Move your co-op or single-player world to your server
PalworldGuideUpload the whole world folder, attach the host's character from your dashboard, and approve your old settings in one click.
Find your world folder
On Steam, press Win+R, paste %LOCALAPPDATA%\Pal\Saved\SaveGames, and press Enter. Open the folder named with your long Steam ID number. Each world is a folder with a long name of letters and numbers. The right folder contains:
Level.sav(the world itself: terrain, bases, guilds, everything in the palbox)Players(one file per character; this is the part people forget)LevelMeta.sav,LocalData.sav, andWorldOption.savbackup(Palworld's own automatic backups; never upload from here)
Not sure which folder is which? Open Palworld, look at your world list, and match the last-played dates against the folder dates.
Xbox / Game Pass: your save is stored in a different container format. Upload the whole containers folder and we convert it during import. Close Palworld and the Xbox app first.
Upload the whole folder
Drag the whole world folder into the upload box on your server, or zip it first. Either works. The upload preview shows when the world was last saved and how many characters are included. If it says no characters found, stop and check that the Players folder came along.
Two quick things before you upload: recall pals from expeditions (tools that relink characters are known to miss pals that are away), and skip the backup folder. Palworld's own backups never include characters, so uploading from there means everyone starts fresh.
Start the server and have everyone join once
Everyone picks their respawn point again on the first join. That's a normal part of the move, nothing went wrong.
Attach the host's character
If the world came from co-op or single player, the host's character is stored under a special local ID. Your dashboard shows an Attach your character prompt on the server. Pick your account, confirm, and it applies the next time the server starts. The attach also carries your guild membership, so the palbox unlocks with it.
Match any friend who sees the new-character screen
Friends keep their characters automatically in most cases. If a friend still gets the character-creation screen after a full upload, the server sees them as a new identity. This is common when platforms differ, for example a Steam co-op world and a Game Pass or PS5 player.
Have them create the temporary character and log off. Your dashboard then shows a Match character prompt: pick their old character from the list, pick the account they joined with, and it applies the next time the server starts. If the prompt doesn't appear, contact us and we can attach it from our side.
Approve your world's settings
Your co-op world's settings come along with the upload. After the first server start, your dashboard shows Your world's co-op settings came along on the server. Open the review to see every setting from your old world and apply them with one click. They take effect the next time the server starts. Prefer a clean start? Choose Keep my current settings and set your own values under Settings.
Two names differ between the co-op menu and the dashboard: crafting speed is Work speed, and stamina is Player stamina drain (lower means slower drain). Server identity (name, passwords, ports) never comes from the world file; those always live in your dashboard.
Behind the scenes, Palworld keeps co-op settings in a file called WorldOption.sav. When that file sits inside a server's world, the game silently ignores dashboard settings entirely, including the admin password. We remove it during import on purpose and offer you its values through the settings review instead, so your dashboard always works. Don't upload it back to force settings; the review is the supported path.
Map exploration and custom pins are stored on each player's own PC, per world. A moved world counts as a new world to your game, so the map starts unexplored for everyone even though bases, characters, and fast travel unlocks all carried over. The fix is copying one file on your PC: see Black map after moving your world for the two-minute fix.
Uploading only
Level.sav: the world arrives but every character is left behind, and the old guild keeps the bases locked.Uploading from the
backupfolder: Palworld's own backups are world-only. No characters, ever.Re-uploading to fix a dark map: the map lives on each player's PC, not in the world files.
Third-party save "fix" or character transfer tools: they often fail on current save versions and can corrupt your world. Character attaching is built into your dashboard, and a backup is taken before every change.
If your world is from before Palworld 1.0, the game itself resets mission progress and bounty history and adjusts XP to the new table the first time the world loads on 1.0. That happens in single player too. It's a Palworld rule, not something the move causes.
If characters are missing after a full-folder upload, or a prompt doesn't appear, message us on Discord or open a ticket and include your server name. We can see exactly what arrived in your upload and fix character attachment from our side.
