Practical guide
What this guide solves
A safe backup routine for solo worlds and dedicated servers, with a simple restore test and mod-change checklist.
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Read the official mod warningSafety
Back up while the world is not being written
Close a local session or stop a dedicated server cleanly before copying its world data. A folder copied during active writes may look complete while containing inconsistent files.
Name the backup with the date, game version and reason, such as before-1.0.3 or before-mod-update. Keep at least one copy outside the live game directory.
Safety
Verify the backup instead of trusting the copy dialog
- Confirm that the backup contains files and is not unexpectedly small.
- Record the original path and the exact restore destination.
- Keep the previous known-good backup when creating a new one.
- Test the restore workflow on a separate copy when the world is important.
- Do not overwrite the live world until the test copy loads correctly.
Safety
Use a new checkpoint before every mod change
Pocketpair warned that incompatible pre-1.0 mods and loaders can cause crashes, corrupted saves and broken quest or event progression. Removing the visible mod files may still leave a loader or altered data behind.
Make one change, start the game, inspect the world and only then install the next 1.0-compatible mod. This makes the cause identifiable and gives each step a clean rollback point.
Verification
Sources and review notes
Sources are shown so this answer can be checked after patches. Palpedia distinguishes installed game data from third-party field reporting.