Palworld Settings Not Applying After Restart

Check These Three Things First

Almost every "my settings are not applying" report is one of three things, and only the third involves file surgery.

1. The server was not restarted. EVERY Palworld setting requires a full stop and start. Nothing in PalWorldSettings.ini reloads on a running server, and there is no soft reload. Clicking Save Changes writes the file; it does not apply it.

2. The setting is new-world-only. Difficulty, PvP Enabled and Hardcore Mode are only read when a world is created. Changing one on a server that already has a world does nothing, however many times you restart. The only way to apply them is to reset the world - see the World Reset guide. The panel marks these fields, and it is not a bug.

3. WorldOption.sav is shadowing the value. This is real but narrower than most guides suggest - see below.

The WorldOption.sav Override

WorldOption.sav is a binary file in the world save folder that holds a snapshot of certain gameplay settings. Where it holds a value, the game reads it INSTEAD of the matching one in PalWorldSettings.ini.

The setting GameGrid tracks as shadowed by this file is Workers per Base (BaseCampWorkerMaxNum). If that is the one you changed and it will not stick, this is very likely why.

Server-level settings are never shadowed: Server Name, Server Description, Server Password, Administrator Password, Public IP, Public Port, Maximum Players, and the RCON and REST API fields all come from the INI.

Not every server even has a WorldOption.sav. A world created directly on a dedicated server may have none, in which case nothing is being shadowed. Look in the folder before assuming.

If you changed something other than Workers per Base, work through the first two causes above before touching this file.

Fix: Delete WorldOption.sav

To force the server back onto PalWorldSettings.ini, delete WorldOption.sav.

1. Take a manual backup from the Backups tab first. You are deleting a file the world is using.

2. Stop the server. Never edit or delete save files while it is running.

3. Open the Files tab and navigate to Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/[WorldGUID]/.

4. Download WorldOption.sav to your own machine so you can put it back.

5. Delete it from the server.

6. Start the server. It reads the INI settings instead.

Your world data - Level.sav, player data, bases and Pals - is not affected. Only the settings snapshot goes.

If the setting still does not apply after this, it was not being shadowed. Re-check causes 1 and 2 above, then open a support ticket with the value you set and the value you see in game.

Check for Syntax Errors

This only applies if you have been editing PalWorldSettings.ini by hand. If you use the Settings tab, the panel writes the file and this cannot happen.

The entire settings block is a single line: OptionSettings=(ServerName="...",ServerPassword="",...). A single missing comma, unmatched quote or missing parenthesis makes the server ignore the whole file and fall back to defaults, silently and with no error message.

The tell is that EVERYTHING reverts at once, not just the setting you changed. If only one value is wrong, this is not your problem.

The fix is to stop editing the file and use the Settings tab, which parses and rewrites the block correctly.

Always Stop Before Editing

If you edit PalWorldSettings.ini by hand while the server is running, the server can overwrite your changes when it shuts down, writing its own in-memory settings back over whatever you saved.

Always stop the server, make your changes, then start it again.

The Settings tab is the safer route in any case: it validates each field against its own range, writes the OptionSettings line correctly, and does not require you to know which file to open.