Automatic Saves vs Automatic Backups on a Minecraft Server

Minecraft saves your world on its own, but a save is not a backup. A save writes what's in memory to the world files on the server. A backup is a separate copy of those files that you can go back to later.

Automatic saves

A Minecraft server saves the world every few minutes (every 6000 ticks, about five minutes, on vanilla and Paper). It also saves when it stops normally.

Saves protect you from losing recent progress if the server stops. They don't protect you from:

• a griefer or a bad command changing the world;
• a mod or plugin update corrupting chunks;
• deleting the wrong file.

Once the bad change is saved, the old version is gone.

To force a save at any time, run this in Console:

save-all

Backups

A backup copies your server's files so you can restore them later. On Beacon, backups are made from the Backups page and kept separately from the server's files.

To make one now:

1. Open your server from your servers.
2. Click Backups in the sidebar.
3. Click Create Backup, give it a name, and confirm.

Back up on a schedule

You can make backups happen on their own with Schedules:

1. Click Schedules in the sidebar and create a new schedule.
2. Pick a Preset (for example Daily), or switch to Custom Cron and enter your own.
3. Add a New Task: Send Command with save-all.
4. Add a second task: Create Backup. Give it a Time Offset of a few seconds so the save finishes first.
5. Make sure the schedule is Enabled.

Your plan sets how many backups you can keep. When you reach the limit, delete or replace older ones. Lock a backup you never want deleted by accident.

Which one do I need?

Both. Autosave keeps the world current; backups let you undo a bad day. Take a manual backup before any big change: a version update, a new modpack, or installing several plugins at once.

To restore or download a backup, see How to Restore and Download Backups.