How to upload your own world to your Minecraft server

To use a world you already have, upload its folder to your server and tell the server to load it with the level-name setting. The whole process takes about ten minutes for a normal-sized world.

1. Find your world folder

A Java world is a folder that contains a file called level.dat. Single-player worlds are in the saves folder:

The Minecraft launcher can also open it for you: in single-player, select the world, click Edit → Open World Folder. If you use a different launcher (CurseForge, Modrinth, Prism), look in that instance's saves folder.

2. Check the version and zip it

• The server should run the same or a newer Minecraft version than the world was last played on. A world cannot be loaded on an older version.

• Modded worlds need the same mods on the server.

• Right-click the world folder and compress it into a .zip (Windows: Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder). One zip uploads much faster than thousands of small files.

3. Upload and extract

1. In the Game Panel, click Stop. Never replace a world while the server is running.

2. Make a backup in Backups if you want to keep the current world.

3. Open Files and use Upload → Upload Files to send the zip to the main folder (the one with server.properties). Upload Folders also works for small worlds, but one zip is faster. For big worlds, SFTP is more reliable: see How to connect with SFTP.

4. Extract (unarchive) the zip in Files, then delete the zip.

5. Check the result: open the new folder and make sure level.dat is directly inside it, not inside another folder of the same name. If it is nested, move the inner folder up one level.

4. Point the server at your world

1. Rename the folder to something simple without spaces, for example myworld (optional but avoids problems).

2. Open Properties, search for level-name, type the folder name, and click SAVE.

3. Click Start and watch the Console.

Alternatively, delete the old world folder and name your upload world; then you do not need to change level-name.

The Nether and End on Paper, Purpur and Spigot

• Minecraft 26.1 and newer: single-player, Vanilla and Paper worlds all use the same layout. Upload the world folder as it is.

• 1.21.11 and older: Paper, Purpur and Spigot keep the Nether and End in separate folders named <level-name>_nether and <level-name>_the_end. When they first load a single-player world, they move its Nether and End into those folders automatically. If you are replacing a world, delete the old _nether and _the_end folders first, or the old dimensions will be used with your new overworld.

Bedrock worlds

On a Vanilla Bedrock server, worlds live in worlds/<world name>, and each world folder contains level.dat and a db folder.

1. In Bedrock, open the world's settings and use Export World to get a .mcworld file.

2. A .mcworld file is a zip. Rename it to .zip.

3. Stop the server. In Files, open the worlds folder, click Create Directory to make a new folder (for example myworld), upload the zip into it and extract it there. level.dat and db must be directly inside worlds/myworld.

4. Set level-name in server.properties to myworld and start the server.

If the world used add-ons, upload those packs too. See the Bedrock server guide.

Frequently asked questions