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World desk9 min

How to Wipe an Unturned Server: Partial and Full Wipes

A practical guide to Unturned partial and full wipes, including the exact save folders, console shutdown sequence, administrative-file warnings, verification steps and recovery advice.
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To wipe an Unturned server safely, stop it cleanly, back up U3DS/Servers/<ServerID>/, and delete only the save category you intend to reset. Remove the active map folder inside Level for a world-only wipe, remove player-save data inside Players for a player-only wipe, or perform both deletions for a full wipe. Do not delete configuration files as a shortcut, and do not assume a hosting provider’s example folder name matches your server’s ServerID.

What a partial wipe and a full wipe actually do

Unturned stores different kinds of persistent state separately. The map save contains changes made to the world, such as buildings and barricades. Player-save data contains each player’s persistent progress. A partial wipe removes one category while retaining the other; a full wipe removes both categories.

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Wipe type Delete World structures and map changes Player inventories, skills and progress Configuration and workshop settings
Map/world-only The folder for the currently active map inside Level Reset Retained, provided the player data is left alone Retained
Player-data-only Player-save data inside Players Retained Reset for data stored there Retained
Full wipe Both the active map folder in Level and player data in Players Reset Reset for data stored there Retained unless you separately change or delete configuration

The administrative file Players.dat is separate from the player-save directory. It stores whitelist entries, bans and admin privileges. Deleting a map folder or the player-save data does not automatically mean those controls are rebuilt; check them after the restart and treat Players.dat as a separate administrative file.

Prepare the server before deleting anything

1. Announce maintenance and stop new joins

Tell players when the server will be unavailable and prevent new connections before you begin. A wipe performed while players are still joining can leave you unsure which session wrote the last state. Wait until active players have disconnected, then work from the server console or your host’s console interface.

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2. Save, then shut down from the console

In the running server console, enter:

  1. Save
  2. Shutdown

Smartly Dressed Games’ server documentation states: “There is no built-in autosave feature. You must use the Save command to manually save your server while its still running, or the Shutdown command to safely save and close your server.” The spelling in that quotation is retained from the documentation; the practical instruction is to save explicitly and close through the server command rather than killing the process.

Do not remove files while the server process is still running. After Shutdown, wait for the process to exit and for your control panel to show the server as stopped.

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3. Make a complete backup

Copy the complete server folder under U3DS/Servers/<ServerID>/ to storage outside the live installation. Include the save data, configuration, server settings and any other files in that folder. A complete backup lets you restore one mistakenly deleted map or player directory instead of trying to reconstruct it manually.

Keep the backup unchanged until the wipe has been verified in-game. Label it with the server ID and date so that, if several servers share one installation, you do not restore the wrong instance.

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4. Confirm the exact server and map

Identify the active ServerID and the map currently being played before opening the file manager. Official server documentation places savedata and configuration in U3DS/Servers/, with a separate folder for each server. A provider’s sample name, such as Pingperfect, is only an example; your directory may use a different ID.

Check the map name shown in the server configuration or startup information, then match it to the folder under Level. Workshop maps and Linux installations deserve extra care: map names can differ from the display name, and Linux paths are case-sensitive.

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Map or world-only wipe: reset bases while keeping players

Choose this option when you want a fresh world but want player records to survive. It removes map data such as structures and barricades while leaving the player-save data in place.

Procedure

  1. Complete the maintenance, save, shutdown and backup steps above.
  2. Open U3DS/Servers/<ServerID>/ and locate the server’s Level directory.
  3. Inside Level, identify the folder whose name matches the map currently being played.
  4. Delete or move only that map folder. Moving it into a dated backup location is safer than permanently deleting it because it preserves a quick rollback option.
  5. Leave the Players directory, Players.dat, Commands.dat and configuration files untouched.
  6. Start the server and wait for the loading check described in the verification section before allowing players back in.

After a successful map wipe, the selected map should load without the previous bases, barricades and other saved world changes. Player records should still be present because their save data was not removed. If the old structures remain, you probably selected the wrong map folder, removed a similarly named folder, or the server is using a different ServerID than the one you edited.

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Player-data-only wipe: reset progression while keeping the map

Use this option when the world layout should remain intact but players must start over. Remove the player-save data inside the server’s Players directory. This resets the player progress represented by those saves, which can include inventories, skills and other progression records stored there, while leaving the map folder untouched.

Procedure

  1. Stop the server with Save followed by Shutdown, and confirm the process has exited.
  2. Back up the complete U3DS/Servers/<ServerID>/ folder if you have not already done so.
  3. Open the server’s Players directory and identify the player-save data.
  4. Delete or move the player-save data, not the unrelated server configuration files.
  5. Leave the active map folder under Level in place so bases, barricades and other world changes remain.
  6. Start the server, verify the intended map and player reset, then test administrative access.

Do not treat the Players directory and Players.dat as interchangeable. The latter is a separate binary file for whitelist, ban and admin-privilege records. If your goal is only to reset inventories and progression, do not delete or edit that file. The 57 Studios reference warns against hand-editing Players.dat while the server is running.

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Full wipe: reset both the map and player saves

A full wipe is the combination of the two partial actions. It removes the active map folder under Level and the player-save data under Players. Use it when the next season or restart must have a fresh world and fresh player progression.

