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Sons of the Forest Co-Op Save Sync Fix Guide

Sons of the Forest Guide • Updated Feb 27, 2026

Sons of the Forest Co-Op Save Sync Fix Guide

One of the most common frustrations on Sons of the Forest dedicated servers is co-op save desynchronisation — players log back in to find their inventory has reverted, Kelvin is dead again, or structural items have vanished from the base. This guide covers the known causes, configuration fixes, and manual repair procedures for these issues.

⚠️ Root Cause #1: Dirty Shutdown

If the server process is killed (SIGKILL) rather than shutting down gracefully (SIGTERM), the in-memory world state is not flushed to disk. Always use systemctl stop or RCON /save before terminating.

⚠️ Root Cause #2: Autosave Race

The autosave interval defaults to 300 seconds. If multiple players trigger time-intensive actions (like bulky base builds) simultaneously, the checkpoint write can fail silently.

Configuration Fixes

Increase save frequency and enable crash-safe atomic writes in dedicatedserver.cfg:

{
  "AutoSaveInterval": 120,
  "AtomicSaveWrite": true,
  "SaveOnPlayerDisconnect": true,
  "MaxConcurrentSaveThreads": 2
}

Manual Save Repair

If a rollback has already occurred, locate the save folder and check the timestamps:

~/.config/unity3d/Endnight/SonsOfTheForest/Saves/Multiplayer/[SlotID]/

  - WorldObjectLocatorManager.saved     ← World item positions
  - PlayerInventories/[SteamID].saved   ← Per-player inventory
  - Companions/Kelvin.saved             ← Kelvin state

Replace the corrupt .saved file with the most recent .saved.bak backup, then restart the server.

Kelvin Desync Fix

If Kelvin appears dead on reconnect but players know he was alive, the companion state file has reverted. Use the admin command:

# Via RCON:
/companion revive Kelvin

If RCON is unavailable, delete Companions/Kelvin.saved to force a fresh spawn at your current base location.

Prevention: Set up a pre-shutdown script that sends the RCON /save command 30 seconds before any server restart. This dramatically reduces the frequency of desync incidents.

Professional Hosting

Never lose progress again. Host your Sons of the Forest server with Supercraft for guaranteed atomic save writes and crash-protected backups.

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