How to Back Up and Restore Your RuneScape: Dragonwilds Server World

Context

The world of a RuneScape: Dragonwilds server fits in a single file, for example MyWorld.sav, stored in the RSDragonwilds/Saved/SaveGames folder. On a Winheberg server it is protected at three levels, the game's automatic save, the full backups of the panel and the copy you can keep on your computer.

This guide explains how each level works, how to create and restore a backup, and how to download or put back the world file.

Requirements

An active RuneScape: Dragonwilds server on the Winheberg game panel
Access to the server's Console, Files and Backups tabs on panel.winheberg.com

1. Understand the automatic save

The server saves the world on its own. In our tests, it did so every 5 minutes, and each save shows up in the console like this.

LogPersistence: [DedicatedServer] operator()() : Save completed SUCCESSFULLY (slot: MyWorld)

The RSDragonwilds/Saved/SaveGames folder then holds two files per world.

RSDragonwilds/Saved/SaveGames folder in the Files tab of the Winheberg panel with the MyWorld.sav and MyWorld.sav.backup files outlined in red

Files of a world

File	Content
`MyWorld.sav`	The world as of the last automatic save
`MyWorld.sav.backup`	The previous automatic save, about 5 minutes older

In our tests, no save was written when the server stopped. Before a Stop or a Restart, wait for a Save completed SUCCESSFULLY line to have just appeared in the console, otherwise the last minutes of play will be lost.

2. Create a backup from the panel

Panel backups copy the whole server, world included. They let you go back much further than the .sav.backup copy.

Open the Backups tab, under MANAGEMENT in the side menu.
Click Create backup.
Give it a meaningful name in Backup name, for example before-update.
Tick Locked if it must not be deletable by mistake.
Click Start backup.

Backups tab of the Winheberg panel with the Create backup button and a backup's menu button outlined in red

The line under Manage backups shows how many backups already exist and how many your server allows. On our test server, a full backup weighed a little over 2 GB and took about a minute.

For all the details on this tab, see our guide How to Create and Restore a Backup of Your Gaming Server.

3. Restore a panel backup

In the Backups tab, click the … button at the end of the backup's row. The menu offers Download, Restore, Lock and Delete. Choose Restore and confirm.

Menu of a backup in the Backups tab with Restore outlined in red

Restore puts every server file back in the state of the backup, not just the world. Everything played since the backup is lost. When in doubt, first create a new backup of the current state.

4. Download the world file

To keep a copy of the world on your computer, there is no need to download the whole server. The .sav file only weighs a few dozen kilobytes.

Stop the server with Stop right after a Save completed SUCCESSFULLY line, so the file is up to date.
In the Files tab, open RSDragonwilds/Saved/SaveGames.
Download the world file, for example MyWorld.sav.

Menu of a world file in the Files tab with Download outlined in red

You can also fetch it over SFTP, see our guide How to Connect to Your Gaming Server via SFTP.

5. Put a world file back on the server

Stop the server with Stop.
In the Files tab, open RSDragonwilds/Saved/SaveGames and upload your .sav file.
Check that its name, without the .sav extension, matches the DEFAULT WORLD NAME variable of the Startup tab exactly. This name decides which world is loaded.
Start the server with Start.

Upload button of the Files tab in the SaveGames folder outlined in red

If a file with the same name already exists, rename the old one before uploading, for example to MyWorld-old.sav. You can go back to it later by changing DEFAULT WORLD NAME, as explained in our guide "How to Change or Reset the World on a RuneScape: Dragonwilds Server".

Troubleshooting

❌ The last minutes of play disappeared after a restart

The server saves the world at regular intervals, and no save was written on stop in our tests
Before a restart, wait for the Save completed SUCCESSFULLY line in the console

❌ The world put back on the server does not load

Compare the file name with DEFAULT WORLD NAME, capital letters included
Check that the file sits in RSDragonwilds/Saved/SaveGames and not in a subfolder
Make sure the server was stopped during the upload

❌ A new backup cannot be created

The maximum number of backups may be reached, the line under Manage backups shows it
Delete an old backup, after unlocking it if it is marked Locked

Best practices

Create a backup from the Backups tab before every game update or reset
Keep a backup locked with Lock for the state you never want to lose
Download the .sav file to your computer from time to time, it weighs almost nothing
Always restart right after an automatic save, never in the middle of the interval

Need help

If a restore fails or your world cannot be found, open a ticket with our support team from your client area, Technical department, with the server in the Related Product field. Our team can check the server files with you.

Your world is safe. 🔒