How to Move a Minecraft World to a New Host

Getting the world out of where it is now

Whatever you are leaving, the rule is the same: stop the server first, then download. A world copied while it is running can contain half-written region files, which is the usual cause of the corruption problems further down this page.

From Aternos

Stop the server, then open the Worlds page in the Aternos panel. Each world has a download button that gives you a zip of the world folder. If your server had plugins or mods, note their names and versions so you can install them again. If you are weighing up the move itself, the Aternos alternative page lays out the differences.

From Realms (Java)

Open the Realms screen in the game, click the configure button on your Realm, select the world slot you play on, and open World backups. Download the latest backup. Minecraft puts the copy into your singleplayer saves folder under the Realm’s name; zip that folder. Realms worlds are vanilla, so they open on any server software, with the Nether and End inside as DIM-1 and DIM1.

From another host

Most hosts give you two ways in: a file manager in the browser, and SFTP. The file manager is simpler. Stop the server, find the world folders (see the table above), and use the panel’s compress or download action to get a zip. Some file managers download one folder at a time; on a Paper server that means three downloads, one each for world, world_nether and world_the_end.

If the host only offers SFTP, you need a program such as FileZilla or WinSCP. The host’s panel shows the address, port, username and password on an SFTP or FTP page. Enter those, connect, and you see the server’s files on one side of the window and your own computer on the other. Drag the world folders to your computer, wait until the transfer queue is empty, then zip the world folder locally. Thousands of small region files take a while over SFTP, so start it and leave it running.

From a friend’s PC

If a friend ran the server from their computer, the world is in the server folder next to the server jar, named after level-name in server.properties (by default, world). Ask them to stop the server, zip the folder, and send it through any file transfer service that handles a few hundred megabytes. If they used Open to LAN from singleplayer, the world is in their saves folder instead.

Check three things before you upload

The Minecraft version. A world can be opened by the same version it was saved with or by a newer one, never by an older one. A newer version converts the data in place, which is why you keep your zip as a backup. If the old server ran 1.20.4, a new server on 1.20.4 or 1.21.x is fine; 1.19.4 is not.

The loader and mods. If the world was played with Forge, NeoForge, Fabric or Quilt mods, the new server needs the same loader and the same mods, ideally the same versions. Load a modded world without its mods and every modded block in every chunk you visit is silently removed, and that removal is written to disk. The modded server guide covers matching loader versions and using the modpack’s server files. Plugins are different: a Paper world without its plugins loses no blocks, only plugin features such as claims or economy balances.

level.dat is in the zip. Open the zip before uploading. You should see level.dat and a region folder, either at the top level or inside one wrapping folder. Several world folders side by side means you zipped the saves directory. A mods or plugins folder plus server.properties means you zipped the whole server, which is what Import a whole server is for, not the world upload.

What transfers, and what does not

Transfers with the world: terrain, builds, chest contents, entities, seed, spawn point, world border, gamerules, difficulty, and per-player data. Inventories, ender chests, positions, advancements and statistics live in world/playerdata, world/advancements and world/stats, keyed by account UUID. For Java accounts on an online-mode server the UUID is the same everywhere, so everyone logs in where they left off with what they had.

Does not transfer: the op list, whitelist and ban list (ops.json, whitelist.json and banned-players.json sit next to the world, not inside it), server.properties, and everything in the plugins and mods folders. Plugin data such as land claims, economy balances and homes is in plugins/<plugin name> and needs copying separately, and only works if the same plugin is installed on the new server.

Cannot transfer at all: Bedrock Edition worlds. Bedrock stores worlds in LevelDB, a different format from Java’s region files, and a Java server cannot read it. Alpenglow servers are Java Edition only; Bedrock players can join through the built-in gateway, but the world has to be a Java world. If the builds matter, run a third-party converter on your own computer and inspect the result in singleplayer before uploading it.

Choosing the server software for the new host at the same time? Paper vs Spigot vs Purpur explains which one to pick for a plugin server, and the cost guide covers what a moved group ends up paying per month.