Is it possible to get dinos back from a deleted server?

[moonmints]

This is probably a stupid question that can be answered by reading the title alone, but me and my friends were using a small, chill unofficial server belonging to somebody else for a while to play the game together.

A couple days ago, the admin notified us that he would be deleting the server soon, as he had lost interest in Ark. We're the type of people who get attached to our dinosaurs, so we were heartbroken. 
The admin was going to help me transfer them, so I tried to get all of our dinosaurs to one of the obelisks in time, but sadly the server deleted itself yesterday before I could transfer them.

So, I'm just wondering, is there any way at all I could still get them back? Is there a way Ark could still pull them out somehow? Or do I just have to move on and forget about them?

[DazzSHADOWS]

you could ask the admin to send you the save files for the server before they are removed from their system/hosting provider. For example Nitrado doesnt delete server saves for a few days after server shut down. I downloaded all my saves for my servers recently. our server population dropped to almost zero so I downloaded the saves in the hopes that when gen 2 is released it will bring people back and they won't have lost everything.

[Pipinghot]

4 hours ago, moonmints said:

So, I'm just wondering, is there any way at all I could still get them back? Is there a way Ark could still pull them out somehow? Or do I just have to move on and forget about them?

Yes, ARK has three types of files that information is saved in.

1) character files (one file per player) - this will only contain the information about your individual character, which will include anything you had in your inventory the last time you logged off.

2) tribe files (one file per tribe) - these contain the information a server needs to use to know which tribes & characters own dino's and buildings.

3) The server save file - this file contains all of the information about where buildings and dino's are located.

If you have the ability to admin your own server (which means you can use admin commands to level up characters, to replace lost equipment, to assign characters to tribes, to assign dino ownership to tribes & characters) then the only file you really need is the server save file. It's just one file and it's easy for the current server admin to find and give to you.

If they're also knowledgeable and helpful enough to give you the tribe files and character files then it will save you a lot of time and trouble re-creating the server for yourselves.