership and mode conventions already used by the working server directory.
- Start the server with the same launch configuration, including the same
-savedirvalue and world selection. - Check the result in game. Confirm that the expected terrain, structures, player progress, and access permissions are present before deleting the preserved failed directory.
If the server starts but shows a different or apparently new world, stop it and re-check the launch command, world selection, and restored path. That symptom often means the archive was placed in a directory the process does not use.
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Compare backup approaches by the failure they cover
| Approach | Recovery speed | Protection from host-disk loss | Consistency control | Cost and capacity | Retention control |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valheim built-in rotation | Fastest for recent mistakes because it is already on the server. | Low; the rotations share the server environment. | Managed by the game’s save process. | Minimal additional storage. | Fixed by the configured rotation count and intervals. |
| External hard drive or portable SSD | Fast when attached to the host. | Better than local-only storage if disconnected or stored separately; it can still be lost with the host if permanently attached. | Depends on scheduling around completed saves or pausing the service. | Upfront hardware cost; capacity is limited by the drive. | Controlled with dated generations and pruning. |
| NAS or another host | Depends on the network and destination availability. | Stronger separation from a failed game-server disk. | Requires reliable transfer and handling of interrupted copies. | Network and storage costs; remote systems may add recurring charges. | Flexible age and count policies. |
For most small servers, the practical baseline is built-in rotation plus an hourly or otherwise frequent external generation, with a longer-lived set of older copies if the storage budget permits.
Troubleshoot common backup failures
The archive is always empty
Check the source path first. A missing or mistyped -savedir value can make a script read the platform default while the server writes elsewhere. Then check the scheduler account’s permissions and whether the external destination is mounted at run time.
Copies contain different timestamps or fail intermittently
The job may be reading files during a save. Move it to a known post-save window, pause the service for the copy, or add the consistency and retry behavior supplied by your service tooling. Keep incomplete runs separate from completed generations.
The destination fills up
Confirm that pruning matches the directory naming pattern and that the scheduler account can delete old generations. Remove accidental nested backup directories, then set both a maximum age and a maximum count so an unexpectedly frequent schedule cannot consume all capacity.
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Inspect ownership and permissions after extraction. Restore them to the account that runs the dedicated server, then verify that the service can create or update files in the restored save root before allowing players to connect.
A backup exists but cannot be used
Do not assume a completed copy is a consistent copy. Select the next older generation, restore it to a test directory, and perform periodic drills so a broken process is discovered before an emergency.
Quick Recap
A practical operating checklist
- Resolve and document the actual
-savedirpath. - Keep
-backups 4or another intentional built-in rotation enabled. - Copy the complete save root to storage outside the live directory.
- Use dated generations and prevent overlapping jobs.
- Schedule around completed saves or briefly quiesce the server.
- Prune by age and count, and monitor destination capacity.
- Log failures and verify that each generation contains the required files.
- Practice a restore on a copy before a real incident.
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