How to Back Up and Restore Your Project Zomboid Server

 

    Knox County is unforgiving, and so are mistakes — a bad mod, a sandbox edit gone wrong, or a corrupted save. The fix is a backup you can roll back to. On gamever you have two ways to protect your world: the panel's My backups feature and a manual FTP download of your save data. This guide covers both and how to restore.

 

Panel backups: "My backups"

 

    Your gamever account has a My backups area in the sidebar, where server backups are listed and managed. Use it as your first line of defence:

 

• Back up before any risky change — adding mods, editing the sandbox, changing the map.
• A listed backup gives you a restore point to roll back to if something breaks.

 

    This is the quickest safety net because it's built into the panel — no files to move by hand.

 

Manual backup over FTP

 

    For a copy you keep yourself, download your world data over FTP. Your save data lives with the server's data files, and the config lives under /home/configs/:

 

 

1. Open Settings → FTP server settings and note the FTP User and FTP Password; the FTP address is on the Network tab (port 28811), see ports & connection.
2. Connect with any FTP client.
3. Download the save data (the Saves/ data) and your config from /home/configs/ to keep a local copy.
4. Store it somewhere safe.

 

    Do a manual download before big changes so you always have your own copy, not just the panel's.

 

Restoring

 

• From a panel backup — use the My backups area to restore the backup you want.
• From your FTP copy — stop the server, upload your saved files back over FTP (replacing the current ones), then start the server. See upload a world for the mechanics of uploading save/config files.

 

    Always restore with the server stopped so files aren't being written while you replace them.

 

Additional Tips

 

• Back up before every risky change — mods, sandbox, map.
• Use both — the panel's My backups for speed, an FTP copy you control for safety.
• Stop the server before restoring so files aren't in use.
• Keep more than one copy — the newest backup isn't always the one you want.
• Test big edits knowing you can roll back.

 

Conclusion

 

    Protecting your Project Zomboid world is two habits: use the panel's My backups as your quick restore point, and pull a manual FTP copy of your Saves/ data and /home/configs/ before anything risky. Restore with the server stopped, and a bad night never costs you the whole world.

 

    Rent your Project Zomboid server at gamever.io — panel backups plus full FTP access so your world is always safe. Free trial, promo code WELCOME.