How to move your Minecraft world to your own server

You’ve poured hours into a world and starting over is not an option. The good news: a Minecraft world is just a folder of files, and you can take it with you to your own server. It comes down to three steps. Get the world from wherever it lives now, check the version, and set it up on your server as the default world. Below you’ll find how that works from singleplayer, Aternos and Realms, for both Java and Bedrock.

Before you start: three quick checks

• Java or Bedrock? A Java world belongs on a Java server and a Bedrock world on a Bedrock server, because they use different file formats. Conversion tools exist, but things can go wrong, such as blocks or redstone behaving differently.
• Which version? Run your world on the same Minecraft version it was last played on, or a newer one. Minecraft upgrades worlds to newer versions, but going back to an older one doesn’t work well.
• A spare copy. Keep the original world on your own computer until everything works, so you can always start again.

Java: finding your singleplayer world

Minecraft Java keeps singleplayer worlds in the saves folder of your Minecraft installation:

• Windows: %appdata%\.minecraft\saves (paste this into the File Explorer address bar)
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves
• Linux: ~/.minecraft/saves

Each world is its own folder containing, among other things, a file called level.dat. Zip that folder: on Windows, right-click it and choose the option to compress it to a ZIP file. Zip the world folder itself, not the whole saves folder.

Bedrock: exporting your world

With Bedrock it depends on your device:

• Windows: select your world and click Export World at the bottom of its settings. You’ll get a file ending in .mcworld.
• iPhone, iPad and Android: find the world folder with a file manager and compress its contents into a zip file.
• Xbox, PlayStation and Switch: you can’t save a world as a file on a console. According to the Minecraft Wiki, uploading to a Realm is the only official way to move worlds to and from consoles. You then download the world on a PC or phone.

A .mcworld file is really a zip file. Rename it to .zip and it opens and uploads like any other zip.

From Aternos to your own server

On Aternos you download your world from the Worlds page: select the world and click Download to get a zip file. If your server ran Paper or Spigot on a Minecraft version before 26.1, the Nether and the End are stored as separate worlds, usually world_nether and world_the_end. Download those too and put them next to your main world on your Paper server.

Planning to play the world in singleplayer instead? Then you first need to merge those folders back into the main world. Aternos has a separate article explaining how.

From Realms to your own server

Java: open Minecraft Realms, choose your Realm and click Configure Realm. Go to World Backups and choose Download Latest. The world then appears as a singleplayer world in your saves folder, and from there everything works as described for Java above.

Bedrock: choose Play, open your Realm’s world slots, select the right world and choose Edit World. Download World fetches the latest version; Backups lets you pick an older backup. The world then shows up among your own worlds and you export it as described above.

The exact button names can differ slightly between Minecraft versions. And don’t leave it too long: Mojang itself advises against relying on Realms backups, because they aren’t kept forever.

Uploading to your server

Once your world is a zip file, uploading takes a few minutes:

1. Stop your server in the game panel and make a backup first.
2. Upload the zip in the file manager and choose Unarchive on the file.
3. Check that level.dat sits directly inside the world folder, not in a folder inside a folder.
4. Set the world as the default. On Java, use Make default under Worlds; on Bedrock, set level-name in server.properties.
5. Start your server and watch the console to see whether everything loads.

The full walkthrough, including large worlds over SFTP, is in our knowledge base: Upload your Minecraft world to your server.

The Nether and the End: what about the folders?

This is where things most often go wrong, so here’s the short version. Up to Minecraft 1.21.11, vanilla Minecraft stored the Nether and the End in the DIM-1 and DIM1 folders inside your world. Paper and Spigot keep them as separate worlds instead: world_nether and world_the_end.

Since Minecraft 26.1, all dimensions live inside the world folder itself, in a subfolder called dimensions. According to the PaperMC documentation, Paper converts a vanilla world automatically. So if you upload a singleplayer world to a Paper server, you don’t need to move anything yourself. Going the other way, from Paper back to vanilla or singleplayer, does take some manual work.

Not working?

• Your server creates a new, empty world. The name in level-name doesn’t match your folder, or your world sits one folder too deep. Check where level.dat is.
• The server says the world comes from a newer version. Choose the same or a newer Minecraft version under Versions.
• The Nether or the End is empty. On an older Paper version, you’re probably missing the world_nether and world_the_end folders. Upload those as well.

Still stuck? Open a support ticket and include your server’s name and the error from the console. We’ll take a look with you.