How to Back Up and Restore a Nightingale Server Save

What a Nightingale server save actually contains

Nightingale splits persistent data into separate folders because the server is tracking different jobs at once: shared realm state, per-player character state, and server-side settings. That is good news when restoring, because it lets you roll back the whole world, keep passwords, or fix one player without touching everyone else.

If you only remember one rule, make it this: the official dedicated server backup set is NWX/Saved/Offline, NWX/Saved/Config and NWX/Config. Logs help diagnose a failure, but they are not part of the save you need to restore.

Use this file map to separate essential save data from things that can be recreated.

NWX/Config/ServerSettings.ini is where the password settings live:

[/Script/NWX.NWXServerSettings]
Password=
AdminPassword=

One more trap: not every important setting lives in a folder. Launch arguments such as -port=, MaxPlayers and -EnableCheats are not stored in the save folders at all. Note them down with each backup, or a restore can bring the world back while the server still starts with the wrong port, player cap or cheat setting.

When to back up your server

Most Nightingale save losses are not random. They happen just before or just after a known risky event. Back up before the change, not after it has already gone wrong.

• Before a game update: updates can change how the server reads or writes persistent data. If a patch goes badly or the server crashes during first start-up after updating, you need a known-good rollback point.
• Before a reset: the official reset removes NWX/Saved/Offline and NWX/Saved/Config. That is deliberate deletion, so there is nothing to recover unless you backed it up first.
• Before changing settings: especially passwords, admin settings or anything else that changes how players connect. Settings problems are easy to fix, but it is faster to restore a clean pre-change copy than to guess what was altered.
• Before a new player’s first join on a fresh server: on a brand-new dedicated server, the first connecting player can import their realms. If that is not the world you wanted on the server, the mistake is immediate.
• Before moving to another machine or host: file transfers are routine, but interrupted uploads, wrong folder placement or start-up on the destination before copying everything across can create confusion.
• On a routine: a backup is most useful when it already exists before the crash. If you want a wider view of the thinking behind rotation and off-machine copies, this guide on how game server backups work covers the basics.

The reason routine backups matter is simple: the server writes persistent state over time. If the only copy you own sits on the same machine and gets overwritten by newer writes, you have no clean point to return to.

How to back up a dedicated server properly

For a reliable Nightingale server save backup, stop first, copy second, compress third. That order is what prevents half-written files and accidental overwrites.

1. Stop the server gracefully. On a self-hosted server, use Ctrl-C once, or twice if needed, to begin a graceful shutdown. On a rented dedicated server, use the panel’s Stop control rather than killing the process. This matters because the server can still be writing save data while players disconnect and state is flushed to disk.
2. Wait for the process to finish. Do not start copying as soon as the window looks quiet. A graceful stop is doing useful work: it closes active writes cleanly. The trade-off is short downtime, but the result is a consistent snapshot.
3. Copy the official backup set. Copy NWX/Saved/Offline, NWX/Saved/Config and NWX/Config to another location.
4. Name the backup clearly. Include the date and the game version in the folder or archive name. Also note your launch arguments alongside it, because port, max players and cheats are not in those folders.
5. Keep the backup off the server. Zip it, archive it, or move it to another machine or storage location. A backup stored only on the same disk is exposed to the same failed drive, mistaken deletion or bad host-side restore.
6. On a rented server, use the panel or file access tools. Typical panels offer a backup section, a file manager, or SFTP access. Any of those are fine as long as the server is stopped first and the copy leaves the live machine.

On Linux, a single archive command run from the server’s install folder is enough once the server is stopped:

tar -czf nightingale-backup-YYYY-MM-DD-GAMEVERSION.tar.gz \
NWX/Saved/Offline \
NWX/Saved/Config \
NWX/Config

On Windows, the equivalent is simply to copy those three folders to another location, then zip the copy. If you installed the dedicated server through Steam, you can find the install folder from the Steam client with Manage then Browse Local Files.

What the automatic OfflineBackup copy does, and why it is not enough

Nightingale’s dedicated server does have a built-in safety net: the first time the server launches on a particular weekday, it copies the Offline directory into NWX/Saved/OfflineBackup. That is useful, but it protects less than many people assume.

