How to Update Your Palworld Server and Fix Version Mismatch
How to update a Palworld dedicated server on Windows and Linux — the SteamCMD command and the app ID it needs, which folders to back up first, what changes on a rented host, and how to clear a version mismatch that keeps your group locked out.
Palworld servers do not patch themselves — the game updates on your machine, the server stays on the old build, and the whole group is locked out of a world that was fine yesterday. This guide covers updating every kind of server the game supports, the exact commands on Windows and Linux, the backup to take before you start, and how to clear a version mismatch that will not go away.
Which Kind of Palworld Server You Are Running
What you actually have to update depends entirely on where the world file lives. In a co-op session there is no server to patch at all — the host's copy of the game is the server, so everyone updates Palworld normally and reconnects. A dedicated server is the opposite: it is a separate free download with its own version number, and it will keep happily running last month's build until you go and update it yourself. Find your row below before you start typing commands, because three of these four need completely different work.
| Setup | Where the world lives | What updating means |
|---|---|---|
| Co-op session (invite code) | Inside the host's normal save, on their machine | Everyone updates the game itself. The host loads the world once alone before re-inviting. |
| Dedicated server you host | In the server tool's own Saved folder | Stop the server, run the Steam update against it, restart. Updating your game copy does nothing to it. |
| Rented or hosted server | On the provider's hardware | Trigger the update from the control panel, or leave auto-update on, then restart the instance. |
| Console player on a crossplay server | Wherever that server is hosted | Nothing server-side at all. Update the game through your console's store and rejoin. |
Back Up the World Before You Update
Take the backup. A server update is normally boring, but the two ways it goes wrong — files getting replaced while the server is still writing a save, and a patch you decide you want to roll back from — are both survivable with a copy and both permanent without one. Stop the server, wait until the process has genuinely exited, then copy the folders below somewhere off the machine. If you only take one thing, take the whole Saved folder: it holds the settings, the world and every player character in a single directory.
| What to copy | Where it is | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| The entire Saved folder | Pal\Saved\ inside your server install | One copy restores the world, the settings and every player character in one move |
| The world save | Pal\Saved\SaveGames\0\ — one folder per world, named with a long ID | This is the world itself, and that long folder name is what your server config points at |
| Server settings | Pal\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\PalWorldSettings.ini (LinuxServer on Linux) | Rates, slot count, PvP and the password all live here, so a bad edit becomes a one-file restore |
Keep the backup somewhere that is not the server — a second drive, your own PC, anywhere the machine going down does not take with it. If a restore is ever needed, it is the same move in reverse: stop the server, delete or rename the current Saved folder, drop the copy back in its place, start up, and check the world ID the server reports on boot matches the one you restored.
How to Update a Dedicated Server on Windows
The dedicated server is a separate free tool from the game itself, listed under Tools with its own app ID — 2394010 — and that ID is what the updater needs. There are two routes to the same result: SteamCMD if the server runs headless, or the Steam client if you installed the tool from your library on a machine you actually log into. SteamCMD is the one worth learning, because it can be scripted into the same batch file that restarts the server.
Steps, in order:
- Stop the server first. Close the PalServer window or stop the service and wait for the process to exit. Replacing files under a live server is the most reliable way there is to corrupt a save.
- Run the update. In SteamCMD: steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit. The validate flag re-checks every file and repairs anything a previous update left half-written, which is why it belongs in the command rather than only in your emergency kit.
- Or let the Steam client do it. Find Palworld Dedicated Server under Tools, right-click, Properties, Updates, and set it to update automatically — it will then patch whenever Steam is running.
- Restart the server with your usual launch script or PalServer.exe.
- Join once yourself before telling anyone the server is back. A failed join is far easier to diagnose with one person online than with six.
How to Update a Dedicated Server on Linux
Same app ID and the same validate pass, with one trap that catches people every time: SteamCMD applies its arguments in the order you give them, so +force_install_dir has to come *before* +login. Put it after and the update quietly installs into SteamCMD's own default folder while your actual server directory stays on the old build — which looks exactly like the update having done nothing. If you run the server under systemd, screen or tmux, stop that unit properly rather than killing the process, because a clean shutdown is what flushes the current save to disk.
Steps, in order:
- Stop the service through systemctl, or however you launch it, and confirm the process is actually gone before continuing.
- Update: steamcmd +force_install_dir ~/palserver +login anonymous +app_update 2394010 validate +quit, swapping in your own install path.
- Restart with ./PalServer.sh or your service unit.
- Watch the first boot. If the server exits immediately, re-run the update with validate; if it still will not start, restore the Saved folder you copied and try again.
How to Update a Rented or Hosted Server
Hosting panels nearly all expose both an update button and an auto-update toggle, and the toggle is the one worth switching on — it patches during a restart window instead of leaving you to discover the mismatch when nobody can log in. What to watch for is mods and hand-edited config: an update can replace files under the server root, and a panel that reinstalls rather than patches will take your settings with it. Take the panel's own backup first if it offers one, download it if the panel lets you, and put mods back only after a plain vanilla join has worked.
The order that avoids the most pain:
- Stop the instance from the panel rather than just closing the browser tab.
- Run the panel's update. Only force a full reinstall if a normal update fails, and only with a backup in hand.
- Restart, join once yourself on a clean install, then re-add mods one at a time so a broken one is obvious.
Fix Version Mismatch and Failed Joins
Almost every post-update join failure is the same problem wearing different error text: two builds that do not match. The client is usually the one that has moved ahead, because Steam patches games quietly in the background while a server sits on whatever build you last installed. Work down this table in order before you reinstall anything — the top two rows account for the overwhelming majority of them, and the bottom row is the only one where your backup actually matters.
| What you see | What it usually is | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Version mismatch or a flat refusal to join | The server is still on the older build | Update it with a validate pass, restart, rejoin |
| Server missing from the community list | Updated but not restarted, or still booting | Restart it and give it a minute to register before looking again |
| You can join but nobody else can | Their clients are behind, not the server | Have them verify the game files or restart Steam so it patches |
| Server crashes on boot after updating | A half-applied update, or a mod built for the previous build | Re-run the update with validate, then boot once with every mod disabled |
| The world loads but the characters are gone | The server generated a fresh world instead of loading yours | Stop it, restore the Saved folder you copied, and check the world ID in your settings |
What the Latest Update Changed
The current build is 1.0.2, which landed on every platform on July 29, 2026, and it is a stability pass rather than a content drop — which makes it worth updating for precisely because of what it repairs on servers. Dedicated-server groups fighting Panthalus were getting disconnected mid-battle, and the same fight could crash the game outright; both are fixed. So is the tower boss pairing of Victor and Shadowbeak vanishing after its teleport attack, and the broken terrain guests loaded into when the host moved through the World Tree. If your group parked any of that, the full 1.0.2 patch notes list every line of it.
Nothing in 1.0.2 touches stats, drop rates or recipes, so an update does not invalidate anything you had running — no rebuilt teams, no re-farmed gear. That holds for most stability patches, but it is worth checking the notes before a big update anyway if your server runs a tuned set of rates.