How to Import an Existing Valheim World

Before You Start

You need the whole world FOLDER. Since Valheim 1.0 a world is a folder named after the world, holding its data split into chunk files, rather than a WorldName.db and WorldName.fwl pair. Every chunk has to come with it - a partial copy will not load.

If your world was saved to Steam Cloud, you need to move it to local storage first. In Valheim settings, toggle "Cloud Saves" off, then launch your world once to write the files locally.

Stop your GameGrid server before uploading. Never upload world files while the server is running.

Finding Your Local World Files

Steam (Windows): %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds (or worlds_local)

Steam (Linux): ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds

Steam (Mac): ~/Library/Application Support/IronGate/Valheim/worlds

Microsoft Store / Game Pass (Windows): C:\XboxGames\Valheim\Content (or check the app data folder)

Look for a folder with your world's name and copy the whole thing. A client that has not been updated to 1.0 yet still has the old file pair instead; upload that as it is and the server converts it on the first start.

Uploading to Your GameGrid Server

1. Stop your server from the control panel. Wait for it to show as Offline.

2. Open the Files tab.

3. Navigate to the worlds_local directory.

4. Upload the whole world folder into this directory. You can drag and drop or use the Upload button.

5. Wait for the upload to complete. Verify the folder is there and that every chunk file came with it.

6. Go to the Settings tab and update the World Name field to match the folder name.

7. If the world carries its own modifier settings that you want to keep, turn on Keep World's Own Modifiers in the same Settings tab, under World. Do this BEFORE the first start: without it the panel sends its own -preset, -modifier and -setkey arguments on every start, and the game rebuilds the world's modifier list from them. With it on, the panel sends none of them and the rest of the modifier section is hidden.

8. Start the server. If the world was saved before Valheim 1.0, this first start converts it to the chunked format and can take several minutes.

9. Connect and verify the world loaded correctly. Check that your buildings, items, and progress are intact.

10. Once confirmed, create a manual backup from the Backups tab so you have a clean restore point.

Importing from Another Dedicated Server

The process is the same - you need the world folder from the old server's save directory.

If the old server used a custom -savedir, look in that directory instead of the default path.

If the old server used a different world name, rename the folder to match the new world name you want to use, or set the World Name setting to match the folder you uploaded.

Admin and permission lists (adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt, permittedlist.txt) are separate from world files, and they live at the ROOT of the server folder, not inside worlds_local. If you want to carry over your admin list, upload those files there - and remember Valheim reads them at startup, so they take effect on the next start.

Common Issues

World does not load: verify the World Name setting exactly matches the name of the world folder you uploaded.

World loads but is empty: the upload is incomplete, or the folder name does not match the World Name setting.

Server hangs on startup: the world may be corrupted, or it is an old-format world still being converted - the first start after a 1.0 conversion can take several minutes on an established world. If it is genuinely stuck, upload one of Valheim's own backup folders instead, or restore from a GameGrid backup.

Players see a different world: the server may have generated a new one because the upload landed in the wrong place. Verify the world folder sits directly inside worlds_local, not in the server root and not nested inside another folder.

Once you have confirmed the world loads, take a manual backup from the Backups tab. That is the point you want to be able to come back to.