Troubleshoot: Terraria Load Failed No Backup Found

How do I fix my Terraria world not loading?

Terraria is a 2D action-adventure and open-world sandbox game whose customer reviews are overwhelmingly positive. It is open, creative, and exciting, allowing users to dig, fight, explore, and build in a dazzling world.

To protect players’ progress and effort, Terraria offers an Autosave feature.

If enabled, it saves the world and character data every 10 minutes in the background; if not, your data will only be saved when you click save and quit manually.

But sometimes the Autosave feature is not that reliable – plenty of users have complained that they have met the error: Terraria Load Failed No Backup Found.

When using their devices, be it from computers, storage devices, or iPhones, users and players are usually vulnerable to various errors. E.g., Windows users may run into Windows 10 backup failed error.

This error means the world cannot be loaded, and the progress will be lost, no chests could be opened and checked, etc., which is really frustrating.

If you are now being bothered by this upsetting issue, rest assured, this article gathers multiple fixes to help you fix this error. Before that, we might as well figure out the causes of this error.

Why is Terraria showing “Load failed. No backup found.”?

This error will prompt when players are trying to lead their world. And the causes are various.

The world file is corrupted. If you keep receiving this notice, perhaps your world has gone corrupted already. If so, then unluckily you might have to start a new one. 

Exit during save. As mentioned above, Terraria has an Autosave feature. If you exit the game while the game is saving, the world might be loaded incorrectly or severer, corrupted. 

Technical issues. Power surges, abrupt shutdowns, not running as an administrator, etc., can lead to this issue as well.

The world file was deleted. You may have accidentally deleted files, or viruses deliberately did so. And thus, the world won’t load properly. 

In the next section, practicable solutions are to help you if you are still wondering why “my Terraria world is gone”.

Fix: Terraria load failed no backup found

Check out these fixes and choose one that suits you. You could utilize some quick tricks, or use the introduced professional data recovery app to recover deleted game files on PC efficiently.

Solution 1. Processing the .wld file

Some users have met this error when they are creating a new world, which means you haven’t generated and written any data to it yet, but it requires a backup file.

If so, follow the steps below to fix it.

Step 1. Go to the game backup file directory C:\Users\your username\Documents\My Games\Terraria\Worlds.

Step 2. Locate your affected .wld file > right click it > click Compress to … > move it to the backup folder.

Then try to load the world again, and see if it can solve it. If it does not help, try to compress the twld. Files as well.

Solution 2. Reload the mods and Exit with Alt+F4

If you have worked on the world you created for a period of time and met this issue after saving and re-entering it, then it seems that the world data hasn’t loaded correctly.

>> You could try to reload the mods > exit the game with Alt+F4 > re-entry the world.

It is important that make sure you exit by pressing the key Alt+F4 but not normally exit it.

Solution 3. Run Terraria as Administrator

Some players have reported that they ran into the “Terraria Load failed no backup found” error multiple times a day, which is obviously abnormal.

According to Terraria developers, it might be a technical issue. Maybe you have exited the world during the saving process; what’s more, power outages, abrupt shutdown, and not running it as Administrator can also cause issues.

You could follow the steps here to run the game as an Administrator to fix it: go to the local Terraria file location > find the Terraria app > right-click it > Properties > Compatibility > Run this program as an administrator.

Then check if your world is okay now.

Solution 4. Recover deleted .wld backup files using a professional Windows data recovery app

If all these fixes failed to help you, then it implies that your world file might have been deleted. As mentioned before, viruses can delete/modify/move/encrypt your files deliberately.

But don’t worry, you could easily get it back as long as it hasn’t been overwritten, that is to say, it is better not to add any more items to the drive or the original location in case the deleted files would be overwritten.

With the help of an efficient Windows data recovery tool, you won’t have difficulties solving the “Terraria Load failed no backup found” error by recovering the deleted .wld files.

MyRecover is a preferred option. It is advanced in data recovery using its efficient scanning techs and algorithms.

It automatically scans your hard disks with Quick Scan & Deep Scan, respectively searches for deleted files and other missing files.

Step 1. Install and run MyRecover > Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan.

Step 2. During the scanning process, you could search for or sort the wanted files using the extensions, Size, Type, Date modified, Path, etc.

Step 3. Go to Deleted files > navigate to the original location:  C:\Users\your username\Documents\My Games\Terraria\Worlds > select the .wld files you need > click Recover x files.

It is suggested not to recover the files directly to their original location, but recover them to another drive, and then, move the .wld files back to the World folder.

Related suggestions

Fixes to the Terraria Load failed no backup found error have been given with details in this article.

For better use and to avoid similar dilemmas from happening again, some suggestions are gathered here as well to help you.

• Back up your world and character files manually.
• Create multiple file copies if you don’t want to lose your hundreds of hours of hard work: could backup, local backup, external storage backup. You could use professional backup software for Windows to make it.
• Quit the game properly every time.
• Use antivirus software to protect your computer and vital data.