Most Enshrouded worlds start on one person's PC, hosted from the game, alive only while that person is online. Moving the world to a dedicated server means the flame altar is there when anyone logs in, whoever is asleep. The move is one folder, and the useful thing to know before you touch it is what is and is not in that folder — because in Enshrouded, half of what you might expect to move does not live on the server at all.
What a world is, and what it is not
Keen's FAQ draws the line: the dedicated server writes the world to its saveDirectory — ./savegame by default, next to enshrouded_server.exe — and a world is between 1 and 100 MB. Character progress is stored on each player's own machine, not in the world. Your character travels with you from server to server; the terrain you dug, the buildings you raised and the bases you claimed are the world.
Two consequences. First, moving a world moves the bases and the map, not the people — your friends bring their own characters and pick up where they were. Second, a backup of savegame is a backup of the world only; nothing you do to it can lose or restore a character.
Where the world is on a self-hosted server
On any dedicated server that has run once, the world is in the savegame folder beside the executable, unless saveDirectory in enshrouded_server.json says otherwise. The server autosaves on its own — every 10 minutes on the current build, measured on our servers (Keen's older material said five) — so:
- Stop the server before copying. A folder copied mid-autosave can be incomplete. Stop cleanly, wait for the process to exit, then copy.
- Copy the whole folder, not a file you think is the important one. Keen documents the directory, not its internal layout, and the layout is Keen's to change.
Moving a locally hosted world
If the world was hosted from the game on someone's PC rather than by a dedicated server, the world data is on that PC. Keen's dedicated-server documentation covers the server side — saveDirectory and its contents — and does not give the client-side path, so we are not going to guess one here. The reliable approach: find the client-side location on Keen's support site, back up that data before you start, and treat the transfer as an experiment on a copy, never on the original. If the transferred world does not load, nothing has been lost.
Once you have the world data, the destination is the same as for a server-to-server move.
The move, step by step
- Stop the destination server if it is running. Any world already in its
savegame folder will be replaced, so download it first if there is any doubt.
- Copy the world into
savegame on the destination. Over a remote copy tool on a self-hosted machine; on a Connect server, the Files tab or SFTP — the dashboard version is in upload your world.
- Start the server and wait for
[Session] 'HostOnline' (up)! in the log, then [server] Load deserialization took …. That second line is the world being read.
- Join by searching the server's name and entering your group's password. Your character is already yours; the world should be the one you left.
If the log shows HostOnline but the world is fresh, the server did not find your data: check saveDirectory in the JSON points where you copied to, and that you copied into the right folder rather than next to it.
Things that go wrong
- Different build. The destination server must be on the same build as the players' games before anyone can join, and it makes sense to update it before loading a world from a newer build. Update first, then move. Keen's changelogs say which patches touch servers — see server not showing or can't join.
- Copied while running. With an autosave every 10 minutes, a running server is writing often. Stop first.
- Copied the wrong thing. The world is the
savegame folder's contents. The JSON next to the executable is configuration, not world; the logs folder is logs.
- Expected characters to move. They do not, and they do not need to. Each player's progress is on their own machine.
- Old passwords. The passwords are in the destination's
enshrouded_server.json, not in the world. Players need the destination's group passwords, which may differ from the old server's. Roles are in Enshrouded server roles explained.
Backups: before, during and after
Keen documents the autosave and the directory; it does not document any automatic backup. The autosave is not a backup — it overwrites the rolling save set in place, and a corrupt world autosaved five times over is still corrupt. Copy savegame out to somewhere else before every update, before every move, and before anyone new gets a password with canEditBase.
On a Connect server the Backups tab snapshots the whole server — savegame, the JSON and the logs together — and the file manager lets you download savegame yourself whenever you like. The clean restore sequence, and what a backup does and does not contain, is in backups and saves.
Going the other way
The same folder works in reverse. Download savegame from the server, keep it somewhere safe, and you hold the world independently of any host. That copy is also the world you would move to a new server if you ever change provider or region.
On a Connect server
Enshrouded server hosting at Connect puts savegame in the file manager and over SFTP, so the move is the four steps above with a browser upload in the middle. The server pulls the current build from Steam on every restart, so the "update first" step is a restart, and the Backups tab covers the before-and-after copies. The self-hosted version of the whole setup is in the dedicated server guide, and Keen's memory guidance is in how much RAM.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does an Enshrouded dedicated server keep its world?
In the folder named by saveDirectory in enshrouded_server.json, which is ./savegame next to the executable by default, per Keen.
How big is an Enshrouded world save?
Keen's FAQ says 1 to 100 MB per world.
Do players lose their characters when the world moves?
No. Keen's FAQ says character progress is stored on each player's own machine, not in the world. Characters are not part of what you move.
How often does the server save?
Every 10 minutes on the current build (measured on our servers; Keen's older material said five). Stopping does not add a save of its own, so stop the server before copying the world and know the copy is the newest autosave.
Where is a locally hosted world stored on my PC?
Keen's dedicated-server documentation gives the server-side directory, not the client-side one, so we do not quote a path. Back up your client save data before experimenting.
Do the passwords move with the world?
No. Passwords live in enshrouded_server.json on each server. Players need the destination server's group passwords.