How to Move Your Minecraft World to a Server (or Switch Hosts)

Where your world is

If you play singleplayer on Minecraft Java, each world is a folder inside .minecraft/saves. On Windows: press the Windows key, type %appdata% and go into .minecraft and then saves. Inside you'll see one folder per world; the right one is the one containing the level.dat file.

If you're coming from another host, the world is usually the “world” folder (or whatever the level-name line in the server.properties file says), and that host's panel normally has a backups section where you can download everything.

With NapNodes: “Bring my server”

In the panel, in “Mods & plugins”, the “Bring my server” tab. You paste the download link of a .zip or .tar.gz with your server or your world, and the server downloads it by itself: you don't need to upload anything from home.

If the archive contains a server.properties, the whole server is brought over. If there's only a folder with level.dat, only the world is brought over. Anything already there that clashes is set aside in an “antes-de-importar-<date>” folder, not deleted, and a backup is made first if there's room.

1. Compress your world

   Make a .zip of the world folder (the one with level.dat inside). If you're coming from another host, download its backup: it's already compressed.

2. Give it a link

   Upload it to Dropbox or Google Drive and copy the share link; NapNodes turns it into a download link. If it's a host's direct download link, paste it as is.

3. Paste it into “Bring my server”

   You'll see the progress in the panel. When it's done, restart the server.

4. Check the server type

   If your old server had plugins or mods, check in “Server type” that the new one is the same type (Paper, Fabric, Forge…) before playing.

If you'd rather do it by hand

With the server stopped, upload your world folder in “Files” (preferably compressed; if it's big, over SFTP) and unzip it. Then open server.properties and change level-name to the exact name of that folder, respecting capitals and spaces. Start the server: if the name doesn't match, it will create a new, empty world, and yours will stay untouched in its folder.

Before touching anything, take a backup. Uploading files with the server online can corrupt the world.

Things worth knowing

The version matters: a world from a newer version won't open on a server running an older one. The server has to be on the same version as your world or a later one. When you open it with a newer version, Minecraft upgrades it and there's no going back, so keep your original copy.

Folders, since 26.1: a singleplayer world and a Paper server world now have the same layout, with the Nether and the End inside the world folder (in dimensions/minecraft). If you're bringing a Paper server from before 26.1, with world_nether and world_the_end as separate folders next to world, bring them too: Paper moves them inside world by itself on first start (what changed in 26.1).

This applies to Minecraft Java. Project Zomboid and Valheim store their saves differently and have their own guides: moving your Project Zomboid save and moving your Valheim world.

Frequently asked questions