Backups and Game Updates on a 7 Days to Die Server
Your server updates itself at every start. Your settings survive it because they live in a file Steam does not own. Your world needs a backup before a major version.
4 min read · Updated Oct 25, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
Your server checks for a new version every time it starts, and your settings are kept in a file the update cannot touch. What an update can affect is your world and your mods, so take a backup before a major version lands.
How updating works
Update the game on every start is in Startup settings on your server's Settings tab, and it is on. Each start, the server asks Steam for the current release and installs it if there is one. That keeps you in step with your players, whose own copies update automatically whether they like it or not.
If you would rather control it, turn that setting off. Your server will stay where it is until you turn it back on, which also means it will eventually refuse connections from players whose game has moved on.
Why your settings survive an update
This is worth knowing because it is not true of most hosts.
The game ships a file called serverconfig.xml, and because Steam owns that file, an update puts it back the way the developers wrote it. On a server that updates itself, that quietly resets the server name, the password and the world settings on patch day.
Your server does not read that file. It is started with a copy of its own, guavahost.xml, which Steam has never heard of and will never replace. The panel's Server settings page edits that one. 7 Days to Die server settings has the detail.
What an update can still break
- Mods. A mod built for one version is not guaranteed to load on the next, and an overhaul such as Darkness Falls almost never does. If you run mods you care about, pin a Steam branch rather than following every release.
- Your world, on a major version. Small updates load an existing save fine. A major version change sometimes will not, and when it does load it can change the world around your base.
Pin a version for a mod
- Find the game version the mod's current release targets, from the mod's own page.
- In the panel, open the Settings tab and find Startup settings.
- Put that version's Steam branch name in Steam branch and click Save next to it.
- Restart the server.
Tell your players which branch to switch to in Steam, because their game has to match yours.
Back up before anything big
Take one from the Backups tab. It is one click, it snapshots the whole server including your settings file and your mods, and it is the only way back from a world that will not load.
Do it before:
- A major game version.
- Installing or removing a mod.
- Changing the world, the seed, the map size or the save name.
- Turning anti-cheat off or on.
Backups: creating, restoring and scheduling covers the mechanics, including scheduling one so you are not relying on remembering.
Off-site backups
A backup on the same machine protects you from a bad update, not from a bad machine. Daily off-site backups are an add-on on every plan we sell, including this one: the server is copied to separate storage each night and the last seven are kept. You can add it from Manage plan on your server.
Where your world actually lives
Worth knowing if you ever want to download it. The game does not keep saves next to the server files: they go in a separate data folder, which is why a backup of the server folder alone is not enough and why our backups cover the whole thing. If you want a copy of just the world, open a ticket and we will point you at it rather than have you hunt.
Common questions
Will an update wipe my world?
No. An update replaces the game, not your save. What it can do is change how the game reads your save, and on a major version an old world sometimes will not load at all. That is what the backup is for.
Should I turn automatic updates off?
Only if you are running mods pinned to a version. Otherwise leave it on: players' copies update themselves, and a server behind theirs refuses their connections.
My server updated and now a mod is gone from the console list
The mod is still in the files; the game has stopped accepting it, because it was built for the previous version. Check the mod's page for a release matching your new version, or pin the Steam branch you were on and restart.
How long are backups kept?
Backups you take yourself stay until you delete them, within your plan's allowance. Off-site backups keep the last seven nights. Take a manual one before a big change rather than relying on last night's.
- 7 days to die
- updates
- backups
- versions
- steam branch
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