Migrating active world progress from a dedicated Valheim server to a local singleplayer client is essential when an administrative team wants to transition from hosted multiplayer to solo play, test large-scale build architectures locally, or create an immutable offline snapshot prior to major content updates. Because Valheim's world state is split across distinct binary structures, attempting raw file extraction during an active game session frequently leads to corrupted structure databases.
This guide provides the exact storage directory paths on Linux dedicated servers, the procedure for flushing active write buffers, how to bundle .db and .fwl files over SFTP, and how to import them directly into your local singleplayer world catalog.
Valheim World File Architecture#
Every Valheim world consists of a mandatory pair of companion files sharing identical base filenames:
<WorldName>.db— The primary binary database containing the full runtime state of your world: player-constructed structures, terrain height modifications, chests, container item inventories, and serialized zone data objects (zDO).<WorldName>.fwl— The world metadata header file, which stores the generation seed, terrain generator revision, world unique identifier (UID), and display name.
Extracting the .db file without its matching .fwl header leaves the client unable to discover or load the world. On Linux dedicated servers, worlds are stored under the user configuration tree:
ls -la ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/
Older server builds may reference worlds/, but current server binaries prioritize the isolated worlds_local/ directory.
Stopping the Service and Flushing Write Buffers#
Valheim's Unity server process maintains entity mutations in system memory and flushes them to disk periodically according to the autosave interval (defaulting to 20 minutes). Downloading active files risks copying partial chunk writes.
To guarantee state consistency, stop the server daemon or issue an administrative save:
sudo systemctl stop valheim
If you manage the server remotely and need to verify the exact disk write timestamp before proceeding, check the modification attributes of the world database:
stat -c %y ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/Dedicated.db
Packaging and Transferring Worlds via SFTP#
To prevent transfer skew between the database and metadata header, compress both files into a single unified archive:
tar -czvf valheim-world-backup.tar.gz -C ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/ Dedicated.db Dedicated.fwl
Next, initiate an SFTP session from your local machine using terminal utilities or graphic clients such as FileZilla or WinSCP:
sftp deploy@176.223.141.160
get valheim-world-backup.tar.gz
exit
Once the download finishes, restart the server service immediately to restore availability for other players:
sudo systemctl start valheim
If you prefer automated continuous backups and instant one-click world downloads without running terminal commands, managed Valheim game hosting provides scheduled volume snapshots and dashboard save exports.
Importing Worlds into the Local Valheim Client#
Extract the downloaded archive onto your workstation. Copy Dedicated.db and Dedicated.fwl into the appropriate local client storage path based on your operating system:
- Windows:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local\ - Linux:
~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/ - macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/
cp Dedicated.db Dedicated.fwl ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local/
Launch Valheim and open the Select World menu. Your downloaded world will appear under the Local tab. If you wish to enable cloud synchronization across devices, highlight the world and select Move to Cloud.
