LAN parties are alive and well. Whether you are at a friend’s house, a gaming cafe, or a dorm room, playing on the same local network delivers the best possible co-op experience: zero latency, no internet dependency, and the social energy of being in the same room.

But even on a LAN, the host dependency problem persists. If you are playing Minecraft and the host closes their laptop, the session ends. If you want to continue that world later at another LAN gathering, someone needs to get the save file from the original host’s machine.

SaveSync’s LAN Sync feature was built to solve this specific scenario.

The LAN Hosting Problem

When you play LAN multiplayer, one player typically opens their world to the local network. Other players on the same network can connect and play. The setup is simple and works well during a single session.

The problem shows up between sessions. The save file still lives exclusively on the host’s machine. If your group meets for weekly LAN nights and a different person hosts each time, you need to transfer the save before every session. That means finding the files, copying them, transferring them to the new host, and hoping nothing goes wrong.

For games like Minecraft Java Edition, this is especially common. Minecraft’s “Open to LAN” feature is incredibly easy to use, but it offers no mechanism for sharing the world save with other players on the network.

What Is LAN Sync?

LAN Sync is a SaveSync feature that allows players on the same local network to synchronize game saves directly between their machines, without needing an internet connection for the transfer.

Instead of uploading saves through an online service and downloading them on another machine, LAN Sync transfers the files directly over your local network. This is faster, works offline, and is ideal for LAN party scenarios where internet access might be limited or unreliable.

How LAN Sync Works With Minecraft Java Edition

Minecraft Java Edition is one of the most popular LAN co-op games, and it is one of the primary games SaveSync’s LAN Sync was designed for. Here is how to use it:

  1. Install SaveSync from Steam on each machine that will be part of the LAN session.
  2. Create a sync group with the players who are present on the LAN.
  3. Select Minecraft Java Edition from the game list.
  4. Use LAN Sync to share the world save directly over the local network.
  5. Any player can host the Minecraft world by opening it to LAN in-game.

After the session, sync the save again so everyone has the latest version. Next time you gather, whoever arrives first can start the world.

LAN Sync With Vintage Story

Vintage Story is another game that supports LAN play and works with SaveSync’s LAN Sync feature. The process is the same: install SaveSync, create a group, sync the save over the local network, and let whoever has the best machine host the session.

Vintage Story’s world saves can be quite large depending on how much of the map has been explored, making LAN Sync especially useful since local network transfer speeds are much faster than uploading and downloading through the internet.

Why Not Just Use a USB Drive?

The traditional LAN party save transfer method is a USB drive. Copy the save, walk it to the next host, paste it in. This works, but it has the same drawbacks as any manual file transfer:

  • You need to know exactly which files and folders to copy
  • Missing a file can break the world
  • There is no versioning, so you might accidentally overwrite a newer save with an older one
  • It is an extra step that someone has to remember every time

LAN Sync eliminates these steps. The transfer happens within SaveSync, which already knows the correct save locations and file structures.

Why Not Just Run a Dedicated Minecraft Server?

For a permanent Minecraft setup, a dedicated server makes sense. But for LAN parties, it is overkill. Setting up a dedicated server requires configuration, port forwarding (even on a LAN in some cases), and a machine to run the server software. For a casual weekend gathering, you do not want to spend the first hour troubleshooting server settings.

Minecraft’s “Open to LAN” feature is designed for exactly this kind of casual, low-friction play. SaveSync’s LAN Sync complements it by solving the one thing it cannot do: share the world between sessions.

Beyond Minecraft: Other LAN Co-Op Games

While LAN Sync is particularly useful for Minecraft Java Edition and Vintage Story, SaveSync’s standard sync features work for all 27 supported games. If your LAN group plays Valheim, Terraria, Core Keeper, or any other supported title, SaveSync keeps the saves shared across the group whether you are on the same network or connecting from different cities.

Make Your LAN Parties Seamless

The best LAN sessions are the ones where you sit down, launch the game, and start playing immediately. No file transfers, no setup hassle, no waiting for someone to figure out where the save is. LAN Sync keeps the world ready for whoever walks in the door.