How to Move an Existing Valheim World to GuavaHost

You can move an existing Valheim world to GuavaHost by copying its two save files, the .db and .fwl, into your new server, and our team can do the whole transfer for you if you prefer.

2 min read · Updated Sep 24, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team

Let our team do it

The easiest option is staff assisted migration. Open a support ticket or ask in our Discord, tell us where the world currently lives (a single player save on your PC, or another host), and the team will move it across for you. With the 48 hour money back guarantee, there is no risk in getting set up first and migrating after.

What you need to copy

A Valheim world is two files that travel together:

• <worldname>.db, the world itself.
• <worldname>.fwl, the world name and seed.

Both must have the same base name. It is worth grabbing the .db.old and .fwl.old copies too, as insurance.

Where to find them

• A single player or local co-op world on a Windows PC lives in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local.
• A world on another host lives in that host's worlds_local folder. Download both files through their file manager or over SFTP.

Move it yourself step by step

1. On your server's Backups page in the GuavaHost control panel, take a backup so you can undo if needed.
2. Get your SFTP details from the Settings tab (expand Connection details, then File access (SFTP), where Set SFTP password sets the password) and connect with FileZilla (SFTP is a secure way to move files between your computer and your server). For just two files you can also use Upload files on the Files tab instead.
3. Open the worlds_local folder on the GuavaHost server.
4. Upload both the .db and the .fwl.
5. In Startup settings on the Settings tab, set the world name to match the file name exactly, without the extension, and click Save. If your files are Midgard.db and Midgard.fwl, the world name is Midgard.
6. Restart and watch the Console to confirm your world loads.

Common gotchas

• Uploaded only the .db: also upload the matching .fwl, or the world will not load.
• World name mismatch: the world name in Startup settings must equal the .fwl base name, otherwise Valheim quietly creates a fresh empty world instead of loading yours.
• Mods: if the old world used BepInEx mods, install the same mods here before you load it.
• Characters: each player's character is a separate .fch file that lives on their own PC, so a world transfer does not move characters, and it does not need to.

Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.

• valheim
• migration
• transfer
• world
• sftp

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