Wiping Your DayZ Server: Full, Characters Only or World Only
Wipe a DayZ server the safe way: what persists, where the save lives on GameGrid, a full wipe from the Files tab, partial wipes, re-rolling loot, and what a wipe leaves alone.
What DayZ Saves
| Saved between restarts | Not saved |
|---|---|
| Characters: health, gear, position | Loose loot on the ground (the economy respawns it) |
| Bases: walls, gates, watchtowers, flags | Infected and animals |
| Storage: tents, barrels, crates, stashes | Weather |
| Vehicles and their contents |
A "wipe" means deleting some or all of that saved data.
Where the Save Lives on GameGrid
DayZ keeps its save data inside the mission folder of the map, in a folder named after the server's instance ID. On GameGrid the instance ID is always 1, so the save for Chernarus is:
mpmissions/dayzOffline.chernarusplus/storage_1/Each map has its own storage_1, so wiping Chernarus does not touch a Livonia folder on the same server.
Many online guides say
storage_1is inprofiles/. On GameGrid it is in the mission folder, as above.
Full Wipe (Files Tab)
1. Announce it. Give players warning in Discord and in game.
2. Stop the server from the status bar and wait until it shows as stopped, so DayZ has written its save.
3. Take a manual backup on the Backups tab, and wait until it reaches Verified. Stop first, then back up: DayZ has no command that forces a save while it runs, so a backup taken with the server still up holds only DayZ's last automatic write — and this backup is your only way back from the wipe.
4. In the Files tab, open mpmissions/<mission>/ for the map your server loads.
5. Delete the storage_1 folder.
6. Start the server. DayZ creates fresh save data on start: new characters, no bases, no vehicles.
Never delete save files while the server is running. DayZ holds them open and writes them on shutdown, so the "wiped" world can be written straight back, or the save ends up half old and half new.
Partial Wipes: Characters Only or World Only
DayZ community guides describe two partial wipes, both done with the server stopped and a backup taken first:
| Wipe | What guides say to delete inside storage_1 | Intended result |
|---|---|---|
| Characters only | The players database | Everyone starts as a fresh spawn; bases and vehicles stay |
| World only | The data folder | Characters keep their gear; bases, stashes and vehicles are gone |
These two are a community recipe rather than a GameGrid feature: no card on the Admin tab does either of them for you, and the names of the files inside storage_1 differ between DayZ versions. Look at what your own storage_1 actually contains before deleting anything, and if the result is not what you wanted, restore the backup you took.
Re-rolling Loot Without a Wipe
To respawn map loot while keeping characters, bases and storage, set RestartSpawn to 1 in globals.xml for one restart, then set it back to 0. See globals.xml.
The Admin Tab Cards
The Delete Savegames card on the Admin tab lists the exact paths it deletes on your server before you confirm. Read that list: only use it for a DayZ wipe if it names the storage_1 folder of the map you mean. Otherwise, use the Files tab steps above.
Wipe Server on the same tab is much bigger: it rebuilds the whole server as new, removing settings and mission edits too. Use it only when you really want to start from scratch. Details: Server Administration.
What a Files-Tab Wipe Leaves Alone
Deleting storage_1 (or part of it) does not touch:
serverDZ.cfgand every Settings tab value;- your edits to
types.xml,events.xml,globals.xmland other mission files; whitelist.txt,priority.txt,ban.txtand BattlEye bans;- your backups.
To undo a wipe, restore the backup you took before it from the Backups tab. See DayZ Backups, Restores and Where Your Save Lives.