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Guides / Valheim / World and server settings

Change how often a Valheim server saves

Set Save every (minutes) in the Config Editor (the panel accepts 5 to 120). The game saves every 30 minutes by default and when the server stops.

Updated , checked on Valheim 1.0.20

Open the Config Editor, choose Server settings and change Save every (minutes). The panel accepts a number from 5 to 120. The game’s own default is 30. The new value applies at the next start. More about the game: Valheim servers.

What a save does

The game writes the whole world to disk at each save. Between saves, changes sit in memory. If the server dies between two saves, players lose what happened since the last one.

The world also saves when the server stops in the normal way. The panel stops the game with an interrupt, and the game saves before it quits.

A save causes a short pause. The game copies the world in memory, and for that moment the server holds its relay work. The Valheim wiki puts this at roughly 20 to 300 milliseconds. Writing to disk then runs in the background.

In the ArthOS panel

  1. Open the Config Editor page.
  2. Choose the source Server settings.
  3. In the group Saving, find Save every (minutes).
  4. Type a number from 5 to 120 (the panel’s limits) and choose Save.
  5. Choose Restart at the top of the server page. The game reads the value only at start.
The Config Editor with the Server settings source and the Saving group
  1. Server settings
  2. Save every (minutes)
Save every (minutes) changed and not saved yet, with Discard and Save active
  1. Your new number
  2. Save

The page says “Saved changes apply after a restart.” The same value is on the Startup page as Save every (seconds). The default there is 1800.

Which number to pick

  • A short time, like 10, loses less after a crash. Each save is a short pause, so more saves mean more pauses.
  • A long time saves less often. A crash then costs more.
  • 30 is a fair middle for most worlds.

Save right now

With the panel tools on, the Players and Map pages have a Save the world now button. It writes the world at once, which is useful before a risky change. Turn the tools on with Turn on panel tools on the Players page. See the panel tools.

By hand

The game’s start option is -saveinterval and it takes seconds. The default is 1800, which is 30 minutes.

If it does not work

  • The interval did not change. Restart the server with Restart at the top of the page.
  • Your number is refused. The panel accepts a whole number from 5 to 120.
  • Players still lost progress after a crash. Only what happened since the last save can be lost. Backups help with other mistakes: see world backups.

Sources: valheim.fandom.com: Dedicated servers

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