How to Change a Single-Player or Non-Dedicated Server to a Dedicated Server

[Ghostfang]

Basics
There are many other guides on how to set up a dedicated server. For a starter guide, I like the one by alien.system (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil.../?id=656433788), because he points out something I also figured out but didn't read in any other guide: you DON'T have to set up SteamCMD to run a dedicated server. I'm not certain if he is correct about needing to set up SteamCMD to host over the internet (as opposed to just over your LAN). Haven't tested it yet. I also like the guide from the official wiki (Dedicated Server Setup - Official ARK: Survival Evolved Wiki). I suggest reading both, but alien.system's guide is probably easier to understand for beginners.
Making the Change
1 - Start by navigating to where your ARK folder is. For anybody who doesn't know how to find it, the easy way will be to open Steam, right-click on ARK in your library, selecting Properties, clicking the "LOCAL FILES" tab, then clicking "BROWSE LOCAL FILES". This will open the main folder of your ARK directory. Starting from the ARK folder you just opened, go to ShooterGame>Saved and you will see a folder named SavedArksLocal. If you have played single-player or by hosting a non-dedicated server, the files in this folder are your world and character files.

2A - If you plan to have the same computer you played on host your dedicated server, then look for a folder named SavedArks in the same place you found SavedArksLocal, under ARK\ShooterGame\Saved. If it doesn't exist, make it. Now copy all files from SavedArksLocal to SavedArks, though you don't need all the backups (which will include a date in the file name). You may not need all the files (not including the backups), but I haven't tested yet to figure out which ones you actually need.

2B - If you plan to have a different computer host your server than the one you played on, then you need to do the same thing but copy the files from ARK\ShooterGame\Saved\SavedArksLocal on the computer you played on to the ARK\ShooterGame\Saved\SavedArks folder on the computer you want to host your server. This assumes you have ARK installed on the computer you want to host your world. In my case, I have Steam installed on both and am using the standard Steam installation of ARK to host my game on my desktop and play it on my laptop. If you don't have ARK installed this way on both your host computer and your client computer (the one you will play on), then you will either need to install it this way (I suggest copying the ARK directory from one computer to the other) or use the SteamCMD method to install an ARK server on your host computer.

3 - Next thing you have to do is get the dedicated server running, which you can follow one of the other guides to do. You will need to create the .BAT file to launch the server, then open the necessary ports in your router if you want people to be able to join your game from outside your LAN. For those who feel this is a bit overwhelming, I suggest starting with the guide from the official wiki for what to put in the .BAT file, as it will give you the basics you need to start your server. However, alien.system's guide gives more information about how to configure various server settings (the settings you set using sliding bars & checkboxes when launching your single-player world) than the official wiki guide seems to.

4 - You should now have one last thing to do. One of the files you copied will be "LocalPlayer.arkprofile". This is your character file, which you will need to rename. To know what to name it, the easiest way I know of is to start your dedicated ARK server on your host computer, then join it and create a new character, then log off the server. Check the files again on your host computer (ARK\ShooterGame\Saved\SavedArks) and you will see a new file which has many numbers in its name (counted 17 for mine) and ends with .arkprofile. Example: "12345678901234567.arkprofile". Copy the whole file name from this new file, delete the file, then rename your "LocalPlayer.arkprofile" to the exact name of the file you just deleted. If you don't see ".arkprofile" for the end of the names of these files, your Windows computer is probably set to not display file extensions. If so, just copying the part of the filename you can see should work in this case, as we don't want to change the file extension.

Your single-player/non-dedicated world should now be a dedicated server! There is a little difference about how to access your new server compared to playing a single-player world:

1 - Have your host computer start your server.
2 - Start ARK on your client computer (the one you will use to play ARK).
3 - Click "JOIN ARK" instead of "HOST\LOCAL".
4 - Find your server.

By default, the server filter in the bottom-left corner will be set to Official. Because your server is not an official server, you will need to change this to something else. Setting it to LAN has found my own server almost instantly, whereas I haven't been able to find my server in the unofficial server list. I read another guide which said your server will show up in the unofficial server list, so mine probably isn't because I had set it to "Private" when I played using a non-dedicated server.
Things to Note
If you intend to leave your server running 24/7, I suggest reading the section titled "Automatic Startup" in the guide on the official wiki.

Please note hosting a dedicated ARK server AND playing ARK on the same computer will require considerable resources. I don't believe 8GB of RAM will be enough as doing just one or the other (hosting or playing) has used nearly 6GB of RAM alone on my computers. That doesn't include the CPU/GPU power you need to run them, and for some reason it appears the ARK dedicated server actually loads up the GPU, even though it doesn't display anything.

If, after completing the steps in my guide to change your single-player/non-dedicated server to a dedicated server, you have any issues with others connecting to your server via the internet or Steam, you may need to configure your firewall (there are far too many routers with different configurations, so please look for a guide to configure your router) or refer to another guide about using SteamCMD to run your server. I have not used SteamCMD so I will not be able to help you with it.