How to Back Up and Restore Your Palworld Server (Save Migration)
Back up Palworld saves, restore from a backup, and migrate worlds between hosts using the DedicatedServerName trick.
Palworld saves are sensitive to corruption — especially in early access — and the migration process is full of gotchas. This page covers backing up your server, restoring from a panel backup, and the DedicatedServerName trick that lets you move a save between hosts without losing player progress.
Where Saves Live
Palworld stores everything important in two places:
Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/<DedicatedServerName>/
Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/| Path | What's In It |
|---|---|
SaveGames/0/<DedicatedServerName>/ | The actual world: bases, players, Pals, world state |
Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini | Server settings |
Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini | Contains the DedicatedServerName GUID — critical for migration |
The <DedicatedServerName> is a randomly-generated GUID like D4F8A3E9C73B4A2BABC123456789ABCD. It's how Palworld links the save folder to the running server instance.
Method 1: Panel Backup (Easiest)
Stop your server from Console in the XGamingServer Panel.
Open the Backups tab and click Create Backup.
Name it something meaningful (e.g. pre-update-2026-04) and confirm.
The panel backup captures the entire server directory — saves, configs, and the DedicatedServerName link. To restore: Backups → ... → Restore.
Method 2: Manual Download
For full portability (e.g. moving to a different host) you need both folders.
Stop the server.
In Files, navigate to:
Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/Inside you'll see one folder named with a long GUID — that's your world. Right-click → Compress to zip it, then Download.
Also download:
Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini
Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.iniKeep all three files together — losing any one of them makes restoration much harder.
How Often to Back Up
| Trigger | Why |
|---|---|
| Before any game update | Updates have wiped saves more than once in EA |
| Before changing major settings | Some settings can corrupt the world if changed live |
| Daily on a schedule | General hygiene |
| Before installing/removing mods | Mods can corrupt saves on rollback |
| After a major build session | Protect player progress |
The bIsUseBackupSaveData=True setting in PalWorldSettings.ini (default on) makes the server keep an internal rolling backup, but this is not a substitute for panel backups — internal backups live in the same volume and don't survive a disk failure.
Migration: Moving a Save to a New Host
This is the part that trips everyone up. Don't just copy the SaveGames folder — Palworld won't find it because the new host generated a different DedicatedServerName.
The DedicatedServerName Trick
On your old server, open Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini and find the line:
DedicatedServerName=D4F8A3E9C73B4A2BABC123456789ABCDCopy that GUID value.
Stop the new XGamingServer Palworld server. Open its GameUserSettings.ini and replace its DedicatedServerName= value with the GUID you copied.
Upload your old SaveGames/0/<GUID>/ folder to the new server's Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/. The folder name must match the GUID you put in GameUserSettings.ini.
(Optional) Upload your old PalWorldSettings.ini if you want to keep your old settings.
Start the server. Players see their old characters, bases, and Pals.
Critical: Do NOT copy
GameUserSettings.inidirectly between hosts. The new host has its own GUID; you only copy theDedicatedServerName=line. Copying the whole file can break authentication.
Migration: Co-op to Dedicated (Player Save Fix)
If you're moving a co-op save (single-player hosted) to a dedicated server, the world transfers fine but player characters get reset because their identity is tied to the host's Steam ID. This is a separate problem with its own solution — see Character Save Fix.
Restoring After a Crash
If your save is corrupted or the world refuses to load:
Stop the server immediately. Don't let it write more bad state.
Check Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/<GUID>/Players/ and Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/<GUID>/SaveData/. If bIsUseBackupSaveData=True, the server has a .sav.bak of each file alongside the original.
Restore the most recent panel backup (Method 1 above). This is what panel backups exist for.
If the panel backup is too old, manually copy .sav.bak files over the .sav files in the save folder.
Start the server. If it still crashes, restore from an even older backup. Palworld save corruption is sometimes hours-deep.
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