How to Configure Autosave and Backup Settings on Your Valheim Server
Control how often Valheim saves your world and how many rolling backup snapshots it keeps — all via startup parameters.
The Startup Parameters That Control Saving
Valheim's save and backup behavior is configured entirely through startup parameters — there's no in-game menu or config file for this. Add these flags to your server's launch arguments in the control panel.
| Parameter | Default | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
-saveinterval N |
1800 | How often (in seconds) the world autosaves |
-backups N |
4 | Total number of rolling backup snapshots to keep |
-backupshort N |
7200 | Interval (seconds) between "short" backups |
-backuplong N |
43200 | Interval (seconds) between "long" backups |
How the Backup Slots Work
Valheim keeps a fixed number of snapshots set by -backups. These slots are divided between short-interval and long-interval backups.
- Short backups are taken more frequently and fill the earlier slots
- Long backups are spaced further apart and represent older checkpoints
When the slots fill up, the oldest snapshot is dropped to make room for the newest one. Think of it as a rolling window — you always have your N most recent snapshots, spread across different time intervals.
The backup files appear alongside your world files with timestamp suffixes in the worlds directory.
Recommended Config for an Active Server
The defaults are conservative. For a server with regular activity where you want tighter recovery windows:
-saveinterval 600 -backups 8 -backupshort 3600 -backuplong 86400
This saves every 10 minutes, keeps 8 snapshots, with short backups every hour and long backups every 24 hours. In a worst-case crash you lose at most 10 minutes of progress, and you have a full day of history to roll back through.
For reference, those numbers in plain time:
600= 10 minutes3600= 1 hour86400= 24 hours
Where These Go in the Startup Command
Add them alongside your other parameters:
./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "My Server" -world "MyWorld" -password "secret" -saveinterval 600 -backups 8 -backupshort 3600 -backuplong 86400
Restart the server after changing any startup parameters. Changes don't apply to a running server.
Tradeoffs to Know
Lower -saveinterval means less data lost in a crash but more frequent disk writes. On most hosting setups this is negligible. If you're on a very resource-constrained plan, stay closer to the default 1800.
Higher -backups keeps more history but uses more disk space. Each backup is roughly the size of your .db file, so a world that's grown large will accumulate meaningful storage if you keep many snapshots.
Manual Backups
The automatic backup system doesn't replace intentional manual backups before major events — updates, big raids, boss attempts. The .db.old and .fwl.old files Valheim always keeps on disk are your immediate rollback, but a downloaded copy is your safety net.