Backing Up and Wiping Your Hytale Server

Backing Up and Wiping Your Hytale Server

Regular backups protect against data loss from corruption, failed updates, or accidental world resets. Hytale's data is self-contained in the universe/ directory, making backup straightforward.

What to Back Up

The critical data for a Hytale server lives in these locations:

The minimum viable backup is the entire universe/ directory plus your JSON config files.

Creating a Backup

Always stop the server before backing up to ensure data consistency. A running server may be in the middle of writing to disk.

# Stop the server
sudo systemctl stop hytale

# Create a timestamped archive
BACKUP_NAME="hytale-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)"
tar -czf "/opt/backups/${BACKUP_NAME}.tar.gz" \
    -C /opt/hytale-server \
    universe/ config.json permissions.json whitelist.json bans.json

# Restart the server
sudo systemctl start hytale

echo "Backup saved to /opt/backups/${BACKUP_NAME}.tar.gz"

Create the backup directory first if it does not exist:

mkdir -p /opt/backups

Automating Backups with Cron

To run a backup every night at 3 AM:

crontab -e

Add the line:

0 3 * * * systemctl stop hytale && tar -czf /opt/backups/hytale-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).tar.gz -C /opt/hytale-server universe/ config.json && systemctl start hytale

Adjust the schedule and file paths to fit your setup. Keep at least 7 days of backups and consider copying them off-server to a remote location.

Restoring from Backup

1. Stop the server.
2. Remove or rename the current universe/ directory.
3. Extract the backup:

sudo systemctl stop hytale
mv /opt/hytale-server/universe /opt/hytale-server/universe-old
tar -xzf /opt/backups/hytale-backup-20260427-030000.tar.gz \
    -C /opt/hytale-server
sudo systemctl start hytale

Wiping the Entire Server

A full server wipe removes all world data and player progress, returning the server to a fresh state.

1. Stop the server.
2. Delete the universe/ directory.
3. Optionally reset your JSON config files to defaults.
4. Start the server — it will generate a new universe on startup.

sudo systemctl stop hytale
rm -rf /opt/hytale-server/universe/
sudo systemctl start hytale

Wiping a Single World

To reset one world without touching player data or other worlds:

sudo systemctl stop hytale

# Back it up first (recommended)
cp -r /opt/hytale-server/universe/worlds/overworld \
      /opt/backups/overworld-pre-wipe-$(date +%Y%m%d)

# Delete the world directory (keep the config)
cp /opt/hytale-server/universe/worlds/overworld/config.json /tmp/overworld-config.json
rm -rf /opt/hytale-server/universe/worlds/overworld
mkdir /opt/hytale-server/universe/worlds/overworld
cp /tmp/overworld-config.json /opt/hytale-server/universe/worlds/overworld/config.json

sudo systemctl start hytale

The server regenerates the terrain from scratch while preserving player data and other worlds.

Related

• Managing Hytale Worlds and the Universe Directory
• Updating Your Hytale Dedicated Server
• Hytale Server Troubleshooting Guide
• Host a Hytale server with DustBowl.Games