How to update FiveM artifacts without losing data: safe step-by-step guide

On Linux, enter the artifacts folder and check the build number:

cd /home/fivem/server
ls -la
cat citizen/release.txt 2>/dev/null || head -1 components/citizen-server-impl/CMakeLists.txt

The version appears as a 4-digit number (e.g., 12559). If release.txt doesn’t exist, look for the number in the name of the folder where you originally extracted.

On Windows, open PowerShell in the artifacts folder and run:

Get-ChildItem -Name | Select-Object -First 5
Get-Content citizen\release.txt -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Write down the current build somewhere — you’ll need it for rollback if necessary.

Open https://runtime.fivem.net/artifacts/fivem/ and identify the current recommended build. The page lists builds in reverse chronological order; the recommended one is marked explicitly. Note the target build number.

Stop the server. In txAdmin, click “Stop Server” and wait for the process to finish. From the terminal, locate and kill the process:

ps aux | grep FXServer
sudo systemctl stop fivem 2>/dev/null || pkill -f FXServer

On Windows, close the FXServer.exe window or stop the txAdmin service through the Services panel.

Back up the artifacts folder. On Linux:

cd /home/fivem
tar -czf backup-artifacts-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M).tar.gz server/
ls -lh backup-artifacts-*.tar.gz

On Windows, copy the entire folder to a safe destination (preferably a different disk or external storage). Name it with a clear date: FXServer-backup-2026-05-29.zip.

Dump the MySQL database. This step is separate because the database is independent of the artifacts — but if you’re doing maintenance, it’s the right moment to grab a fresh snapshot:

mysqldump -u fivem_user -p fivem_db > backup-db-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M).sql
gzip backup-db-*.sql

Replace fivem_user and fivem_db with the real names from your setup. Confirm the .sql.gz file isn’t empty before proceeding.

Download the target artifact. From runtime.fivem.net, copy the .tar.xz (Linux) or .zip (Windows) link for the recommended build. On Linux:

cd /home/fivem
mkdir -p server-new
cd server-new
wget https://runtime.fivem.net/artifacts/fivem/build_proot_linux/master/12559-COMMIT_HASH/fx.tar.xz
tar -xJf fx.tar.xz
rm fx.tar.xz

Replace the build number and COMMIT_HASH with the values from the build you’re installing.

Verify the extraction brought the expected binaries. You should see FXServer, the alpine/ folder (Linux), or FXServer.exe + DLLs (Windows):

ls server-new/
file server-new/FXServer

If FXServer is an ELF executable (Linux) or PE32+ (Windows), you’re good. If the folder came up empty or without the binary, redo the download — the link was probably wrong or interrupted.

Perform the atomic swap. The idea is to rename the old folder so it stays as a fallback and move the new one to the canonical name:

cd /home/fivem
mv server server-old-$(date +%Y%m%d)
mv server-new server

On Windows, do the equivalent in Explorer: rename FXServer to FXServer-old and the new folder to FXServer. It takes a blink — but it guarantees that if something goes wrong in the next steps, you revert with another instant rename.

Confirm the external folders are in the correct place. The expected structure after the swap:

/home/fivem/
├── server/              (new binaries)
├── resources/           (preserved)
├── server.cfg           (preserved)
├── txData/              (preserved — tokens, profiles, ban list)
└── server-old-20260529/ (fast backup)

If you previously had everything inside the binaries folder, now is the time to copy resources/, server.cfg, and txData/ out of server-old-*/ to the outside. Use cp -r (Linux) or copy/paste (Windows).

Edit the startup path if needed. If you use a start script in run.sh or start.bat, confirm it points to server/FXServer (not server-old) and references the correct server.cfg:

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/fivem
./server/run.sh +exec server.cfg

On Windows, the typical .bat looks like:

@echo off
cd /d C:\FXServer
server\FXServer.exe +exec server.cfg
pause

Bring the server up:

sudo systemctl start fivem
journalctl -u fivem -f

Or run run.sh/start.bat directly in an interactive terminal to watch the logs in real time during boot.

Check the boot logs. Look for messages like [citizen-server-impl] Server started. or equivalent. Typical post-update errors show up as Couldn't load resource X or Error parsing server.cfg. Resolve any red error before proceeding.

Access txAdmin on the default port:

If txAdmin asks for a full setup from scratch, the txData/ folder wasn’t preserved — stop, restore the backup, and redo the procedure keeping txData/ out of the binary swap.

Connect a FiveM client to the server and test 2-3 critical resources from your gamemode (economy, garage, banking). If everything responds normally, the update is complete.