How to fix the “Failed to Restore Backup” error in Valheim

Every Valheim player’s worst nightmare is the “Failed to Restore Backup” error message because hours of progress and grinding gamers have put into the game are at risk of getting lost due to a system error. Thankfully, there are a few ways to fix it, and this guide explains everything you can do to fix the “Failed to Restore Backup” error in Valheim.

Related: All console commands in Valheim and what they do

Valheim “Failed to Restore Backup” error, explained and how to fix it

If your Valheim world is crashing and failing to restore, ensure that you are selecting the world before clicking “move to local” when managing your saves. If done correctly, the save should be restored when you load it.

How to restore a corrupt Valheim character

If your Valheim character data has been corrupted, deep diving into your Windows files may allow you to recover a backup save of your corrupted character, though remember that it is not a guaranteed fix. If you are unable to retrieve your character after following this method, you may have to start over and remake your character.

1. First, go to the file path C:\Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\characters, replacing “Username” with your Windows username.
2. You should be able to see 2 files for each character you have, Character.fch and Character.fch.old, where “Character” would be your character’s in-game name. “Character.fch” would be your corrupt Valheim character, while “Character.fch.old” would be the backup save of your character.
3. Create a new folder, and then make copies of both files in that folder, just in case. After that, delete the Character.fch file and rename the Character.fch.old file to “Character.fch”. This renaming will let the backup replace your current character, and resolve the “Failed to Restore Backup” error.

It is also good practice to keep backups of your character data just in case this situation arises. This can also be done with world saves, just look for “World.fwl”, “World.db”, and their respective .old versions. Replace the current save with the old ones, and you should be able to restore your world from a the backup, if the “move to local” method does not work.