Troubleshooting

While playing Valheim one might come across technical issues or even bugs. This page contains a list of the most common issues and possible solutions.
A game crash or world save issues are usually not bugs but user errors. Which means the player can, in many cases, fix these issues just by reading this page, asking on the Discord or posting on the Steam forums.
Bugs should be reported using the form on the Valheim website.
== Common Issues and Possible Solutions (Client-Side) ==
=== Camera and Controls do not work as intended ===
Make sure to disable your gamepad.
=== Connection issue icon pops up ===
Closing apps that are optimizing your network might help.
=== Game crashes ===
Almost all crashes are caused by mods, or mods that are outdated, or (after mod uninstall) remaining mod files in the Valheim directory.
* Do you have any mods installed? Fully uninstall them and see if that helps - When you get a Unity crash on launch, this is almost always connected to an update we have done, and the creator of the mod has not pushed an update, or you as player have a mod that is not up-to-date. REMOVE ALL MOD FILES, if that does not help, REINSTALL Valheim. Be sure to MANUALLY delete every file in the installation directory!
* Reinstall the game/verify the game files.
* Some players report that turning down in-game settings and have Nvidia prioritize performance helps them.
=== Sync issues on multiplayer servers ===
Note: The devs are working on improving Valheim's multiplayer experience!
* Make sure that you are all playing on the same version of the game and if it is a dedicated server, that it is up-to-date.
* A player has reported that the Killer Network software (often found on MSI computers) causes sync issues. Uninstall the software (not the network drivers). To fully rid yourself of the sync issues, you may need to go to killernetworking.com and get their uninstaller.
=== FPS drops; Hot CPU/GPU ===
Note: The devs are continuously working on improving Valheim's performance!
* The game offers several optimization options in the settings, see if those can help you.
* Right-click Valheim in your Steam library -> properties -> general -> launch options -> enter "-force-vulkan" - This might increase your FPS!
* Big buildings and a lot of terraforming often cause drops in FPS.
* Even though Valheim has lower polygon graphics, it uses raycasting, physical calculations, point light shadows, post processing, particle effects and many other things that other modern games also use. All of these combine into what may make you experience low FPS in a game like Valheim. In the game settings, there is a setting for Vsync. Enabling this limits the FPS to your monitor's Hertz; this is something we would recommend high-end computers to use so the game does not try to produce the maximum number of FPS it can produce just for the sake of a lot of FPS, which in the end just makes your hardware run very warm when it does not really need to.
=== Issues with build menu, cannot interact with chests, weird things are happening ===
The usual fix for this is to verify your installed files. Right click Valheim in your Steam Library -> Properties, Local files and click the “verify your gamefiles” option.
=== World save issues; Character/world gone ===
Valheim saves both character and worlds in separate folders in: C:\Users\ <username> \AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim
* Sometimes a save-file gets corrupted. Go to your above mentioned directory. Your world will have files named with .old rename the files and remove the .old extensions and answer YES, when it prompts you if you want to overwrite a current file with the same name.
* One easy solution to try is simply to stop Steam Cloud Sync.
* If you have some program or anti-virus that prevents files from being created and/or edited on C: you will prevent any kind of character/world files from being created or any progress saved on them.
* If you share computer (with different logins) with a family member, but you both share Steam account. You can have issues with Steam and Cloud Saves. Example: Player 1 logins on computer, starts Steam. (then Steam Cloud saves will sync files on launch) then when you exit the game, Steam Cloud saves will sync again) if then player 2 launches the game from the shared Steam account, player 2’s local files will be prompted by Steam if player 2 wants to overwrite the files on C: - This can lead to issues if players 1 and 2 do not always have Steam connected and sync every time correctly. (like quickly close the computer for example so Steam does not get the time it needs to sync correctly)
* If you are having sync issues or cannot find your local savefiles, download your Cloud Saves here: https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage
* On a dedicated server, if you do not close the client correctly, you can get corrupted files.
=== Very long loading time on worlds (after update) ===
The first time you launch an old world after a bigger (biome) update, the client will execute a “generate locations” command automatically and it will generate all those new locations that have been added to the game for players to discover. This can however have the issue of moving already spawned boss locations so the boss-marker on the map can be wrong. This is solved by removing the marker and interacting with a Vegvisir stone again.
=== No auto-pickup for items ===
The default key for this toggle is “V”, but you can change this keybind in the settings to whatever you prefer.
== Common Issues and Possible Solutions (Server-Side) ==
Please refer to the Dedicated servers page.
Category:Guides