How to download your Minecraft world for single-player or another server

You can download your Minecraft world as a single file from the Worlds tab, without touching the file manager and without stopping the server. Pick the shape you need: ready to open in single-player, or laid out as it is on the server so you can upload it to another one.

Download a world

1. Open your server in the panel and click Modding in the server's tabs, open the Worlds tab, then click Your worlds.
2. Open the actions menu of the world you want and choose Download the world. It works on any world in the list, not only the active one.

3. The dialog Download (with the world's name) opens. On Paper, Purpur, Spigot and Folia servers, where the Nether and the End are kept in folders beside the world, it asks Which kind; on other worlds there is only one shape and nothing to choose:

   • For single-player: one world folder with the Nether and the End inside it, ready to open from your saves folder.
   • As on the server: the world and its _nether and _the_end folders, to upload to another Paper or Spigot server.
4. The dialog says about how big the world is. Click Prepare the download.

Players can keep playing while it is prepared. Autosave pauses for the moment the world is copied, so the file holds one consistent moment. If your server does not load that world, it is copied as it is.

Get the file

The world is packed into one file on the server. When it is ready, a card called Download of and the world's name shows the file name, its size and a Download button, and a bell notification tells you too. Click Download.

• The file is a .tar.gz. Windows 11, macOS and Linux open it with a double click. On Windows 10, use 7-Zip.
• The file is kept for 24 hours, and replaced if you prepare another download. Download it before then.
• While it is being prepared, the card is called Preparing with the world's name, to download. Stop cancels it and does not change your world.

Use it in single-player

1. Extract the file.
2. Move the world folder into the saves folder of your Minecraft folder.
3. Start Minecraft and open it from Singleplayer.

Use it on another server

Choose As on the server, extract the file, and upload the world folders to the other server. For uploading to a PlayNHost server, see How to upload your own Minecraft world.

If it will not start

• The dialog says Something is already running on this server's worlds if a download, trim, pregeneration or copy is going. Wait for it to finish.
• The panel does not pack a very large world (the limit is currently 20 GB). In that case, make a backup and download that, see How to back up, restore and reset your Minecraft world.
• A download is not a backup of your settings and plugins. For the whole server, use the Backups page. See How to create, download and restore backups.

Looking to host the world? See Minecraft server hosting.