How to Back Up and Restore Your Icarus Server
Back up Icarus prospect saves and configs, then restore from backup if your dedicated server crashes or corrupts.
Icarus stores all player progress in prospect .json files. Backing up a prospect = backing up that entire game session. This page covers backing up prospects manually, using the panel backup tool, and restoring after a crash.
Critical: Never rename or hand-edit prospect
.jsonfiles. RocketWerkz's docs explicitly warn this causes unrecoverable corruption. Always work with whole files.
What to Back Up
| What | Path | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Prospects (saves) | Icarus/Saved/PlayerData/DedicatedServer/Prospects/*.json | All player progress, builds, world state |
| ServerSettings.ini | Icarus/Saved/Config/ServerSettings.ini | Server config — admin password, prospect settings, shutdown timers |
| Mods | Icarus/Content/Paks/mods/*.pak | Custom mods (so you don't have to re-download) |
Prospects are by far the most important — losing the others is annoying, losing prospects is hours of player progress gone.
Backup Methods
Stop the server from Console in the XGamingServer Panel.
Open the Backups tab and click Create Backup.
Give it a descriptive name (e.g. pre-mod-update-2026-04) and confirm.
The panel backup captures the whole server directory — prospects, configs, mods, everything. You can restore from the same Backups tab.
Stop the server.
In Files, navigate to:
Icarus/Saved/PlayerData/DedicatedServer/Prospects/Right-click each .json prospect → Download. Save them somewhere safe.
(Optional) Also download Icarus/Saved/Config/ServerSettings.ini.
When to Back Up
| Trigger | Why |
|---|---|
| Before updating the server | Game updates can break mods or change save formats |
| Before installing/removing mods | Mods can corrupt prospects on rollback |
| Before changing difficulty / hardcore | Settings stored inside the prospect — bad changes can brick it |
| After a major build session | Protect player progress |
| Weekly on a schedule | General hygiene |
Restore From Backup
Stop the server.
In the Backups tab, click ... → Restore on the backup you want.
Wait for the restore to finish, then start the server.
Stop the server.
In Files, navigate to Icarus/Saved/PlayerData/DedicatedServer/Prospects/.
Upload your saved .json file, overwriting the existing one if it has the same name.
If the prospect name is different from what's currently loaded, edit ServerSettings.ini and set LoadProspect=YourBackupName (without the .json).
Start the server.
Recover From a Corrupted Prospect
If a prospect won't load (server hangs at "loading prospect" or crashes immediately):
Stop the server. Check the server logs in Console for errors mentioning the prospect name.
In Files, rename the broken prospect to .json.broken (so the server stops trying to load it). Do not edit it.
Restore from your most recent good backup using the steps above.
If you have no backup, set ResumeProspect=false and LoadProspect= to empty in ServerSettings.ini. Start the server — it will boot to the lobby and you can create a fresh prospect.
Where Local (Singleplayer) Saves Live
If you're migrating a singleplayer prospect to your dedicated server, the local saves are at:
%LocalAppData%\Icarus\Saved\PlayerData\{SteamID}\Prospects\Copy the .json from there to the dedicated server's Icarus/Saved/PlayerData/DedicatedServer/Prospects/ folder. See Upload a Save for the full migration steps.
Related Guides
How is this guide?
How to Stop Your Icarus Server From Auto-Shutting Down
Disable or reconfigure the idle and empty-server auto-shutdown timers on your Icarus dedicated server using ShutdownIfNotJoinedFor and ShutdownIfEmptyFor.
How to Upload a Save to Your Icarus Server
Transfer prospect and outpost saves from your local game to your Icarus dedicated server.