This guide will help you on how to Manually Restore Specific Timestamp Backup of your World on your ARK Survival Ascended Server.
Running your own ARK: Survival Evolved server gives you full control over your world, but it also means you’re responsible for safeguarding progress. Whether you’re recovering from corrupted data, rolling back after unwanted changes, or simply revisiting a previous state of your world, knowing how to manually restore a backup is essential. ARK servers automatically generate backups at regular intervals, each marked with a timestamp. By restoring a specific timestamp backup, you can precisely choose the point in time you want your world to return to whether that’s before a major raid, after a big building project, or just a stable save you trust. This process involves locating the correct backup files, replacing your active save data with the chosen snapshot, and ensuring the server loads the restored world properly. While it may sound technical, following the right steps will give you confidence that your server can always be recovered to the exact state you need.
Manually Restoring Specific Timestamp of your World on your ARK Survival Ascended Server
1. Log in to your Game Control Panel and navigate to your service.
2. Before making any modifications, stop the server from running by clicking the Stop button.
3. In order to restore one of these backups, navigate to the "File Manager" in your control panel.
4. On the File Manager, go to ShootersGame/Saved/SavedArks.
5. You will see a file ScorchedEarth_WP.ark or Map_WP.ark. This is the file your server uses to load your current world.
6. In the same folder, you’ll find multiple timestamped ".ark" files—these are automatic backups created at different points in time, letting you restore your world to any previous state you choose.
7. To restore a backup, first rename your current main map file to something like "MapName_Old.bak" to keep a safe copy. For example, rename "ScorchedEarth_WP.ark" to "ScorchedEarth_WP_Old.bak". Simply right click the current main map file and choose Rename.
8. Now that you’ve safely renamed your current world file, the next step is to choose which timestamped backup you want to restore. Each backup’s filename includes a timestamp showing exactly when it was created helping you pick the right moment to rewind your world to.
For example we want to restore ScorchedEarth_WP_24.07.2025_21.51.53.ark.
To restore the backup, rename it to match your original main map filename.
For example, rename the backup file to "ScorchedEarth_WP.ark".
Just right click the file and choose Rename .
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