Where Are Dwarf Fortress Save Files Located?
Where Dwarf Fortress keeps region saves since the 52.01 move to AppData, and how portable mode changes it.
Last updated
Since version 52.01, Dwarf Fortress keeps user data outside the install: saves in a save folder under %APPDATA%\Bay 12 Games\Dwarf Fortress, with prefs and mods beside it. Each world is a regionN folder of .dat files plus world.sav, and the current folder is live scratch you should never touch.
Portable mode reverts to the old layout (everything inside the game folder) via a portable.txt flag, which is why old guides and new installs disagree. Saves are large and fragile: the game needs double the space during a save, and a full disk corrupts silently while reporting success.
Where Dwarf Fortress stores this, by platform
%APPDATA%\Bay 12 Games\Dwarf Fortress\save
Paste %APPDATA%\Bay 12 Games\Dwarf Fortress into Explorer. Worlds are regionN folders inside save. Pre 52.01 installs and portable mode keep everything in the game folder instead.
~/.local/share/Bay 12 Games/Dwarf Fortress/save
SDL pref path rather than the install dir. Same save/prefs/mods split inside. Portable mode (portable.txt in prefs) reverts to the game folder on all platforms.
Frequently asked questions
How do I back up a fortress correctly?
Copy the whole region folder out of save with the game closed, keeping the name. To restore, delete the live folder first, then copy the backup in: overwriting in place leaves stale files that corrupt the world. Include data/installed_mods for modded worlds.
I loaded an autosave and my main save stopped advancing. Why?
Load the autosave, then immediately copy its folder to a new region style name and continue from the copy. The game saves back into whichever folder you loaded, so playing straight from autosave forks your timeline silently.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.