How To Back Up And Restore A Palworld Server World Without Losing Progress

A Palworld server backup protects your world before updates, settings changes, mod installs, crashes, migrations, and wipes. If something goes wrong, a clean backup gives you a way back without asking players to rebuild everything.

Backups are most useful when they are made before risk, stored outside the active Palworld server folder, and tested before you trust them. A copy you have never checked is only a hope.

Before You Back Up

Tell players what is happening and ask them to disconnect. If the server is online, AdminPassword must already be set in the configuration file. Press Enter in game, run /AdminPassword <password> to unlock admin access, then run:

/Broadcast Server backup in 10 minutes. Please return to a safe place.
/Save
/Shutdown 600 Server stopping for backup.

Wait for the server to stop completely. Do not copy or restore files while the server is running, because Palworld may be writing save data at the same time.

You need access to the server files and a destination with enough free space. Use a folder outside the active server install, a separate drive, cloud storage, or your hosting panel's backup tool if available.

Find Your Palworld Saved Folder

The server root means the folder that contains PalServer.exe on Windows or PalServer.sh on Linux. If you followed a typical SteamCMD layout, examples are:

Windows:

C:\steamcmd\steamapps\common\PalServer

Linux:

~/Steam/steamapps/common/PalServer

Your active saved data is under the Pal\Saved tree. Use these complete example paths:

Windows:

C:\steamcmd\steamapps\common\PalServer\Pal\Saved

Linux:

~/Steam/steamapps/common/PalServer/Pal/Saved

If your install path is different, open the folder that contains the server executable, then follow Pal\Saved from there. For official Docker setups, Pocketpair's sample creates saved files under ./Saved next to compose.yaml.

Create A Manual Backup On Windows

Open File Explorer and go to:

C:\steamcmd\steamapps\common\PalServer\Pal

Right-click the Saved folder, choose Copy, then paste it into a backup location such as:

D:\PalworldBackups\Saved-2026-06-25-before-update

You can also use PowerShell. Open Start, type PowerShell, choose Windows PowerShell, and run:

Copy-Item -LiteralPath "C:\steamcmd\steamapps\common\PalServer\Pal\Saved" -Destination "D:\PalworldBackups\Saved-2026-06-25-before-update" -Recurse

Keep the quotation marks around paths. They prevent errors if a folder name contains spaces.

Verify The Backup

Open the backup folder and confirm it contains Config, SaveGames, or other expected saved-data folders. Check that the folder size is not tiny and the modified time matches your recent server activity.

If possible, make two copies before major updates or mod changes: one local copy and one off-machine copy. A backup on the same drive can still be lost if the drive fails.

Palworld also has the bIsUseBackupSaveData setting, which creates a backup directory in the save data directory when enabled. That is useful, but it should not replace manual backups before risky changes.

Restore A Palworld Server Backup

Restoring replaces the active saved data with an older copy. Warn players that progress after the backup time may be lost.

Stop the server first. Then rename the current active folder instead of deleting it. On Windows, rename:

C:\steamcmd\steamapps\common\PalServer\Pal\Saved

to:

Saved-broken-do-not-delete-yet

Copy the contents of your chosen backup so the restored folder becomes exactly:

C:\steamcmd\steamapps\common\PalServer\Pal\Saved

Do not create an extra nested folder such as Pal\Saved\Saved-2026-06-25-before-update. The server should see Config, SaveGames, and related saved-data folders directly inside Pal\Saved.

Start the server and test with one trusted player. Check characters, bases, Palboxes, settings, and whether the server saves again. If the restore is wrong, stop the server, remove the restored Saved folder, and rename the previous active folder back to Saved.

How Dedicated Palworld Server Hosting Simplifies Backups

Manual backups work, but beginners have to understand file paths, stopping the server, copying folders, storage space, and rollback order. A mistake can overwrite the wrong folder.

Dedicated Palworld server hosting makes backups easier because all key controls are in one panel. With Pine Hosting, you can stop the server before a risky change, use the backup tab to create a backup with 1 click, and restore it anytime with 1 click aswell. That saves the manual home-hosting routine of finding the correct save folder, closing the right server process, copying files by hand, and hoping the server starts cleanly.

For important worlds, hosting does not remove the need to think about backups. Even if you set up automatic backups using the schedules tab, you should still back up before updates, mods, wipes, and migrations. It just gives you cleaner tools to do it.

Make Backups A Routine

Back up before every Palworld update, mod change, settings overhaul, migration, or wipe. For active communities, keep a daily or weekly backup habit and label each folder clearly.

The best backup is boring: easy to find, made while the server was stopped, stored somewhere safe, and tested before disaster. Future you will be very glad it exists.

Protect Your Palworld Server Before The Next Restore

If your world is important enough to restore, host it with Pine Hosting's Palworld server hosting so backup checks, file access, and restarts are easier to handle.

With a hosted setup, the backup routine is easier to repeat: stop the server from the panel, use file access to copy or replace save data, restart cleanly, and check the console afterward. That gives you a calmer recovery path when an update, mod, migration, or wipe goes wrong.