Minecraft World Backup and Restore

World File Structure

A Minecraft world is stored in a folder named after the level-name setting (default: world). Inside:

level.dat - World metadata: seed, spawn point, gamerules, world border.

dimensions/minecraft/overworld/region/ - Overworld chunk data (r.x.z.mca files).

dimensions/minecraft/the_nether/ and dimensions/minecraft/the_end/ - the Nether and the End, each with its own region/ folder. On 26.2 this is the layout on all five server types, Paper included.

playerdata/ - Player inventories, positions, health, XP.

data/ - Maps, scoreboards, saved structures, village data.

datapacks/ - Installed datapacks.

Older Paper versions kept the Nether and the End in separate world_nether/ and world_the_end/ folders. On 26.2 Paper uses the single folder above too; if you see those two folders beside world/, nothing is stored in them.

Creating a Backup

Via the Backups tab: click "Create Backup Now", optionally with a label and a note. GameGrid captures your world folders, server.properties, the player lists, your plugins or mods, and on Paper the bukkit/spigot/Paper config files. Manual backups count toward the server's 30 GB backup storage, shown as a bar at the top of the tab, and are removed 30 days after they are taken.

Automatic backups run daily, and one is taken before a game update. They are listed separately, kept on a rolling retention policy that the tab states, and share the server's backup storage with your manual backups (the oldest automatic one is removed first when it is full). "Reinstall Server Files" takes no backup, because it leaves your world, settings and mods alone.

If you renamed level-name, the platform backs up your renamed world folders too, not just the default "world".

Manual backup via Files tab: Stop the server, then copy the world folder(s) to your computer. Don't copy while the server is running - you'll get a corrupted backup.

Live backup without stopping: Run /save-off in the Console tab, then /save-all flush. Copy the world folder. Then run /save-on. This is safe but slightly riskier than stopping the server first.

Restoring a Backup

Via the Backups tab: find the backup and click "Restore". A running server is stopped, restored and started again for you; a stopped server is restored and stays stopped. You are asked to confirm first, and a copy of the current state is taken immediately beforehand so a bad restore is itself reversible. This is the recommended method.

Manual restore: Stop the server. Delete or rename the current world folder. Upload your backup world folder. Restart the server.

Single dimension reset: with the server stopped, delete world/dimensions/minecraft/the_nether/ to reset just the Nether, or world/dimensions/minecraft/the_end/ to reset the End - the same on every server type, Paper included. The dimension regenerates fresh on next start.

What to Back Up

World folder(s) - The most important. This is your world.

server.properties - Server settings.

Config files - on Paper: bukkit.yml, spigot.yml, commands.yml, permissions.yml, help.yml, and config/paper-global.yml and config/paper-world-defaults.yml. On Forge and NeoForge: user_jvm_args.txt and defaultconfigs/.

plugins/ folder - Plugin jars and their config/data folders.

mods/ folder - Mod jars (modded servers).

whitelist.json, banned-players.json, banned-ips.json, ops.json and usercache.json - the player lists. usercache.json maps UUIDs to names; without it the other three cannot resolve after a restore.

GameGrid snapshots include all of these automatically.

Changing World Seed or Type

To change the world seed: take a backup, stop the server, set level-seed in the Settings tab, delete the world, then start. On 26.2 that is the single <level-name> folder on every server type, because it holds all three dimensions; on a Paper server carried over from an older version, delete any leftover <level-name>_nether and <level-name>_the_end folders too. "Delete Savegames" on the Admin tab does it for either layout.

To change world type: same sequence, setting level-type in the Settings tab instead - for example minecraft:flat.

You can't change the seed or type of an existing world. The seed and type only affect new world generation. To get a new world, you must delete the old one.