How to update a Minecraft server to a new version
To update a Minecraft server to a new version takes 6 steps, and only 1 of them, switching the version, changes the server itself. Do them in this order:
- Check your plugins or mods. Each needs a build for the new version, which its download page lists. A plugin without one may refuse to load, and a mod without one can stop a modded server from starting at all.
- Pick a day and tell your players. Everyone on Java needs the new version in their launcher, unless the server runs ViaBackwards, which comes up further down.
- Make a backup of the world, server.properties and your plugin or mod configs, and name it after the version you are leaving.
- Stop the server. Never swap the server jar or plugin files while it runs; Paper's own update guide warns against it too.
- Set the new version in your host's panel, or replace the server jar if you run the server yourself.
- Start it and read the console. The first start takes longer while the world is converted, and a plugin that does not fit the new version says so there.
Then join with the new version yourself and walk past spawn and a few builds before you let everyone in. Some updates also need a newer Java, as every version from 26.1 on runs on Java 25; our guide to the Minecraft server Java version has the full list.
How to update a Minecraft server without losing the world
To update a Minecraft server without losing the world, leave 1 folder alone: the world folder, which the new version opens and converts by itself. Changing the version in a panel replaces the server software and keeps the world, server.properties and the player data. Worlds get lost in other ways, such as a whole server folder replaced by a fresh download, or a world deleted to start clean without a copy.
The conversion happens in 2 stages. When a world needs it, the server first rearranges the world's files before it loads anything, and the log says Starting upgrade for world with the world's name. The biggest of these came with 26.1, which moved the Nether and the End into a dimensions folder and the player data into a players folder. After that, the server converts chunks one at a time as players load them, so the first visit to an old area costs a little more work than usual.
To convert everything in one go instead, start the server once with --forceUpgrade after the jar name, if your panel lets you add start options. The server goes through every chunk, logs Forcing world upgrade! and its progress as a percentage, and opens when it is done, which can take a long time on a big world. In singleplayer the same job is the Optimize World button in the world's Edit screen.
An update does not regrow land that already exists. New biomes and structures only turn up in chunks the server generates after the update, so on an old world they appear far from spawn, past the edge of what players explored before.
How to change the Minecraft server version in your panel
To change the Minecraft server version in your panel, you edit 1 setting, the Minecraft version, and restart. The three hosts we compare each explain it in their own guides:
- Astroworld Hosting has a Minecraft version dropdown in the Server software block of Settings, with latest or an exact release. Latest moves the server to each new release by itself whenever it starts, so its guide advises an exact release for a server that depends on plugins or mods. Changing the server type, such as Paper to Fabric, is a separate conversion that needs a finished backup less than a day old and a stopped server.
- Lodehost has a Minecraft version field on the Settings tab that takes latest or an exact release such as 26.2 and refuses anything else. The new server files download on the next start, and the panel picks the Java version that goes with the release. Before a change of server type it takes a backup and waits until that has finished, up to twenty minutes on a big world.
- Cheapest Minecraft Hosting sets the Minecraft version under Server software in Settings, to latest or a release you type, and sets the matching Java version with it. Its guide lists the releases people pick and why, with 26.3 marked for Vanilla and Fabric while Paper catches up.
Whichever panel you use, latest is handy on a vanilla server and risky on one with plugins or mods, because a new release can arrive before they are ready for it.
How to update a Paper server
To update a Paper server, you replace 1 file, the Paper jar, with a newer build while the server is stopped, and the Paper team recommends doing that at least once a week, since new builds keep fixing bugs between Minecraft releases. Within one Minecraft version that is all. A new Minecraft version is a bigger step, because Paper marks each build as alpha, beta or stable, and the last two releases show how long stable takes:
| Minecraft | Released | First alpha | First beta | First stable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26.2 | 16 June 2026 | 16 June | 12 July | 26 July, 40 days later |
| 26.3 | 15 September 2026 | 15 September | 28 September | Not yet on 10 October |
For plugins, Paper has a shortcut: make a folder called update inside the plugins folder, put the new plugin jars in it and restart. Paper puts them in place as it starts, so you never replace a plugin while the server runs. Before any of it, back up the world folders, your server configs and your plugins with their configs, which is the list in Paper's own update guide. Our page on Paper server hosting covers the rest of Paper.
