Restoring an ARK: Survival Ascended Save Game – Server Guide

Restoring an ARK: Survival Ascended Save Game – Introduction

Traveling with friends on your ARK: Survival Ascended dedicated server leads to wild adventures full of exploration, dinosaurs, base building, and more. As you develop your character and progress through the game, saving becomes increasingly important. This provides you with the means to ensure all data is safely stored, such as your favorite tame dinos or all your equipment. Losing this can be frustrating since lots of time and effort are put into the gameplay. Fortunately, there’s a few ways to save your ARK: SA world to make sure nothing is lost. Although, this varies depending on the situation.

For example, if you’re trying to restore data on your server after griefers destroyed a base, then this involves using backups. Our Nitrado webinterface grants you the ability to choose one of these to revert all progress back to its original state. Server owners will have the chance to decide which date they’d like to restore, meaning your progression will always be secured. As for simply saving in-game data, this is achieved through admin commands on both consoles and computers. We’ll be showcasing how to save and backup your game on ARK: SA servers to get you started!

Saving ARK: SA Games on PC and Console

When saving your game, this creates a backup file on the server to be used for later. In other words, reverting back to previous data requires you to follow along below. Make sure to follow the section according to your setup, such as PC or Console. Additionally, you must be an admin before doing the save command.

How to Save Games on ARK: SA – PC Version

1. Load into your ARK: SA server and press the Tilde button (~) to open the console.
2. Proceed to type and enter the SaveWorld command, but with admincheat permissions.
3. If successful, the server will execute a game save function.

Understanding ARK: SA Backups

There are three primary backup types for your dedicated server, including Game Internal Backups, Server Backups, and Database Backups. These are slightly different from each other and can be utilized for specific purposes. Review the information below to learn more about them.

• Game Internal Backups – Game internal backups are made throughout the day by the game on your server. These backups simply contain the savegame. Making it easy to roll your save game back a few hours rather than a whole day.
• Server Backups – Server backups are daily incremental backups of your server made once per day. These backups will restore the entire server back to a specific point. Including the configurations.
• Database Backups – These backups are backups of the database for your server. (Useful for games like Arma and CS:GO)

ARK: SA Backup File Location

Once you’ve saved the game, its file will be located in the following directory from the File Browser of your Nitrado web-interface: arksa/ShooterGame/Saved/SavedArks/. This comes in handy when exploring multiple backups of different maps, along with other useful details.

This directory holds the following information:

• Playerprofiles – Each player is assigned a custom profile on the server. this profile is saved as a “SteamID.arkprofile” file. For example: 765123979XXX40008.arkprofile
• World – The current world is saved as a “Worldname.ark” file. For example: TheIsland.ark
• Tribes – Each created tribe is saved as an “TribeID.arktribe” file. For example: 1068865824.arktribe

How to Restore Backups for ARK: SA Servers

When you’ve gathered a backup of your dedicated server, follow these steps below to begin restoring your data. Keep in mind that this overwrites existing progression, meaning it’ll be lost. We highly recommend making multiple copies of your game save just to be safe.

1. Head towards your Nitrado web-interface and stop the server.
2. Select Restore Backup under Tools on the left-hand side.
   
3. Locate your desired backup on this page, then press Restore on the right.
   
4. If successful, the server will automatically begin restarting with the previous data.

Troubleshooting Tips

• If you would like to undo something you did in-game, use the “Game internal” backups to simply roll your save game back to before you made the changes.
• “Help my server wiped after it restarted!” — First use the “Game internal” backups to simply roll your save game back to before you restarted.
• Something happened on the server and I want to go a couple days back. – Use the “Server Backups” to fully restore your server to a specific date.
• My characters are here but my world is gone! – Use the “Game internal” backups to restore your world save back to the time you last played.

Using Backups / Restoring an ARK: Survival Ascended Save Game

Whether you stumbled upon bases destroyed or decided to reverse death, using backups can come in handy on your ARK: SA dedicated server. Our exclusive Nitrado web-interface gives you all the necessary tools to save and restore any progression. All it takes is a few simple steps and a little bit of time! Remember, saving the game should be frequently done to avoid losing data. Luckily, there are several types of backups to help you protect your progress. We hope this guide helped you learn more about restoring saved games on your ARK: SA server!

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