MinecraftUpdated 5 min read

How to Back Up and Restore a Minecraft World

Back up a Minecraft server world without corrupting it: which folders to copy, shutting down safely, automatic backups, restoring cleanly, and testing that a backup actually works.

A backup is only useful if it's complete, it's somewhere safe, and you can restore it. This guide covers all three, on Beacon and on a server you run yourself.

What to back up

A Minecraft world is a folder, not a single file. Which folders depends on the server software:

Server software World folders
Vanilla, Fabric, Forge, NeoForge world (the Nether and End are inside it, in DIM-1 and DIM1)
Paper, Spigot, Purpur world, world_nether and world_the_end, as separate folders

The folder is named by level-name in server.properties, so yours may not be called world. Plugins such as Multiverse add more world folders alongside these.

Back up more than the world if you'd hate to set it up again:

  • server.properties, whitelist.json, ops.json, banned-players.json
  • plugins (plugin settings and data, including land claims and economies)
  • mods and config on a modded server

The simplest safe choice is to back up the whole server folder, leaving out logs, cache and crash-reports.

Never copy a world while it's being written

A running server keeps part of the world in memory and saves it in pieces every few minutes. Copying the files mid-save gives you a backup with some chunks old and some new, or a half-written region file. That's how "backups" end up corrupted, or missing the last hour.

There are two safe ways.

Stop the server first (safest): run stop in the console and wait until it finishes. Never just kill the process: that skips the final save.

Pause saving while it runs:

save-off
save-all flush

Copy the files, then turn saving back on:

save-on

save-off stops the server writing the world; save-all flush writes everything in memory to disk first. Don't forget save-on, or nothing will be saved until the next restart.

Back up on Beacon

Make a backup

  1. Run save-all in Console so the latest changes are on disk.
  2. Open Backups and click Create Backup.
  3. Name it after what it's for, such as "Before 1.21 update".
  4. Optional: list files to leave out in Ignored Files & Directories, one per line (for example logs/).
  5. Turn on Lock for a backup you never want deleted by accident.

Wait until the backup shows a size: it isn't finished before then. See How to Create and Manage Backups.

Back up automatically

  1. Open Schedules and create a schedule, for example Daily.
  2. Add a task: Send Command with save-all.
  3. Add a second task: Create Backup, with a Time Offset of a few seconds so the save finishes first.
  4. Make sure the schedule is Enabled.

Your plan sets how many backups you can keep, so keep the schedule's backups unlocked and lock only the ones you want to keep for good. See Automatic Saves vs Automatic Backups.

Keep a copy somewhere else

Download an important backup from its ⋯ menu now and then, and keep it on your own computer or cloud storage. Copies in more than one place survive mistakes in any one of them. (Backup downloads aren't available during a free trial.)

Restore on Beacon

  1. Stop the server in Console.
  2. Back up the current state first, even if it's broken. If the restore isn't what you expected, you can go back.
  3. Delete the world folders you're restoring in Files (for example world, world_nether and world_the_end).
  4. Open Backups, open the backup's ⋯ menu, and click Restore. Wait for it to finish.
  5. Start the server and check the world in game.

Warning

Restore puts back every file in the backup, but it doesn't delete files that aren't in it. Skip step 3 and any chunks explored after the backup was made stay in the world, so you'd get a mix of old and new terrain. Deleting the world folders first gives a clean rollback.

To bring back a single file, such as a plugin's config, download the backup, extract that file on your computer, and upload it in Files. See How to Restore and Download Backups and How to Restore Deleted Files.

Test that your backups work

A backup you've never restored is a guess. Every so often:

  • Open one. Download a backup and check it contains the world folders and isn't suspiciously small.
  • Load it. Copy the world folder into your singleplayer saves folder and open it in Minecraft. See How to Download a World File and Upload to Singleplayer. On a modded server, open it with the same modpack.
  • Check the date. Make sure automatic backups are still being made.

Avoid corrupted and incomplete copies

  • Always save before backing up: save-all on Beacon, or stop the server or use save-off when copying by hand.
  • Wait for a backup to finish before you start, stop or restore the server.
  • Never edit or copy world files while the server is running.
  • Take a backup before every big change: a Minecraft version update, adding or removing mods, a modpack update, or installing several plugins at once.
  • Keep more than one generation, and at least one copy off the server.

If a world is already damaged (missing chunks, a crash on load, or Failed to check session lock), restoring the newest good backup is usually the fastest fix. See How to Fix "Failed to Check Session Lock".