How to Upload Your Single Player World to Your Server

This guide walks you through taking a world from Minecraft single player and installing it on your server. Choose your operating system below and follow the steps.

Finding and Preparing Your World

Your single player worlds are stored in the Minecraft saves folder. Each world is its own folder, named after the world name you chose when creating it in-game.

Windows

1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog
2. Type %appdata%\.minecraft\saves and press Enter
3. Find the folder for the world you want to upload
4. Right-click on the world folder and select "Send to" then "Compressed (zipped) folder"

macOS

1. Open Finder
2. Press Cmd + Shift + G to open "Go to Folder"
3. Type ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves and press Enter
4. Find the folder for the world you want to upload
5. Right-click on the world folder and select "Compress"

Linux

1. Open your file manager or terminal
2. Navigate to ~/.minecraft/saves
3. Find the folder for the world you want to upload
4. Right-click on the world folder and select "Compress", or run zip -r world.zip YourWorldName/ in a terminal

Uploading and Installing

Once your world is zipped:

1. Upload your ZIP file to the server's root directory using the File Manager or SFTP. See How to Access and Manage Server Files for detailed instructions.
2. Extract the ZIP file and configure your server to use the new world. Follow the steps in How to Install a World onto Your Server for extracting, handling name conflicts, and updating level-name in server.properties.

For more details on the level-name setting, see Understanding server.properties.

Dimension Folders

Single player worlds store all dimensions inside the main world folder - the Nether is in a DIM-1 subfolder and the End is in a DIM1 subfolder. This is different from a typical server setup where each dimension has its own top-level folder (like world_nether).

You don't need to worry about this. Plugin-based server software like Paper and Spigot will automatically detect and handle these subfolders. Vanilla servers also keep dimensions inside the world folder by default. Just upload the entire world folder as-is.

Troubleshooting

World Not Loading

If your server generates a new world instead of loading your uploaded one, the level-name value in server.properties likely doesn't match the name of your world folder. Double-check that they match exactly, including capitalization.

Spawning in a New World Instead of Your Builds

This usually means the wrong folder was uploaded, or there is a nested folder issue. For example, if your world folder is inside another folder (like MyWorld/MyWorld/), the server won't recognize it. Make sure the world folder itself - the one containing level.dat - is directly in your server's root directory, not nested inside an extra folder.

Missing Nether or End

This is rare when uploading a single player world, since the dimension data is stored inside the main world folder. If your Nether or End is missing, check that the DIM-1 and DIM1 subfolders are present inside your world folder. They may have been accidentally excluded when zipping.

Need Help?

If you encounter any issues or need further assistance, you can reach us through:

• Support Ticket
• Discord Server - use the /support command
• Email: [email protected]