Skip to content

Handle WorldOption.sav blocking settings on Windows->Linux migration (fixes #886) #910

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
NathanFant wants to merge 2 commits into
base: main
Choose a base branch
from
Open

Handle WorldOption.sav blocking settings on Windows->Linux migration (fixes #886) #910

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from 1 commit
Commits
Show all changes
2 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
f9a2ddd
Handle WorldOption.sav blocking settings on Windows->Linux migration
NathanFant Jul 28, 2026
fe8a5fd
Potential fix for pull request finding
NathanFant Aug 26, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
17 changes: 16 additions & 1 deletion migration/README.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -6,7 +6,17 @@
> Use this script at your own risk, I am not responsible for dataloss!
>
> Please make sure you always have a backup!

Check failure on line 9 in migration/README.md

View workflow job for this annotation

GitHub Actions / Lint - Markdown

Blank line inside blockquote 

migration/README.md:9 MD028/no-blanks-blockquote Blank line inside blockquote https://github.com/DavidAnson/markdownlint/blob/v0.41.1/doc/md028.md
> [!IMPORTANT]
> If you're migrating a save that was ever played on Windows (including via Steam's
> "host from save data" co-op mode), that save's `WorldOption.sav` takes priority over
> `PalWorldSettings.ini` and will silently prevent your new server's settings —
> including `AdminPassword` — from applying. This causes RCON/REST API authentication
> to fail with "AdminPassword is empty" even when the password is correctly configured
> everywhere else (see #886). `migrate.sh` (below) handles this automatically by moving
> any pre-existing `WorldOption.sav` aside; if you migrate manually, do the same
> yourself (see step 3 in "Manually" below).
Comment thread
NathanFant marked this conversation as resolved.
Outdated

1. Find a directory which is named by game server name and contains all saved game data,
usually it will at `~/Steam/steamapps/common/PalServer/Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/`
2. Make sure `migration/migrate.sh`, saved game data directory and mounted volume
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -44,4 +54,9 @@
DedicatedServerName=`2E85FD38BAA792EB1D4C09386F3A3CDA`.
3. Delete the entire new server save at `PalServer\Pal\Saved\SaveGames\0\<your_save_here>`,
and replace it with the folder from the old server.
4. Restart the new server
4. If the copied save folder contains a `WorldOption.sav` file and the save was ever played on
Windows, move (don't delete outright — keep it as a backup) that file out of the way, e.g.
`mv WorldOption.sav WorldOption.sav.bak`. Otherwise it takes priority over
`PalWorldSettings.ini` and silently blocks your new server's settings (including
`AdminPassword`) from applying — see #886.
5. Restart the new server
10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions migration/migrate.sh
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -21,6 +21,16 @@ docker stop "${CONTAINER_ID}"

cp -r ./"${MIGRATION_SERVER_NAME}" ./palworld/Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/"${MIGRATION_SERVER_NAME}"/

# A WorldOption.sav carried over from a save that was ever played on Windows takes
# priority over PalWorldSettings.ini and silently blocks the new server's settings
# (including AdminPassword) from applying -- see #886. Move it aside rather than
# deleting it outright, so it's still recoverable if needed.
WORLD_OPTION_SAV="./palworld/Pal/Saved/SaveGames/0/${MIGRATION_SERVER_NAME}/WorldOption.sav"
if [ -f "${WORLD_OPTION_SAV}" ]; then
echo "########## MOVING ASIDE WorldOption.sav (see #886) ##########"
mv "${WORLD_OPTION_SAV}" "${WORLD_OPTION_SAV}.bak"
fi
Comment on lines +28 to +32

sed -i "s/DedicatedServerName=.*/DedicatedServerName=${MIGRATION_SERVER_NAME}/" ./palworld/Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/GameUserSettings.ini

echo "########## STARTING CONTAINER ${CONTAINER_NAME} NOW ##########"
Expand Down
Loading