Picture a server you start on Monday and leave running until a crash on Thursday. Monday’s launch made a copy, but Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday made none, so the newest automatic copy is already three days old. The timeline below shows that week.

• It only runs on launch. If your server stays up for days, no new automatic copy is created during that time.
• It is on the same disk. Disk failure, host-side deletion, or a bad restore on the same machine can wipe both the live save and the automatic copy together.
• It rotates by weekday. Older weekday copies are overwritten over time, so a “good old backup” may already have been replaced.
• It is only the Offline data. It does not replace backing up NWX/Saved/Config and NWX/Config, so passwords and other config state may still be missing.

In an emergency, treat OfflineBackup as a restore source, not as a long-term archive. Stop the server, copy the relevant weekday snapshot out to a safe temporary location first, then restore from that copy. That extra copy matters because it gives you one more chance if you pick the wrong weekday the first time.

How to restore a dedicated server backup without making it worse

The biggest restore mistake is rushing and overwriting the only remaining evidence. Before you touch the live folders, make one copy of the broken state so you can undo the restore if you picked the wrong backup.

If you are not sure which backup to trust, use this simple restore decision path first.

1. Stop the server completely. Do not restore over a running process. If the server keeps writing while you replace files, you can end up with a hybrid save that loads badly or stalls during start-up.
2. Copy the current broken state somewhere safe. Copy the live NWX/Saved/Offline, and if relevant NWX/Saved/Config and NWX/Config, to a separate folder. This is your “undo” point.
3. Delete the contents of the live Offline folder. Then paste in the backup copy of NWX/Saved/Offline. Clean replacement beats paste-over because leftover newer files can survive if they are not present in the older backup.
4. Restore config folders only if needed. If the world is broken but your server password, admin password and saved config are still right, you can leave the current config alone. Restore NWX/Saved/Config and NWX/Config when settings were also lost or corrupted.
5. Start the server and watch it load. Check the console log in NWX/Saved/Logs and, if you use -statusPort, check the status endpoint. A loading server reports 503 and a ready server reports 200 with player details.
6. Join and test before inviting everyone back. Confirm the correct realms, the expected characters, and your intended settings first. That avoids a crowd of players generating new writes on top of a bad restore.

The trade-off of a clean restore is obvious: anything done after that backup point is lost. The benefit is consistency. Nightingale’s save is a set of related files, so mixing older realm files with newer player files is exactly how odd duplicates, missing structures and partial rollbacks appear.

How to restore just one player’s character

If one player lost their character but the shared world is fine, you do not always need to roll back the whole server. Each player’s character lives in NWX/Saved/Offline/<PlatformID>/Profiles, where <PlatformID> is that player’s Steam or Epic ID.

1. Stop the server.
2. Find that player’s current <PlatformID> folder under NWX/Saved/Offline.
3. Replace only that player’s folder with the backed-up version.
4. Start the server and have that player join first to confirm the rollback worked.

This works because Nightingale stores per-player character state separately from the realm state. The cost is that you are rolling back only one side of the relationship. If the player placed items, moved resources or changed shared storage after the backup date, the restored character can be out of step with the current world.

Do not use a character-only restore when the realm itself was reset, when shared builds disappeared, or when several players were affected by the same corruption. In those cases, restore the whole Offline set instead of trying to splice old character data into a newer world.

Player-hosted or solo saves on your own PC

For a player-hosted game or solo world, the save lives on the host PC at %localappdata%\nwx\Saved\Offline, and the automatic backups live at %localappdata%\nwx\Saved\OfflineBackup. Press Windows key + R, paste the path, and make sure Nightingale is fully closed before you touch anything. If you are running sessions from your own machine rather than a dedicated server, this primer on hosting a game server on your own PC helps explain the practical differences.

1. Quit Nightingale fully.
2. Open %localappdata%\nwx\Saved\OfflineBackup.
3. Pick the weekday folder with the latest good Date modified from before the problem.
4. Open that folder, select all files, and copy them.
5. Go up to nwx\Saved, open Offline, and paste.
6. Relaunch and check the world.

