Valheim is a game inspired by Norse mythology and Viking culture, blending exploration and RPG elements in an expansive open world. Players embark on their adventure in Valheim, crafting weapons, seeking food, battling bosses, exploring the world's edges, and fulfilling their own Norse epic.

Valheim

In Valheim, you'll face many dangers, from the Frost Dragon Modron to the Grassland biome's ruler, Ymir. Still, nothing is more terrifying than logging back into your game and finding your world and character data gone. To avoid this, we'll teach you how to back up your Valheim saves. Read on for a detailed guide.

Here are some additional posts about the game for your reference:

Why is backing up your Valheim saves so important?

It's not just Valheim – many games suffer from save corruption issues. Here's why you should be backing up your game saves.

    1. Computer issues: A virus, hardware failure, or system error can corrupt a save file, making it unplayable.
  • Game bugs: Bugs emerged after the game update, causing data errors.
  • Add Mods: Adding mods to Valheim can greatly enhance gameplay. However, mods can mess with the game's code. Without a backup of your game data, your save may not load correctly.

Where are Valheim save files located?

To back up your Valheim world and character, you first need to locate where Valheim saves its files. Here's how:

Valheim's local save location

Currently, Valheim only supports the Windows and Linux operating systems.

On Windows, the Valheim file location is - C:\Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\

Here are the simple steps to find the correct save location for Valheim in American English: 1. First, open File Explorer. 2. Next, navigate to the following path (adjust according to your operating system and installation location): - For Windows 10/11 users, it's typically: `C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Iron Gate\Valheim` - If you installed the game through Steam, you might look for: `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Valheim` 3. In these directories, you'll find a folder named "Saves" or "savegames." This is where Valheim's save files are stored. 4. To be safe, make sure the game is closed before making any modifications or backups. Keep in mind that UTF-8 refers to a character encoding format, which is unrelated to file paths. The paths provided here are standard text and don't require special encoding conversion.

Step 1. Open File Explorer (Windows).

Step 2: Type the address we just provided into the search box.

Search for Valheim save data in File Explorer

Step 3: Inside the Valheim folder, you'll find the Characters, Screenshots, and Worlds folders, which are the ones you want.

For Linux, the Valheim save location is different than on Windows – it's in ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim.

You can copy this location and navigate to the Valheim folder that way.

How to Find the Hidden AppData Folder

If you cannot find the AppData folder while browsing through the Valheim folder, it is because the AppData folder is hidden.

Follow these simple steps to locate the hidden AppData folder now.

Step 1: Open File Explorer

Step 2: Click “View” > “Show” > “Hidden Items.”

View Hidden Saves

Step 3: You can now navigate to the AppData folder.

Valheim cloud save location

After the update on June 20, 2022, the latest Valheim patch has addressed issues with Steam Cloud synchronization. To prevent any loss of game progress due to Steam Cloud save errors, current cloud saves will now be stored within the Steam userdata folder.

This is the specific Valheim Steam Cloud save location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Userdata

Notice
When Cloud is enabled in Steam and you're also using local saves, your files will be moved to the Steam Cloud but a backup will remain locally. Dedicated servers will still only save to the local file location, so you can run the game without launching Steam.

The Best Ways to Backup Your Valheim Save Files

Backing up your Valheim save files is straightforward.

Based on the above, navigate to Valheim's local file location. Upon opening the Valheim folder, you'll see subfolders for Characters, Worlds, and Screenshots. Many players opt to simply copy these and paste them to another location on their computer as a backup, which is entirely acceptable.

Valheim characters and world folder

However, we recommend that you use professional backup software, such as Todo Backup Home, to ensure the safety of your game data with higher quality.

Tools Todo Backup Home is an excellent assistant to help you back up your computer game progress, such as saving PC game saves. Valheim saves your progress each time you end the game. Tools Todo Backup Home allows you to set the desired backup frequency and regularly perform an automatic backup of your Valheim game saves.

You can also choose between incremental and differential backup modes as per your needs, so that whenever there's a change in your game data, Todo Backup Home can help you back it up directly, sparing you the hassle of constantly copying and pasting manually. Moreover, this offline backup software offers 250 GB of cloud space where you can store your game data and restore your progress on any device.

Now, let's back up your Valheim save by following the guide below!

Step 1. Tap on “Select Backup Content” to begin the backup process.

Create File Backup Step 1

Step 2: There are four backup types: Files, Disk, System, and Email. Click on Files.

Create File Backup Step 2

Step 3: Your local and network files will be displayed on the left. Expand the directories to choose the files you want to back up.

File Backup

Step 4. Choose where you want to save your backup, following the instructions on the screen.

Step 4: Create Backup

Click “Options,” then set a password for encrypted backups under “Backup Options,” and set a schedule for when backups occur under “Backup Plan.” There are many other options to customize the backup process.

Backup Options

Step 5. You can save the backup to your local drive, to TOOLS' online service, or to a NAS.

File Backup Step 4

Step 6. Todo Backup allows users to back up data to third-party cloud drives and to its own cloud drive.

If you want to back up your data to a third-party cloud drive, choose “Local Disk,” scroll down to add a “Cloud Device,” add your account, and log in.

You can also save the backup to the tools Cloud storage service. Click tools Cloud, sign up for a tools account and log in.

Backup to Tools Cloud

Step 7. Click “Backup Now” to start the backup. Once it's done, it will be displayed as a card on the left pane. Right-click on it for further backup management options.

File Backup Step 7

Conclusions

"Valheim" presents an intriguing and thrilling adventure world for all players. However, to better script your adventure tale, you should know how to < strong>back up your Valheim saves. Apart from manually locating Valheim's save folder and backing it up with Ctrl+C/V, we recommend using a more professional backup software, the < strong>Todo Backup Home.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Where are Valheim saves located?

For Windows users, you can find the Valheim save files at the following location:

C: \Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim

For Linux users, you can find the Valheim save files at:

$HOME/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim

2. Are Valheim game saves stored in the cloud?

Yes, if you have enabled the Steam Cloud save feature, your Valheim game saves will be stored in the Steam Cloud. You can find the location of the Valheim cloud saves by navigating to 'Program Files (x86)' > 'Steam' > 'Userdata'. The specific folder will depend on your unique Steam user ID.