How to back up and restore your Minecraft server

1. In the client area, click Open panel on your server.
2. Choose Backups in the menu on the left, under Management.
3. Type a name that tells you later why you made it, for example Before updating plugins. The name is optional.
4. Click Create backup. The backup appears in the list below with the status Complete when it is ready.

A backup can be made while the server runs. A backup taken with the server stopped is guaranteed consistent, because nothing is written to the world while it is copied. Before a big change, such as a new Minecraft version, stop the server first.

Make the backup right before the change, not the day before. Anything built between the backup and a restore is lost.

The database line matters if LuckPerms, a ban plugin or a shop keeps its data in a database instead of in files. Export that data from the plugin itself as well, for example with lp export in LuckPerms, before a risky change.

• Before you change the Minecraft version, because a world opened on a newer version cannot go back.
• Before you update or add plugins and mods, one change at a time.
• Before you install a modpack over an existing server.
• Before you give someone new operator or file access.
• Before a big event, a new season or a reset of part of the map.

Two changes take a backup for you: a world reset with a new seed in the World tab, and moving a server in from another host in Files.

The top of the Backups tab shows how many slots you use. With the slot in use, Create backup stays grey and the panel tells you to delete an old backup first.

1. If you want to keep the old backup, click Download on its row first and save the file on your computer.
2. Click Delete on the old backup and confirm with Delete backup.
3. Make the new backup as described above.

With automatic backups on your plan, the panel makes a backup every night and the newest ones fill your slots. The Backups tab then shows when the last automatic one ran.

• When a new backup needs room, the oldest one is not deleted at once. It moves to the Bin at the bottom of the tab and stays there for 7 days.
• Keep it in the Bin puts that backup back in your slots, as long as one is free. Restore and Download work from the Bin too.
• The tab also shows how much storage your backups take of what comes with your plan. A very large world can mean you keep fewer backups than you have slots.

Only a backup with the status Complete can be restored. Check the Size column too: a backup of a few kilobytes from a server with a big world is a sign that something went wrong.

A restore puts the whole server back to the moment of the backup. Everything built or changed since then is replaced, so be sure before you click.

1. Go to Overview and click Stop. Wait until the badge next to the server name says Offline.
2. Open Backups and click Restore on the backup you want.
3. Read the warning and click Restore this backup.
4. When the restore is finished, go back to Overview and click Start.

Forgot to stop the server? The panel stops you there and asks you to stop it on the Overview tab first. That is on purpose: a restore replaces files the running server still has open.

A restore always covers the whole server. When only one part went wrong, take that part out of a download instead:

1. Click Download on the backup and open the file on your computer. It is one .tar.gz archive of the server folder; Windows 11 and Mac open it directly, older Windows needs a free tool such as 7-Zip.
2. Find what you need. A player's inventory is world/playerdata/<id>.dat, where the ID of the player is in usercache.json. The Nether is the folder world_nether on Paper and Purpur, and plugin settings are inside plugins.
3. Stop the server, or for a player file make sure that player is offline.
4. In Files, upload the file or folder to the same place and replace the old one.
5. Start the server and check the result.

Replace a player file only while that player is offline. The server writes their data when they leave, which would overwrite the file you just put back.

After a restore the console shows the start as usual. Minecraft server won't start helps when it stops halfway.

A backup in the panel lives next to the server. A copy on your own computer is independent of it, and it is the way to keep more than one backup: download the current one before you make a new one.

• Download on a backup row saves the whole backup as one file.
• To bring it back later, upload it in the Files tab and unpack it there. Move your world to our server shows how uploading and unpacking work.
• Need only one file back, for example a plugin config? Open the download on your computer, take that file out, and upload just that file in Files.

A downloaded backup is not tied to the server it came from. To copy a world to a second server, for example a test server, upload the download in Files of that server and unpack it, as in move your world to our server. Set the same server type and version on it first.

You can also ask the Copilot in the panel to make a backup before a change. A restore it prepares still waits for your own click.