Updated 2026-10-27 · All guides

How to back up and restore a Minecraft server

A world that friends have played on for months is irreplaceable. Corrupted chunks after a power cut, a griefer with too many permissions, a plugin that goes wrong, or an update that can't be undone: all of them are ten-minute fixes if you have a backup, and the end of the world if you don't.

What to back up

The world is the important part, and where it lives depends on the server software.

The folder name comes from level-name in server.properties, so it might not be called "world" on your server.

Also worth keeping, because they're small and annoying to recreate:

• server.properties, whitelist.json, ops.json, banned-players.json
• plugins (Paper) or mods and config (Fabric), including the plugins' own data folders, which hold things like land claims and player homes

You don't need logs, cache, libraries or versions; the server recreates them.

Back up safely while the server is running

The easiest safe backup is to stop the server, copy the folders, and start it again. If you don't want to kick everyone off, the server needs to stop writing to the world while you copy it, or you might copy a half-written file. In the server console:

save-off
save-all flush

save-off pauses automatic saving, and save-all flush writes everything in memory to disk and waits until it's done. Wait for the "Saved the game" message, copy the world folders, then turn saving back on:

save-on

Don't forget that last step. A server left on save-off loses everything since the backup if it crashes.

Compress it

Worlds compress well, especially on a fresh copy. In File Explorer, select the world folders, right-click and choose Compress to ZIP file on Windows 11, or Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder on Windows 10. Name it with the date, like world-2026-10-27.zip, so you can find the right one later.

How often, and how many to keep

A good rhythm for a friends' server:

• Automatically, every few hours while people play. You lose at most a few hours if something goes wrong.
• By hand before anything risky: updating Minecraft, adding or removing plugins and mods, letting a new person in, or running world-editing commands.
• Keep a handful of recent ones plus a few older ones. Problems like a griefer or a slowly corrupting chunk are sometimes only noticed days later, and by then the most recent backups contain the damage too.

Keep a copy somewhere else

A backup on the same drive as the server doesn't help if the drive dies or the PC is stolen. A common rule is 3-2-1: three copies, on two different kinds of storage, with one somewhere else. For a Minecraft world, that can simply be the live world, backups on a second drive or USB stick, and a weekly copy uploaded to cloud storage.

Copy finished ZIP files to OneDrive or Google Drive rather than putting the live server folder inside a synced folder. Syncing files while the server writes to them can corrupt the world.

Restore a backup

1. Stop the server. Never restore while it's running; it'll overwrite your restored world with what's in memory.
2. Move the current world folders somewhere else rather than deleting them, in case you picked the wrong backup.
3. Extract the backup into the server folder, so the world folders are back where they were with the same names.
4. Start the server and join to check it's the right point in time.

Restoring only part of a world, for example one griefed area, needs a tool like MCA Selector, which can copy specific region files from a backup into the live world. Always work on copies.

Backups and updates

Minecraft upgrades a world when a newer version opens it, and older versions can't open it afterwards. Always make a backup before updating. If the update goes wrong, or a plugin you rely on isn't ready, you restore the backup and run the old version until it is.

Common mistakes

• Backing up only world on Paper, and losing the Nether and End.
• Copying while the server saves, giving a backup with corrupted chunks you only discover when you need it.
• Never testing a restore. Try one on a copy of the server once, so you know the backups actually work.
• Keeping only one backup that gets overwritten every time.

HostCraft makes automatic backups on a schedule you choose, pauses saving while it copies, keeps a set number of them and restores one with a click. They're ordinary ZIP files in the server's backups folder, so you can copy them anywhere you like.