How to move a Minecraft world to a new host or server

Minecraft Java Edition. Last checked October 2026.

Moving a Java Edition world is mostly a matter of copying one folder, but a few details decide whether everything arrives intact. Read the warnings before you start.

Before you start

Back up the original. Keep an untouched copy somewhere safe until you have played on the new one.
Stop the server first so the files are not changing while you copy them.
You can move to a newer Minecraft version, but not back. A world opened in a newer version is upgraded, and older versions cannot open it afterwards.
Java and Bedrock worlds are not interchangeable. They use different formats. This guide is for Java.

Find the world folder

On a server: the folder is named by level-name in server.properties, and the default is world. It contains level.dat and the terrain files.
From single player: open the launcher, go to the game folder, then saves. Each world is a folder there.

Copy the whole folder, not pieces of it, and compress it into one .zip.

Put it on the new host

Upload the zip to the new host, usually through its world or file manager.
Make sure the host uses that folder as the active world (the level-name setting, or a world picker).
Start the server and check that the world, spawn point and a player’s inventory look right before telling anyone.

Why players sometimes lose their inventory

Each player’s data is saved under an ID, not a name. The same name has a different ID on a server in online mode (real accounts) and a server in offline mode (no account check). If you move a world between the two, players appear with empty inventories because the game is looking for a different file. The files are in the world’s playerdata folder, named by ID. Renaming them to the new ID fixes it, and the safest fix is to keep the same mode on both ends.

Things that are not inside the world folder

ops.json, whitelist.json, banned-players.json and banned-ips.json are in the server’s main folder. Copy them across if you want the same staff and lists.
server.properties settings (difficulty, game mode, distances) are separate too.
Data packs live inside the world folder (datapacks) and move with it. Resource packs and mods do not.
Mods and plugins: a world that uses modded blocks or items will lose them on a server without the same mods.

Check it worked

Spawn and your builds are where they should be.
The time, weather and difficulty look right.
A player who had items last time still has them.

If you would rather not run a server

To bring a world to JetRift, make a server, open the Worlds tab and use Upload a world with the zip. JetRift is a free Minecraft Java host we run: you make a server, send friends the address, and it starts when the first person joins. It is early, Java only, and has no mods. Back up the original first. JetRift always runs the newest Minecraft Java version it supports, so an older world is upgraded when it loads, and we have not tested every old version.

Fix “Failed to connect to the server” · “Can’t keep up! Is the server overloaded?” · Free ways to host a server · Whitelist, op and ban players