Backing Up Your Minecraft World
A backup is a snapshot of your whole server: the world, plugins or mods, and every config file. Taking one before big changes means a bad update, a griefer or a broken plugin costs you minutes instead of your world. Everything below happens in the game panel.
Take a backup by hand
- Open your server and go to the Backups tab
- Click Create backup
- Give it a name if you like (for example
before 1.21 update) and confirm with Create backup - The backup is created in the background and shows up in the list when it is done
You can take a backup while the server is running. For a guaranteed consistent world, type save-all in the Console first, or stop the server.
Each server has a fixed number of backup slots, shown at the top of the tab. When all slots are used, delete an old backup before you can create a new one.
Automatic backups with a schedule
- Go to the Schedules tab and click New schedule
- Under Quick start, pick Nightly backup (every day at 03:00), or choose the backup action and your own time
- Save the schedule
When all backup slots are full, a scheduled backup replaces the oldest backup that is not locked. To keep a backup for good, for example the one from before a big update, click the lock icon next to it in the Backups tab. A locked backup cannot be deleted or replaced until you unlock it.
Restoring a backup
- Stop the server
- In the Backups tab, click Restore next to the backup you want
- Leave Wipe current files before restoring (recommended) ticked so no leftover files mix with the backup
- Confirm with Restore. The restore takes a few minutes and the server stays offline until it is done. You can follow the progress in the Console tab
- Start the server again
Note: A restore puts back all server files from the backup, not only the world. Plugins, mods and configs return to how they were at that moment. If you only want the world back, click Download instead, take the world folder out of the archive and upload it yourself.
Good habits
- Take a backup before every update, new plugin or modpack change
- Lock the backups you want to keep, so scheduled backups never replace them
- Download important backups to your own computer now and then. Backups belong to the server and are deleted together with it
- Now and then, check that a downloaded backup actually opens and contains your world
Need help with your backups? Open a support ticket and we will help.
