You log back in after a few days away and your base is gone. No walls, no Palbox, no Pals at work, while other bases on the server look untouched. The usual cause is one server setting doing what it says, and on your own server you can switch it off in a minute. Below: what the setting does in Pocketpair's own words, how official servers differ from your own, how to turn it off or give it more time, and what a backup can still save.
Quick answer: If your Palworld base disappeared while you were offline, the server's guild reset most likely deleted it. With bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers on, Pocketpair's server guide says the server will "automatically delete structures and base Pals" when no guild members log in, once the offline time in AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers has passed. Pocketpair's default file sets that time to 72.000000: the 72 hours players talk about. On your own dedicated server the reset is off by default, so if it fired, someone switched it on. Set it to False in PalWorldSettings.ini or raise the timer, and restart. On an official server you cannot change settings, and players there report the same 72-hour limit, so someone in your guild has to log in before it runs out. A world backup from before the reset can bring the base back, but only by rolling back the whole world.
Why Your Base Disappeared While You Were Offline
Pocketpair documents the reset as two settings on its configuration page (version 1.0.4). The third row, the world backup, matters once the base is gone.
| Setting | Pocketpair's description | Default |
|---|---|---|
bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers | "If no guild members log in, automatically delete structures and base Pals." | False |
AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers | "Offline duration before bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers triggers. Ignored if bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers is False." | 72.000000 |
bIsUseBackupSaveData | "Enable world backups. Enabling this increases disk load." | True |
The defaults come from DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini, the sample file that ships with the server. We read it from Pocketpair's official server image, version 1.0.5.102999, and you can open the same file in your own server folder.
Three details in those rows answer most questions:
- The whole guild counts. The reset fires when no guild member logs in, so one guildmate who plays regularly keeps the guild's bases.
- It takes the base, not one wall. Structures and the Pals working at the base go together.
- The unit is not printed. Pocketpair calls the timer an offline duration and leaves out the unit. With the default of 72.000000, players report losing bases after about three days offline, so read the number as hours.
A guild reset looks different from a rollback. A rollback after a crash or a restore takes the whole world back in time for everyone. A guild reset removes one guild's bases while the rest of the world carries on.
Official, Community or Your Own Server
Official servers. Pocketpair runs these itself, and its server guide only covers the dedicated and community servers you host. We could not find a Pocketpair post that lists the settings official servers use. Players there report the 72-hour rule. In a Steam discussion from July 2026, one answer reads: "If this is on an official server, if they don't login for 72 hours, their bases WILL be wiped." You cannot change anything on an official server, so the only protection is a login before the timer runs out, yours or a guildmate's.
Community servers. Pocketpair defines a community server as a dedicated server registered in the in-game server list. Its owner picks the settings, so ask the admin or read the server description before you build. How to run your own as a community server is in our crossplay guide.
Your own dedicated server. The reset is off in the default file. If it is deleting bases on your server, someone switched it on: through a host's settings page, a config copied from a public server, or an earlier admin. On a busy public server it has a purpose. BaseCampMaxNum is the total number of bases on the whole server (128 in the default file), and abandoned bases count toward it. For friends who play in bursts, it mostly deletes bases.
How to Turn the Guild Reset Off or Give It More Time
- Stop the server. Pocketpair's own setup steps change
PalWorldSettings.inionly after the server has stopped. - Open the right file. In the server folder that is
Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.inion Linux andPal\Saved\Config\WindowsServer\PalWorldSettings.inion Windows. NotDefaultPalWorldSettings.ini: Pocketpair notes that editing it has no effect. IfPalWorldSettings.iniis empty or missing, copy the defaults in first, as the configuration page shows. On Linux, from the server folder:cp DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini. - Change the value inside the
OptionSettings=(...)line, as shown below. - Start the server. The new value applies from this start.
On Linux, run this from the server folder to see what the file says now:
grep -oE 'b?AutoResetGuild[A-Za-z]*=[^,)]*' Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini
On a server with the reset on, it prints:
bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers=True
AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers=72.000000
No output means neither key is in the file, so the server uses the defaults and the reset is off.
