Ok, so I just dealt with this today. Over one thousand hours. Gone. I was very, very sad . IDK what happened, I think it had to do with my cloud save when I tried starting it up on the Steam Deck? It was out of sync, and I must have just chosen the wrong option.

Anyways, I spent a lot of time today and just couldn't get it going. I thought of giving it another shot, and I now have everything back. What I did was:

1. Download the backup files from cloud storage . You have to be signed into steam in your browser.
   
2. Look for Valheim, look to the right, and click the 'show files' button.
   
3. Look for a database (.db) and .fwl file that includes "backup" in the name and download them.
   
   Should be formatted something like this (mines gonna show different dates/times):
   "IronGate/Valheim/worlds/Myworld_backup_20220627-195041.fwl"
   &
   "IronGate/Valheim/worlds/Myworld_backup_20220627-195041.db".
   
   
4. In windows file explorer go to "C:\Users\"your name here"\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim". You should find worlds folders; 'worlds' & 'worlds_local' make a copy of these folders and save them somewhere like your desktop or whatever just to be safe and have a backup in case things go awry.
   
5. Delete all of that worlds files in both world folders (not the copy you just made). Just delete the files for the world you're trying to restore, leave other worlds you may have created alone. Do this for both worlds folders.
   
6. Take those .db and .fwl files you downloaded and rename them to whatever your worlds name is but be sure they remain a .db file and a .fwl file and paste them into both of those 'worlds' folders you found here: "C:\Users\"your name here"\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim"
   
7. Then hold onto your butt and start the game. You should have everything back.

I hope this works for you. Everything I read online and saw videos about didn't seem to mention the files including 'backup' in the name but figured to try and it worked for me. Good luck!

Originally posted by creamsteve:

Ok, so I just dealt with this today. Over one thousand hours. Gone. I was very, very sad . IDK what happened, I think it had to do with my cloud save when I tried starting it up on the Steam Deck? It was out of sync, and I must have just chosen the wrong option.

Anyways, I spent a lot of time today and just couldn't get it going. I thought of giving it another shot, and I now have everything back. What I did was:

1. Download the backup files from cloud storage . You have to be signed into steam in your browser.
   
2. Look for Valheim, look to the right, and click the 'show files' button.
   
3. Look for a database (.db) and .fwl file that includes "backup" in the name and download them.
   
   Should be formatted something like this (mines gonna show different dates/times):
   "IronGate/Valheim/worlds/Myworld_backup_20220627-195041.fwl"
   &
   "IronGate/Valheim/worlds/Myworld_backup_20220627-195041.db".
   
   
4. In windows file explorer go to "C:\Users\"your name here"\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim". You should find worlds folders; 'worlds' & 'worlds_local' make a copy of these folders and save them somewhere like your desktop or whatever just to be safe and have a backup in case things go awry.
   
5. Delete your worlds files in both world folders (not the copy you just made). Just delete the files for the world you're trying to restore, leave other ones you may have alone. Do this for both worlds folders.
   
6. Take those .db and .fwl files you downloaded and rename them to whatever your worlds name is but be sure they remain a .db file and a .fwl file and paste them into both of those 'worlds' folders you found here: "C:\Users\"your name here"\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim"
   
7. Then hold onto your butt and start the game. You should have everything back.

I hope this works for you. Everything I read online and saw videos about didn't seem to mention the files including 'backup' in the name but figured to try and it worked for me. Good luck!

So "Steam Deck" didnt have those 2 files locally? only on SteamCloud?,, (or if they did they were wrong? and there were no viable local backups on Steam Deck?

Originally posted by Cap'n Bells:

So "Steam Deck" didnt have those 2 files locally? only on SteamCloud?,, (or if they did they were wrong? and there were no viable local backups on Steam Deck?

No, I had just installed it on the Deck so nothing synced up. There was a cloud conflict that I think got my world save all jacked up. It gave me an option to play anyways or something I can't remember exactly what it said and I clicked it and loaded in with my character, map with all my locations marked, but not a single thing I built or any of my items except what was on my body. The worst part about it was that I had buildings on nearly every island. So much work went into it, but I got it back.


I guess it ended up syncing what was on my deck, which was nothing, to the cloud. Then my PC synced to it and I was in trouble.

Originally posted by creamsteve:

Originally posted by Cap'n Bells:

So "Steam Deck" didnt have those 2 files locally? only on SteamCloud?,, (or if they did they were wrong? and there were no viable local backups on Steam Deck?

No, I had just installed it on the Deck so nothing synced up. There was a cloud conflict that I think got my world save all jacked up. It gave me an option to play anyways or something I can't remember exactly what it said and I clicked it and loaded in with my character, map with all my locations marked, but not a single thing I built or any of my items except what was on my body. The worst part about it was that I had buildings on nearly every island. So much work went into it, but I got it back.


I guess it ended up syncing what was on my deck, which was nothing, to the cloud. Then my PC synced to it and I was in trouble.

Thanks that makes much better sense..and why u had nothing local...sorry i forgot to mention the _Filename_backup with file dates.. oh and i think (filename).old is the original valhiem save system.. not so good w steam cloud as i understand it

Originally posted by Cap'n Bells:

Originally posted by creamsteve:

Thanks that makes much better sense..and why u had nothing local...sorry i forgot to mention the _Filename_backup with file dates.. oh and i think (filename).old is the original valhiem save system.. not so good w steam cloud as i understand it

NP. Valheim really is a huge pain in the ass when it comes to savegames and playing on 2 different machines.

No .old files in your worlds folder ?
You can recover lost worlds by renaming the .old by removing the .old extension (make sure you backup before messing with these)

edit: dunno if this works with cloud saves though

A shame man , happen to me trying my 2nd run in march ( tired of first world with 1300 days ) and got a reset because a crash
And knowing that devs leaves the last month without support when them take long vacs ....

Originally posted by Flare |UKCS|:

No .old files in your worlds folder ?
You can recover lost worlds by renaming the .old by removing the .old extension (make sure you backup before messing with these)

edit: dunno if this works with cloud saves though

if you turn off cloud saves in Steam global.. then rename files at world_local this should work.. . Open and play game for a check ..then re-enable Steam Global cloud saves. Then most recent should be sent skyward ..GL

That is quite a shame, and there is a patch that is currently being tested to help fix the issue. There is a link in the patch notes that suggests it could help at recovering from such issues. You might check it out if you haven't already.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/892970?emclan=103582791463217109&emgid=3401926123921628098

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

That is quite a shame, and there is a patch that is currently being tested to help fix the issue. There is a link in the patch notes that suggests it could help at recovering from such issues. You might check it out if you haven't already.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/892970?emclan=103582791463217109&emgid=3401926123921628098

yeah i tried that

Not saying the bug is unacceptable, and I'm sorry it happened to you, but people should always back up their save files, especially for an EA game.