Windrose Updated April 27, 2026

Backing Up and Restoring Your World

Back up Windrose world data and ServerDescription.json, and restore from backup safely.

Windrosebackuprestoreworld save

Overview

Windrose world data is stored in a RocksDB directory structure on disk. The server holds world state in memory while running and writes it to disk on graceful shutdown. This means you must stop the server before taking a reliable backup or performing a restore.

What to Back Up

Back up both of the following:

World data directory:

R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB/<version>/Worlds/<world-id>/

Replace <version> with the current game version folder and <world-id> with your world's ID (matching the WorldIslandId value in ServerDescription.json).

Server configuration:

/home/container/ServerDescription.json

Both are required for a complete restore. The WorldIslandId in ServerDescription.json must match the world folder name — restoring the world data alone without the correct configuration will prevent the server from loading it.

Performing a Backup

  1. Stop the server from the panel console. Wait for it to fully shut down so the world state is flushed to disk.
  2. In the panel file manager or via SFTP, navigate to R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB/.
  3. Download the entire <version>/Worlds/<world-id>/ folder.
  4. Also download ServerDescription.json from the container root.
  5. Store both in a dated archive (e.g., windrose-backup-2026-04-27.zip).

Automated Backups

Most WISP and Pterodactyl installations include a built-in backup system. Schedule automatic backups from Server > Backups in your panel. Set a retention policy that keeps at least 3 recent backups. Automated backups capture the full container — no need to specify individual paths.

If your panel does not have built-in backup scheduling, use a cron job or external script to pull the relevant directories via SFTP on a regular schedule.

Restoring from Backup

  1. Stop the server. This is mandatory — restoring to a running server will result in the in-memory state overwriting your restored files on shutdown.
  2. Via SFTP or the panel file manager, upload the backed-up world folder to: 
    R5/Saved/SaveProfiles/Default/RocksDB/<version>/Worlds/<world-id>/
  3. Upload ServerDescription.json to the container root, or manually confirm that the WorldIslandId field matches the world folder name you just restored.
  4. Start the server.

Verifying a Restore

After the server starts, join and confirm the world state matches expectations (player inventories, built structures, resource state). Check R5.log for any errors during world load.

Before Installing Mods or Major Changes

Always take a manual backup before:

  • Installing or removing mods
  • Changing the WorldIslandId or creating a new world
  • Running a server update
  • Making significant changes to WorldDescription.json

This gives you a clean rollback point if something goes wrong.

Log Files

Logs are not part of the world save and do not need to be backed up for restore purposes, but they are useful for post-incident review:

R5/Saved/Logs/R5.log
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