Log in

How to create a world and switch between worlds on a Minecraft server

Last updated:

Create your Minecraft server today!
Contents

One Minecraft server can keep several worlds on its disk, but the game runs only one of them at a time: the active world. You can create a new world, switch to another one whenever you like, and the old worlds stay on the server untouched. All of this is done on the Worlds page of the control panel, with no file editing.

Before you start

  • Creating a world or switching to another one restarts the game and disconnects the players, so pick a quiet moment.

  • While the world is changing, the power bar says “Changing the server’s world…” and Start and Restart are unavailable. Wait until it finishes.

  • A world’s Nether and End go with it and switch together with it.

  • A brand-new world takes extra memory to generate. A server with very little RAM (for example 1 GB) may run out of memory while the game makes the world, so give it more memory if that happens.

Open the Worlds page

  1. Open your Minecraft server in the control panel.

  2. In the server’s menu, choose Worlds.

The page shows every world found on the server as a card. The active world is marked Active, and each card shows when the game last saved that world. After the cards you will find New world and Upload a world.

If the server has no worlds yet, just start the game: it creates a world by itself. You only need the steps below when you want an additional world.

Create a new world

  1. On the Worlds page, click the New world card.

  2. Type the world’s Name, for example River Town. It can be up to 32 characters: letters, digits, spaces and the symbols _ - . ( ) ', and it must start with a letter or a digit. A world with this name must not exist on the server yet, in any letter case.

  3. Set the world’s options. You can choose its seed, the world type, whether structures are generated and whether the world is hardcore. Leave the defaults if you are not sure.

  4. Click Create the world.

The game restarts (or starts, if it was off) and generates the world. Its card shows Creating meanwhile. When it is done, you get a message and the new world becomes the active one.

About the seed

The seed decides what the terrain looks like: the same seed with the same settings gives the same world. Use the button next to the field to get a random one, or type a seed you found elsewhere.

Switch to another world

  1. On the Worlds page, find the card of the world you want.

  2. Click Make active on it.

  3. Read the confirmation and click Restart with this world.

The card shows Switching while the game restarts with the world. When it is finished, you will see a message that the game runs with it. The world you left stays in the list, and you can come back to it the same way.

Switching while the server is off

If the game is stopped, the button in the confirmation is Make it active. The world only becomes the active one, and the game loads it at its next start.

Upload your own world

You can add a world you made elsewhere, for example in single player.

  1. Pack the world’s folder (the one with the level.dat file in it) into a ZIP or TAR.GZ archive. The archive can be up to 1 GB and must hold one world only: if you have several, upload them one by one.

  2. On the Worlds page, click the Upload a world card.

  3. Drop the archive into the window or choose it as a file.

  4. Wait while the panel uploads and unpacks it. When it says World found, check the name it will get and click Add the world.

The world joins the list, and the current world stays active. If a world of that name is already there, the new one gets a number added to its name. After that you can switch to it as described above. Keep in mind that Minecraft does not convert worlds to older versions, so a world saved in a newer version may not open on an older server.

Download or delete a world

Open the menu on a world’s card to use these actions:

  • Download gives you the world, with its Nether and End, as one ZIP archive.

  • Delete removes the world from the server’s disk for good after you confirm. Backups made earlier still hold it. The active world cannot be deleted: make another world active first.

Troubleshooting

  • “The server is busy”. Another operation is still running on the server. Wait until it finishes and try again.

  • The game didn’t start with the world. Open the server’s console: it tells why, for example not enough memory or a world from a newer Minecraft version.

  • “A world of this name is there already”. Choose another name.

  • “The archive holds no world of this game”. Check that the archive contains the world’s folder with level.dat inside.

Before you delete a world or try a risky experiment, it is a good idea to make a backup of the server first.