Updating a Server

Updating your server can usually be done without any risk of losing your saved world. In most cases, updates are compatible with the previous saved games.

If something special has to be done to migrate a world for an update, Strange Loop Games will tell you that in the update announcement and you should follow anything special the devs say needs to be done before doing these steps. These are just the general steps to use for straightforward updates.

Quick Guide

1. Go to your Eco directory. In Eco_Data folder (In Steam: Steam/steamapps/common/Eco/Eco_Data), locate the Server folder and click to open it and locate the storage directory and open it. In there is your saved world, by the name you gave it and .eco. Copy it to a safe temporary directory somewhere outside your Eco directory.
2. Now go to the Config directory and save all config files that you may have edited. Copy them to a safe place.
3. Delete all the files in your Eco directory.
4. Unzip and put all the new Eco files back in the Eco directory.
5. Get world save files and copy them back into Eco_Data/Server/Storage
6. Go to your Config directory and open each of the files that you saved copies of and make sure you copy all the edits you made before into the new config files
   Note: In most cases config files do not change, so you could just copy them back in, but if something has changed in an update it may break your load or you will not get a new setting in, such as world balance changes for solo. So, it's best to always manually edit your configs.
7. Start your server.

Extended Guide

Backup

First you will want to save your backups and your saved world as well as your configuration files. These are all in your Storage/ and Configs/ folders. Make a backup of these folders and contents away from your server root directory.

Delete

Then delete all the Eco server files and install the ones from the new update.

Replace Files

Copy the Storage folder back in to the root folder so that it copies back your backups and your Game.eco and Archive.eco (world save files). Since the new update will have already made a Storage folder it will should ask you if you want to replace the new one with the old one you saved (that contains your world files). Tell it yes. Don't delete that copy you made just yet, until you are sure you have no issues and no longer need the backups or files in your copy.

There are also .db files in the Storage folder that you will want to save/backup and replace. However, they are saved in the Game.eco saved world so if you lose or damage them they will reload from the Game.eco. Because of this, they are probably not going to get lost easily.

The last thing to deal with is your configuration files that you have changed. Do not copy your old copies of these files back into the config folder. This way, your game will have the most updated version of these files. If you had modded these files for your previous world you will need to go in the new copies and apply the same edits.

For example, if you built a 2X world instead of the default dimensions you will need to go into the new WorldGenerator.eco and change the dimensions to 140X140, just as you had in the previous version. If you changed TimeOfDay or plant growth rates or something like that in EcoSim.eco you will need to go apply those changes in the new files.

For other configuration files that have not been edited, in most cases you can just copy the ones you already had edited with your settings back in. It's always wise to make a quick check and compare your old version with the latest to see that they are the same and its okay to continue using them. If there has been a change then use the new version and edit it with your information/settings so it works with your server.

Crashes and Troubleshooting

Occasionally, when a world is migrating through an update, it will crash. Very often it will recover from the crash and then load up, complete the migration, and be fine. Its always worth letting it have a retry if it crashes when migrating the first time.

However, if you keep having issues you should back off and stop your server and seek advice in the Eco Discord server, or report it as a bug on GitHub. This does not happen often and in most cases there is an easy remedy. This is one reason for holding on to your backup folders and files until you know for sure everything is working. This way if the devs need to see a fresh copy that has not been migrated yet you will have that for them.