How to back up a Minecraft world safely
Your world is the one thing on your server you cannot get back. Plugins can be reinstalled and settings can be rewritten, but a built world only exists once. A backup is a copy of it, and a good backup is one you have tested.
What to back up
- The world folders. A standard server has a main world and separate folders for the Nether and the End, named after your
level-nameinserver.properties(worldby default). - The plugins folder and their settings, so your permissions, homes and economy come back.
server.properties, and the whitelist, ops and ban files.
If you only have room for one thing, take the world.
The trap: copying a running server
The server is writing to the world files all the time. If you copy the folder in the middle of a save, the copy can be half old and half new, and the world can fail to load or lose chunks. The safe way is to tell the server to finish writing, stop it from writing, copy, and then let it write again.
In the console:
save-off
save-all flushsave-all flush waits until everything is on disk. When it replies that the game was saved, copy your world folders. When the copy is done:
save-onIf you forget save-on, the server will not save automatically. Do not leave it off.
The easy way: stop the server first
If you do not mind a minute of downtime, stop the server, copy the folders, and start it again. A stopped server is always consistent.
Where to keep the copy
A copy on the same disk as your server is not a backup, it is just a second file. If the disk fails, both go. Keep at least one copy somewhere else: your own computer, another drive, or cloud storage. A common rule is three copies, on two kinds of storage, with one somewhere else.
Test the restore
A backup you have never opened is a guess. Once in a while, create a new empty server, upload the backup, and see that the world loads and looks right. It is much better to find a problem now than after you need the copy.
How often?
- Before any big change: a version upgrade, a new world border, a big plugin.
- Daily, if your world changes a lot.
- Keep several old copies. If a problem is found a week late, you can still go back before it.
On Saryno
Paid memory includes backups. You can take one with a click, set a schedule, and restore into a new server whenever you like. The server asks the game to finish saving before it copies, so the copy is consistent. Because your world is just a folder, you can also download it from the file manager at any time.