To turn it off, which is what most friend groups want:
sed -i 's/bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers=true/bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers=False/I' Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini
To keep it but give players a week, set the timer to 168. Pocketpair says the timer is ignored while the reset is False, so leave bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers=True:
sed -i -E 's/AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers=[0-9.]+/AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers=168.000000/' Pal/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/PalWorldSettings.ini
In a text editor or a panel, edit the keys inside the one OptionSettings=(...) line, separated by commas from the rest. Turned off, they read:
bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers=False,AutoResetGuildTimeNoOnlinePlayers=72.000000
On a public server that keeps the reset, put the rule in ServerDescription so players know how long they can stay away. On a Space-Node Palworld server you edit PalWorldSettings.ini in the panel, and changes apply on the next restart. For a server on your own machine, our Palworld dedicated server guide covers the install and the config file.
What a Backup Can and Cannot Bring Back
Pocketpair's world backup is bIsUseBackupSaveData, on in the default file. With it on, the server creates a backup folder in the save data folder and keeps the copies below, per the configuration page:
| Copies kept | Spacing |
|---|---|
| 5 | 30 seconds |
| 6 | 10 minutes |
| 12 | 1 hour |
| 7 | 1 day |
So the oldest copy is about a week old.
A backup can bring back the structures and base Pals the reset took, as long as a copy from before the reset still exists: about a week back with Pocketpair's backups, or as far back as your own backups go.
A backup cannot bring back:
- Only your base. A world backup is the whole world at one moment. Restoring it puts every player and every guild back to that moment, and whatever anyone built, caught or crafted since is lost. Pocketpair's guide has no way to restore one guild on its own.
- A reset older than your oldest copy. Once the reset is more than about a week old, every daily copy was made after it.
- Anything at all if
bIsUseBackupSaveDatawasFalseand nobody took a backup by hand.
Turn the reset off or raise the timer before you start a restored world. In that backup the guild's offline time was already counting, so with the reset still on, the same base can be deleted again.
Pocketpair documents when the server makes backups, not how to restore one. On your own machine: stop the server, copy the current save files somewhere safe, put the files from the backup you picked in their place, and start the server. Our Palworld plans have 2 backup slots in the panel, filled by hand or on a schedule, and you restore them from the panel too. Take one before you change any setting.
FAQ
How did my entire base disappear while I was offline? Most likely nobody from your guild logged in for the reset time while the guild reset was on, so the server deleted the guild's structures and base Pals. Other guilds keep their bases, because the reset counts logins per guild.
Will my friends' bases get wiped if they don't play for a while?
On your own server, only if bAutoResetGuildNoOnlinePlayers is True. Set it to False and their bases wait for them. On an official server, players report the 72-hour rule, so someone in your friends' guild has to log in.
Is this the same as structure decay?
No. Decay is BuildObjectDeteriorationDamageRate, which Pocketpair calls the "Building decay speed multiplier" (1.000000 in the default file). The guild reset does not wear anything down: it deletes the guild's structures and base Pals once the offline time has passed.
My config says False and bases still vanish. What else can it be?
Check that you edited PalWorldSettings.ini in Config/LinuxServer or Config/WindowsServer, not DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini, and that you restarted. Then check what the running server uses: with the REST API on, GET /settings returns the server's settings, both guild reset keys included. If it reports False, the guild reset is not what removes the bases. If it reports True while your file says False, something other than that file sets the value. Pocketpair's guide does not say what, so back up the world before you change anything else.
Does restoring a backup only bring back my base? No. A world backup restores the whole world to the moment it was made, for every player on the server. Agree on it with everyone first.
Sources
All opened on 1 November 2026:
- Pocketpair, Palworld Server Guide: Configuration parameters (1.0.4), About server (1.0.4), Setting Up Dedicated Servers for Xbox (0.3.12.0), REST API: Get the server settings (1.0.4)
- Pocketpair on GitHub: palworld-dedicated-server-docker (README and compose.yaml), and
DefaultPalWorldSettings.inifrom the official palserver image, v1.0.5.102999 - Pocketpair on Steam: Regarding official server access issues and future countermeasures against cheat (16 February 2024)
- Steam Community: Will my friends bases still get wiped on our world if they don't play for awhile? (July 2026)