How to update a Bedrock Dedicated Server
To update a Bedrock Dedicated Server, download the new zip from minecraft.net and copy its files over the old ones, except 3 files that hold your own settings: server.properties, allowlist.json and permissions.json. The zip has its own copies of all three, with an empty allowlist and empty permissions, so unzipping it over your server wipes them. There is no worlds folder in the zip, so your worlds stay where they are.
On 10 October 2026 the download on minecraft.net was bedrock-server-1.26.52.3. Bedrock games update themselves on most devices, and a Bedrock server only lets in players on a matching version, so plan to update within days of a release, not weeks. Back up the worlds folder first, with the server stopped, or with save hold, save query and save resume in the console to copy it while it runs. Our page on Bedrock server hosting covers the rest of Bedrock Dedicated Server.
ViaVersion and ViaBackwards for players on another version
ViaVersion and ViaBackwards let players on 1 Minecraft version join a server on another, which takes the hurry out of an update:
- ViaVersion lets newer games join an older server. With it, you can stay on 26.2 until your plugins are ready while players who already updated to 26.3 still get in.
- ViaBackwards lets older games join a newer server, so players who have not updated yet still get in after you move to 26.3. Depending on the platform, it needs ViaVersion next to it.
- ViaRewind goes further back, to 1.7 and 1.8 games, on top of the other two.
The current releases are ViaVersion 5.12.1 and ViaBackwards 5.12.1, from 8 October 2026, and ViaRewind 4.2.0, from 18 September 2026. They run as plugins on Paper, Folia and Velocity, and on Fabric through ViaFabric. Without them, a player on the wrong version is turned away with Incompatible client! Please use and the server's version; our guide to Minecraft connection errors has the wording Paper uses instead.
On a crossplay server, Geyser decides whether Bedrock players get in. On 10 October 2026, Geyser's own list of supported versions named Bedrock 26.30 to 26.52 and Java 26.2, and Geyser joins the Java server as a 26.2 client. A server already on 26.3 has to let that 26.2 client in, which is what ViaBackwards does, or Bedrock players stay locked out until Geyser catches up. Geyser for Fabric and NeoForge only runs on the Java version Geyser supports, which on that date was 26.2.
Can you downgrade a Minecraft world?
You can downgrade a Minecraft world cleanly in only 1 way: by restoring the backup you made before the update. A world opened in a newer version has already been converted, and Minecraft converts nothing back. When you open such a world in an older game, its own warning says downgrading could cause corruption and that it cannot guarantee the world will load or work.
Servers differ in how hard they stop you:
- The vanilla server does not stop you. It only refuses a world from another series of versions, so an older vanilla server opens a newer world without a warning, and the corruption the game warns about can follow.
- Paper shuts down. The moment it loads a chunk saved by a newer version, it prints
Server attempted to load chunk saved with newer version of minecraft!with both data versions, such as 5023 > 4903 for a 26.3 chunk on 26.2, and stops. A start flag,-DPaper.ignoreWorldDataVersion=true, turns the check off; in Paper's code that switch is called JUST_CORRUPT_IT.
Since 26.1 there is a second wall: older versions look for the Nether, the End and the player data in the old places, so a world that has run on 26.1 or later stays there. To go back, stop the server, restore the backup from before the update, set the older version and start it. Everything built since the update is lost, which is why the backup's name should say when it was made. Our guide to Minecraft server backups covers making and restoring them.
How to update a modded Minecraft server
To update a modded Minecraft server, you wait for 2 things: builds of your mod loader and of every mod for the new version. The loaders move at very different speeds:
- Fabric: Fabric API had builds for 26.2 and for 26.3 a day before each release came out.
- NeoForge: its first 26.3 build came on release day, 15 September 2026, and was still marked beta on 10 October. For 26.2, the first build without the beta label came on 9 August 2026, 54 days after the release.
- Modpacks: a pack moves to a new Minecraft version only when its authors release one, and many stay put, such as the many Forge packs on 1.20.1 and NeoForge packs on 1.21.1. For those, an update means a new pack version on the same Minecraft version.
When you update a pack on a server, install the new server files over a copy of the server, keep the world and the configs you changed, and let the pack replace its own mods folder, because a mod left over from the old version can crash the first start. Our page on modpack server hosting has the steps for a pack update.