Disappearing landscape

93 votes

I've started establishing an island, had 2 houses, work benches, teleports... Logged in and the whole Island is wiped out. No trees, just the ground and what I had on my back. Any one else experience this or have any fixes?

Known issue Suggested by: Vanezsa (29 Apr, '21) • Upvoted: 10 Mar • Comments: 17

Comments: 17

30 Apr, '21
Smiffe Admin
Hi Vanezsa,

This sounds like the world-eater issue.
do you share computer? or use multiple computers?

Disableing steam clouds anywhere you have it will stop this from happening.

Sometime users have a write-protection on c: which prevents the game from saving correctly.
Game files are saved in C:\Users\ <username \AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim
30 Apr, '21
Smiffe Admin
"My world reset to brand new, all buildings and terrain modifications gone" (suggested by P Nap on 2021-04-30), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
03 May, '21
Higgins
Same problem here. The game crashed to desktop (no mods, never used console) and I restarted to find all buildings, not just the ones I built, are gone. This includes all crypts in the game.
03 May, '21
Smiffe Admin
@Higgins Hm..
Do you know the source of crash?

Player.log or player-prev.log are nice files to send my way on discord. (or any upload site if you don't use discord)

Can you use the .old files to restore your world?
C:\Users\ <username \AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds
03 May, '21
Proteshay
Same issue here: Solo player.
Woke up after sleeping, saw the day number prompt: "Day 101", selected 'quit' from the main menu to exit the game. Loaded back in a few mins later to a barren landscape - trees, rocks, wildlife, and all structures mine or otherwise - gone. Terrain modifications I had made using the hoe and pickaxe had also been reverted.
I have another world that loads just fine, so this is very confusing.

Any known causes or recovery steps would be appreciated.
04 May, '21
Aldread
This one just got me. All terrain reset no buildings or resources just miles of heathland... Closed game out last time using the log out and quit menu and all shut down ok. Will try to send through some logs.
04 May, '21
Smiffe Admin
Send them to Smiffe#2390 on discord :)

Does the "use .old files to over-write the broken worldfiles" not work at all for anyone? :/

Go to C:\Users\ <username \AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim --> Worlds folder, rename xxx.db.old to xxx.db and rename xxx.fwl.old to xxx.fwl
05 May, '21
P Nap
Hi @smiffe

I have tried to use previous save files from even weeks back, and they all reset the world from Day 1. I do not think it is an issue with the save files. I can send you a file containing my console output from when I start the server and then with me joining if that would help you track down a solution. I am going to try to reach out to you on discord if you would like to see the files
06 May, '21
Smiffe Admin
@P Nap couldn't the issue being solved in our discord?
08 May, '21
Janine
Just had this issue today happen too - I logged out for a few minutes, and when i came back, this happened.

I can happily send the Player.log / player-prev.log to @smiffe but I wasnt able to make contact via discord.

"Does the "use .old files to over-write the broken worldfiles" not work at all for anyone? :/"

I just tried this now and it did not work for me :< And not sure if the player logs will still help since i rebooted the game several times.
10 May, '21
Smiffe Admin
@ Janine That was wierd, I am usually online 24/7 on discord :(

To bad the fix didn't work. Sadly the .old files get overwritten as the user tries to close and start the broken world over and over :(

Did the game save any diffrently from normal?
10 May, '21
Janine
@smiffe Not from what I could tell. I didnt have a crash or exit to desktop or anything. I just logged out for a few min so that time wasnt passing...

I realised after my last comment that I can probably only contact you via discord if I am in your discord channel :) I would happily join the server and ping you there if I can give you further help or info to help fix this... Id really like to not have to start again :)
10 May, '21
Smiffe Admin
@Janine https://discord.com/invite/valheim is our discord.

I am sadly afraid once a server is destroyed. there isn't much to do :/
But I would gladly take a look at all your world files and such.
15 May, '21
Kamiku
Having a similar problem, no shared computers (And full backups of world and character files that weren't modified)

Had a dedicated server for a few months now, never had issues but logged on this time & everything seemed to be back to the way it was *months* ago. I tried replacing the saved data with my most recent backup in march, and that one has the entire map wiped back to start, the map is blank (unexplored) and it reset to day 1.

I know my files worked with the older version back in march, and they haven't changed since then, so I'd imagine its an update thing.

Edit: this is after patch 0.153.2
16 Jun, '21
Sleaver
I have a somewhat similar issue, have taken over a draugr village. there is one small section of land, and every time i use the hoe tool "far" away from this section of land, it will shoot up or down by a few "blocks" regarding how i last fixed it (e.g. using stone to build it back up or use pick to mine it back down) it never seems to want to stay flat. pretty annoying stuff
07 Dec, '21
LadyTarragon
I am having a serious issue with the game. I stream the game once a week online, and over the last month and a half, I have had all my work disappear multiple times.

The first night, I built a two-story house, and started a fence around the property. The next time i logged in, the only thing there was my character and the first floor of the house.

I rebuilt the house, got the fence completed and caught my first pigs. The next time I logged in, my character was sitting by her fire and only the first floor of the house was there.

I rebuilt the house AGAIN, got the property refenced, and caught my pigs again. I logged back in, everything was actually there! I was thrilled! I actually managed to get my first baby pig.

Last night, I logged in...and I was back to sitting by the fire, with only the first floor of the house done.

I don't use mods, haven't played with the console commands and cloud saves are turned off.
28 Dec, '21
Wind
Same problem for me, terrain change around me when i use the hoe for the terraforming or the pickaxe i can"t play correctly with my friends who have the same problem than me thx for fixing this plz