How to back up a Minecraft server

How to back up a Minecraft server by hand

To back up a Minecraft server by hand, stop it, copy the folders listed below and start it again, because a stopped server cannot change a file while you copy it. If players are online and you cannot stop it, use the 3 save commands of Java Edition in the console:

1. save-off stops the server writing to the world files. Changes wait in memory until saving is back on.
2. save-all flush writes every player and chunk to disk at once. The server freezes for a moment while it does.
3. Copy or zip the folders to another place while saving is off.
4. save-on turns writing back on. If the server restarts in between, saving comes back on by itself.

Then get the copy off the server: through SFTP or the file manager of your host's panel, or to another drive on a server at home. A copy that stays on the same disk as the server is lost with that disk.

Which folders to back up on a Minecraft server

Which folders to back up depends on the server software. On vanilla Java and on Paper from Minecraft 26.1, the whole world, Nether and End included, sits in one world folder:

• Vanilla Java, and Paper on 26.1 or later: the world folder, which holds the Nether and the End too: under dimensions/minecraft since 26.1, and as DIM-1 and DIM1 on older vanilla versions.
• Spigot, and Paper before 26.1: world, world_nether and world_the_end, three folders side by side. A backup of world alone leaves the Nether and the End out.
• Fabric, Forge and NeoForge: the world folder plus the mods and config folders, so the world opens with the mods it was saved with.
• Bedrock Dedicated Server: the world's folder inside worlds, with server.properties, allowlist.json and permissions.json.
• Every Java server: server.properties, whitelist.json, ops.json, banned-players.json and banned-ips.json, and the plugins folder on Paper or Spigot.

How to back up a Minecraft Bedrock server

To back up a Minecraft Bedrock server, stop it and copy the world's folder from worlds, or use the 3 save commands of Bedrock Dedicated Server while it runs:

1. save hold pauses writing to the world files.
2. save query lists the files to copy once they are ready, each with the length to cut the copy to.
3. save resume turns writing back on after you have copied the files and trimmed them to those lengths.

The trimming makes a backup of a running Bedrock server fiddly by hand, so stopping the server for a minute is the simpler way, or you leave the backups to your host.

Best Minecraft server backup plugins and mods

The best Minecraft server backup plugins and mods make copies on a schedule and send them off the server. Check that each one has a build for your Minecraft version before you install it:

• Backuper for Paper, Purpur and Folia: backups to FTP, SFTP, WebDAV or Google Drive, with builds up to Minecraft 26.3.
• DriveBackupV2 for Spigot, Paper and Purpur: uploads backups to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, (S)FTP or S3 storage on a schedule and deletes old ones by itself.
• Simple Backups for Forge and NeoForge: scheduled world backups on a modded server.
• Fast Backups for Fabric, Forge and NeoForge: incremental backups stored with Git, so each new backup only adds what changed.
• InventoryRollbackPlus for Spigot, Paper and Purpur: saves player inventories when players die, so staff can give back lost items without touching the world.

Minecraft server backups at three hosts

Minecraft server backups are included at all 3 hosts we compare, but only two of them take one every night for free:

• Astroworld Hosting and Lodehost: a backup every night on every plan while the server keeps running, 10 kept, the oldest held another 7 days in a bin, and any backup can be locked so it never rolls off. You restore from the panel at any hour, as often as you like, and can download any backup to your own disk. Astroworld Hosting also takes extra backups on a schedule you set, and at Lodehost each backup is the whole server folder, plugins and settings included.
• Cheapest Minecraft Hosting: 1 backup per server included, automatic backups for €1.99 a month, and SFTP and a file manager to download your files yourself.

On a plan without automatic backups, a backup plugin from the list above fills the gap for free.

How to restore a Minecraft server backup

To restore a Minecraft server backup, stop the server first, because a running server keeps the world in memory and writes it back over the restored files when it shuts down. Then follow 4 steps:

1. Back up the server as it is now, so you can undo the restore if you pick the wrong backup.
2. Move the current world folders out of the server folder, world_nether and world_the_end included where they exist.
3. Copy the backup's folders in under the same names.
4. Start the server and check the place you wanted back before players join.

A restore puts the whole world back to the moment of that backup, so every build since then is gone for everyone. At Astroworld Hosting and Lodehost the Restore button in the panel replaces the files for you once the server is stopped. For one griefed area or one player's lost items, a rollback is the better tool.

How to roll back griefing on a Minecraft server

To roll back griefing on a Minecraft server without a full restore, use CoreProtect, a free logging plugin for Paper, Spigot and Purpur that records who placed and broke every block. Install it before anything happens, because it can only undo what it logged:

• /co inspect, then click a block to see who changed it and when.
• /co rollback u:Name t:1h r:20 undoes what that player did in the last hour within 20 blocks of you. Add #preview to see the result first.
• /co restore with the same parameters undoes a rollback.

Without a radius, CoreProtect rolls back within 10 blocks of you, and r:#global rolls back everywhere. The full list of parameters is in the CoreProtect commands.

How often should you back up a Minecraft server?

Back up a Minecraft server at least once a day, and once more before every update of Minecraft, plugins or mods, because an update can change world data in a way an older version cannot read back. Ten daily backups reach more than a week into the past, which matters because damage in a chest room is often found days after it happened. A busy public server is worth a backup every few hours with a plugin.

How to download your Minecraft server world

To download your Minecraft server world, make a backup or zip the world folder, then fetch it through your host's panel or SFTP; on a server at home it is already on your disk. To play it in singleplayer on Java, unzip it into the saves folder of your .minecraft directory and pick it from the world list. A world from Paper before 26.1 needs one step first: copy DIM-1 from world_nether and DIM1 from world_the_end into the world folder, or the Nether and the End look reset. A modded world needs the same mods in your game.