That official paste-over method overwrites matching files but does not delete newer ones, which can preserve a newer character. If you need a fully clean restore, delete the contents of Offline first and then paste the backup in. The choice is the same as on a dedicated server: paste-over is less destructive but can keep stray newer data; clean replace is more predictable.

Since the 0.8 patch, the game creates automatic backups of local game data. The 0.8.2a hotfix also fixed a small window where final persistence writes could fail when returning to the main menu, causing a slight rollback. The practical lesson is still the same: let the game get back to the main menu before closing it, so the last writes finish cleanly.

Remember that a player-hosted world exists on the host’s PC and only while that host is online. A dedicated server keeps running when players log off, which is one reason save handling is more predictable there.

Moving a world to or from a dedicated server

There are two clean ways to move Nightingale world data.

• Into a brand-new dedicated server: the official route is the first-player realm import. The first player to connect to a server that has never had a player join can import their realms along with their character. That is useful when moving from a local game onto a dedicated server.
• Between dedicated servers or hosts: move the same three-folder backup set: NWX/Saved/Offline, NWX/Saved/Config and NWX/Config.

Stop both the source and the destination before copying. On a fresh destination, be careful not to let the wrong person connect first, or the server may import the wrong realms. If the job is really a host migration, not a repair, this guide to moving your server to a new host follows the same basic logic.

Once the restored or moved server is up, friends can reconnect using the normal process for how to join a Nightingale dedicated server.

How to reset a server without losing the world you might want back later

The official way to reset a Nightingale dedicated server to an empty state is to remove NWX/Saved/Offline and NWX/Saved/Config. Do the backup first, then delete. That way the reset is reversible.

Why those two? Offline holds every realm and every character, and Saved/Config holds the settings the server wrote for itself. With both gone, Nightingale starts as if it had never run. NWX/Config is not on the list, so your ServerSettings.ini, with its password and admin password, survives the reset.

The important catch is the realm-import trap. After a reset, the server is “new” again, so the next first player to join can import their realms. If you want a truly empty Abeyance realm, join first with a new character. Reconnecting later with an existing character will not import realms once that first connection has already established the server world.

Fast troubleshooting and a backup routine that stops this happening again

Symptom, likely cause, first fix

Simple backup routine and host checklist

A good routine is boring by design: stop, copy the three folders, label the backup, store it away from the live machine, and keep launch arguments with it. If you are comparing panels and restore tools, our Nightingale server hosting comparison is a useful shortlist of what to look for.

For self-hosting, keep it simple: make a backup before every update or reset, keep routine archived copies off the PC that runs the server, and never trust the automatic weekday copy as your only recovery plan.

Nightingale server FAQ

Where are Nightingale server saves stored?

On a dedicated server, the shared realm data is in NWX/Saved/Offline/DedicatedServer/Deploy and each player’s character data is in NWX/Saved/Offline/<PlatformID>/Profiles. For a complete dedicated server backup, copy NWX/Saved/Offline, NWX/Saved/Config and NWX/Config.

Does Nightingale back up saves automatically?

Yes, but only as a safety net. On a dedicated server, the first launch on each weekday copies Offline into OfflineBackup; on local PC saves, the client also keeps weekday backups. It is not enough on its own because it runs only on launch, rotates over time, and lives on the same disk as the live save.

How do I restore a Nightingale backup?

Stop the server first, copy the current broken state somewhere safe, then delete the contents of the live Offline folder and replace them with the backup version. Restore NWX/Saved/Config and NWX/Config as well if settings or passwords were also lost. Start the server, watch it load, and check the world before opening it back up to everyone.

Can I move my Nightingale world to a dedicated server?

Yes. The official route onto a brand-new dedicated server is the first-player realm import: the first player to connect can bring their realms. If you are moving between dedicated servers, copy the standard three-folder backup set with both source and destination stopped.

How do I reset a Nightingale server without losing my world?

Back it up first, then remove NWX/Saved/Offline and NWX/Saved/Config to perform the official reset. That gives you an empty server state while preserving a restorable copy of the old world elsewhere. After the reset, control who joins first, because that first joiner can import their realms.

More Nightingale server guides

Our Nightingale host comparison and the guides that sit alongside this backup walkthrough.