Procedure

  1. Announce the maintenance window and stop new joins.
  2. Run Save, then Shutdown in the server console.
  3. Back up the complete server folder under U3DS/Servers/<ServerID>/.
  4. Open Level and remove only the folder for the active map.
  5. Open Players and remove the player-save data.
  6. Keep configuration, workshop settings and administrative files unless you intentionally plan a separate configuration change.
  7. Restart, wait for the level to finish loading, and perform the checks below before announcing that the wipe is complete.

A full wipe does not mean “delete every file.” Configuration and administration are separate from the two save categories. Removing extra files can change commands, permissions, map settings or other behavior unrelated to the reset you intended.

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Folder layout and naming details

The installation root can differ between a dedicated machine, a game-server panel and a local setup, but the server data is organized below U3DS/Servers/. The relevant pattern is:

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U3DS/
└── Servers/
    └── <ServerID>/
        ├── Level/
        │   └── <active-map-folder>/
        ├── Players/
        └── Server/
            ├── Commands.dat
            ├── Players.dat
            └── Config.json

This diagram shows the categories documented for an Unturned server; your installation may include additional files or place a category behind a hosting panel’s file browser. The exact ServerID, capitalization and map-folder spelling are installation-specific.

Workshop and case-sensitive paths

A Workshop map’s folder name may not be identical to the name players use in conversation. Match the folder to the map selected by the server, not to a guessed abbreviation. On Linux, Level, level and differently capitalized map names are distinct paths, so copy the exact spelling shown by the installation.

Multiple servers on one machine

When several servers share one U3DS installation, each has its own directory under Servers. Confirm the server ID from the panel or launch configuration before deleting anything. A correct wipe in the wrong server folder is still data loss for the wrong community.

Files you should not confuse with save data

ResetConfig

The ResetConfig command resets the configuration file to its defaults. The Unturned command reference describes it as “Resets the config file to the default values.” That is a configuration reset, not a map wipe and not a player-data wipe. It can undo deliberate server settings, so do not use it as a shortcut for clearing bases or inventories.

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Commands.dat, Players.dat and Config.json

The 57 Studios server reference lists Commands.dat, Players.dat and Config.json under Servers/<servername>/Server/. These files concern commands, administration and configuration rather than the map folder or player-save directory targeted by a normal partial wipe.

  • Do not delete Commands.dat merely to remove structures or player progress.
  • Do not delete Config.json unless you deliberately want to rebuild configuration.
  • Do not edit Players.dat while the server is live. It contains whitelist, ban and admin-privilege information and should be handled as an administrative file.

Verify the wipe before reopening the server

  1. Start the server and wait until the console reports Loading level: 100% before reconnecting.
  2. Confirm that the intended map name appears and that the server did not load a different map or server instance.
  3. For a map wipe, visit known locations or inspect the area where a base stood; expected structures and barricades should be gone.
  4. For a player wipe, connect with a test account or approved account and verify that the intended player progress has reset while the map remains as expected.
  5. Check an administrator account, a whitelisted account and a banned-account test according to your normal policy. This confirms that administrative behavior in Players.dat was not unintentionally changed.
  6. Review the server console for loading errors before inviting the full player population.

If the result is wrong, stop the server again, preserve the current folder for diagnosis, and restore the corresponding directory or complete backup. Do not continue deleting files to “make the wipe take”; that can turn a selection mistake into an unrecoverable one.

Troubleshooting common mistakes

The old base is still present after a map wipe

  • Confirm that you removed the folder for the map currently loaded, not a similarly named Workshop map.
  • Confirm the ServerID in the path matches the server you started.
  • Check capitalization on Linux installations.
  • Make sure the server was fully stopped before deletion and restarted afterward.

Players still have their inventories after a player wipe

  • Verify that the player-save data inside Players was removed, not merely a backup copy.
  • Check that you edited the active server’s folder rather than another server under U3DS/Servers/.
  • Confirm that the server process was stopped before the deletion; a live process can recreate or retain state.

Admins, bans or whitelist entries disappeared

Check whether Players.dat was deleted or replaced. That file is separate from the ordinary player-save directory and contains those administrative records. Restore it from the pre-wipe backup only while the server is stopped, then start the server and test permissions.

The server will not load the level

Stop the process, compare the edited path with the backup, and verify that only the intended map folder and/or player-save data were removed. Restore the backup if a parent directory, configuration file or wrong map folder was affected. Do not run ResetConfig unless the problem is specifically a configuration reset that you want.

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Choosing the right wipe for a planned reset

  • Choose map-only when the objective is to clear bases, barricades and other world changes while preserving player records.
  • Choose player-only when the map should remain but inventories, skills or other player progression must start over.
  • Choose full when both the world and player progression need a clean start.
  • Choose neither when the real problem is a setting or command configuration; investigate the relevant configuration file instead of deleting save data.

Document which category was removed in your maintenance announcement. “Wipe” by itself is ambiguous: players may reasonably interpret it as a base reset, a progression reset or both. Naming the exact scope prevents avoidable disputes and makes the backup easier to use if a rollback is needed.

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