Backups and restoring

What a backup contains

A backup holds all four databases of the server:

A backup stores only what changed since the previous one: the databases are compared page by page, and a page that is already in an earlier backup is not stored again. The first backup takes the most space (the world database alone is about 160 MB); later ones usually add a few megabytes, so backups can run every hour. When nothing changed at all, no backup is made.

Backups are taken with the server running or stopped; a running server keeps working while the backup is made. Characters that are online are saved by the server from time to time (Character save interval, min in Settings › Network and resources). To be sure the latest minutes are in the backup, run the Save everyone quick action first.

Where backups go

All backups live in one store, backups\store inside your server folder. The server folder is the one you chose in the wizard ("Where to keep the server data"); Settings › About shows it as Server data. The quickest way there is Maintenance › Backups › Open folder.

The store is not a set of plain copies: its files only make sense to LonelyIce. To get the database files of one backup, use Export (see below). Folders with full copies made by older LonelyIce versions (backups\2026-09-30_040012\…) are listed as well, but the launcher never deletes them.

The backup list

Maintenance › Backups lists the backups, newest first: the time, what changed, and how much the backup added to the store. What changed is shown per database and table, for example characters (character_inventory, item_instance, +2) · playerbots; "(full copy)" marks a database stored in full, as in the first backup. A backup the launcher made right before a restore reads "Before a restore: …".

The line at the top sums it up: the number of backups, the space they take, the disk limit and the schedule, for example backups: 38 · 212 MB of 2.0 GB · daily at 04:00.

Automatic backups

You set the schedule in Settings › Launcher:

The schedule runs only while LonelyIce is open (in the window or in the tray). If the launcher was closed at the daily time, the day's backup is made as soon as it is open again later that day. A scheduled backup that finds nothing changed makes none and says nothing.

Which backups stay

After each backup the launcher thins out the old ones:

• the newest backup always stays, and every backup of the last 24 hours;
• for Daily backups, days, the newest backup of each day;
• older than that, the newest backup of each week;
• when the store is larger than Disk space for backups, MB, the oldest backups go until it fits. If the newest backup alone is larger, only it stays and the Events list says so.

Making a backup by hand

Any of these starts one at once:

• the Backup quick action on the main page;
• Maintenance › Backups › Back up now;
• Back up now in the tray menu.

The footer shows "Making a backup…", and the Events list shows Backup: +<size> (<what changed>) when it is done. If nothing changed since the last backup, you get "Nothing changed since the last backup." instead.

Restoring a backup

1. Stop the server with Stop (or Stop the server in the tray) and wait until it shows Stopped. A restore is refused while the server runs ("Stop the server before restoring a backup.") and while another program has a database open.
2. Open Maintenance › Backups and press Restore next to the backup you want.
3. The button turns into Restore it?: press it again to confirm, or Cancel.

The launcher first backs up the current state, so you can go back: it appears in the list as "Before a restore: …". Then it puts back every database that differs from the backup, checks each restored file, and leaves the databases that are already the same alone. The Events list says "Restored from a backup: … The state before is kept as a backup." The server cannot be started while a restore runs.

All databases come from the same backup, so accounts, characters, the world and the bots always fit together.

If you installed or updated plugins after the backup was made, also delete plugins\.cache\sql.stamp next to LonelyIce.exe before you start. The server then runs the plugins' SQL again on the next start, so the tables they added to the databases come back.

The full copies of older versions have no Restore button. To use one, stop the server, move auth.sqlite, characters.sqlite and playerbots.sqlite out of db in the server folder together with the files next to them that end in -wal and -shm, and copy the three files from the old backup folder into db.

Export

Export next to a backup writes its database files into backups\export\<time of the backup> and opens that folder: plain SQLite files you can copy elsewhere or open with any SQLite tool. Exports are not part of the store; delete them when you no longer need them.

To keep your backups on another disk, copy the whole backups\store folder.

From the command line

LonelyIce.exe --backup
LonelyIce.exe --backup list
LonelyIce.exe --backup restore 2026-09-30_040012
LonelyIce.exe --backup export 2026-09-30_040012

The ids are the times shown by list. restore needs the server stopped here too. See Command line.

What backups do not cover

• Databases on a database server. With the MySQL package (or any storage other than the hard drive), backups are off: the launcher says "Backups work only with databases in files." Use the database server's own backup tools. See Moving the databases to MySQL.
• Settings and configs: lonelyice.ini next to LonelyIce.exe and the configs folder in the server folder.
• Game data in the data folder (maps, vmaps, mmaps). The wizard can build it again from your client.
• Plugins and anything in your game folder (add-ons, WTF, screenshots).

To keep everything, copy the whole server folder and lonelyice.ini while the server is stopped.