One version note before the detail: Minecraft 26.1 restructured where dimension and player data sit inside a world folder, so the folder anatomy in this guide is written for Java Edition 26.1 and newer, and the older layout is named wherever it differs. Nothing else in the procedure depends on the version.
Before you touch any files: stop the server and back up
Two rules from PaperMC's migration guide apply to any world move, whatever software the server runs: "Stop your Vanilla server if it is running, and create a full backup", and "Before you move around any files, make sure your server is fully stopped." The guide's own callout leads with it: "Backup your data before you start!" - "Before you begin, please ensure you have a full backup of your server." A copy of the world folder kept on your own computer is the cheapest insurance in this whole procedure; make it before the first upload, not after the first mistake.
Step 1 - find the world on your computer
Single-player worlds are stored in a saves folder inside the Minecraft game directory, "each world stored as its own subfolder". Where that game directory sits depends on your operating system:
| Operating system | Game directory |
|---|---|
| Windows | %APPDATA%\.minecraft |
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft - the wiki notes the folder is named "simply minecraft" on macOS rather than .minecraft |
| Linux | ~/.minecraft (your home directory) |
One caveat from the same wiki page: the game directory is not guaranteed to be at the default path. It can be changed per installation in the Minecraft Launcher, and the launcher's directory itself can be moved with the --workDir parameter. If saves is not where the table says it should be, check the launcher's installation settings before concluding anything is lost.
Step 2 - know what a world folder contains
The folder you want is the one that holds a level.dat file: "A level folder is often identified by having a level.dat file." That file is the marker of the world itself, and it is what the server will look for. Inside the world folder, on Java Edition 26.1 and newer:
| Entry | What it holds |
|---|---|
level.dat |
"Stores global information about the level" - the time of day, the singleplayer player, the level generator used, and the seed. When the world is loaded, the current file is backed up to level.dat_old. |
region/ |
The Overworld's chunks, as Anvil region files named r.<x>.<y>.mca. |
dimensions/minecraft/the_nether and dimensions/minecraft/the_end |
The Nether and the End. On versions before 26.1 these are the DIM-1 and DIM1 folders instead; the wiki marks those names deprecated in favor of the dimensions/ layout. Overworld chunks stay in the world folder's own region/ either way. |
entities/ |
Entity files for the Overworld; the wiki notes these "used to be part of region". |
poi/ |
Points of interest - "Villager identified beds, job sites, and bells in the Overworld"; nether portals, bee nests, bee hives and lodestones use it too. Added in 1.14. |
players/data |
Per-player data files. Before 26.1 this folder is named playerdata. |
datapacks/ |
"Stores the world's data packs." |
Step 3 - put the world folder where the server loads it
On the server, the world is found through one line in server.properties: level-name, "The world name and the world directory path", whose default value is world. The wiki states the load rule exactly: "If a directory at this path exists and is a valid world, it will be loaded by the server. Otherwise the server will generate a new world in this directory." The path can be absolute or relative, and a relative path is measured from the server's working directory - so with the default value, the world folder sits in the server root.
That rule gives you two equivalent ways to line the names up, and one of them must happen: either the uploaded folder is named to match level-name (rename your world folder to world), or level-name is edited to match the uploaded folder's name. Move the folder across with whatever file transfer your host provides; the generic options are FTP and SFTP, and SFTP - the SSH File Transfer Protocol, "a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management over any reliable data stream" - is the one widely seen as FTP's replacement "due to superior security".
Where the Nether and the End live: Vanilla versus Paper
This is the one place the server software changes the answer, and PaperMC document it directly: "Paper stores worlds slightly differently than Vanilla." Their migration table lists the Nether at /world/DIM-1 and the End at /world/DIM1 on Vanilla - both inside the world folder, the same nested layout as a client save - and at /world_nether/DIM-1 and /world_the_end/DIM1 on Paper, as sibling folders sitting beside world. The world_nether / world_the_end layout belongs to Paper and the Bukkit family, not to a vanilla dedicated server. Two consequences for a move:
- On Vanilla, uploading the one folder that contains
level.datcarries the Nether and the End along inside it - underdimensions/minecraft/on 26.1 and newer, underDIM-1andDIM1on older versions. - On Paper, the Nether and the End live in the sibling
world_netherandworld_the_endfolders, so a complete move involves those folders as well asworlditself. PaperMC also note that when migrating to Paper from Vanilla, the way worlds are stored is changed for you as part of the migration.
The two mistakes that leave you with a brand-new world
The load rule fails quietly, not loudly. The folder the server loads is exactly the directory level-name points to, and it must be "a valid world" - the folder that contains level.dat. Two uploads miss that target: uploading the whole saves parent folder, or nesting the world one level deeper so that level.dat is not directly inside the level-name folder. In both cases the rule takes its other branch - "Otherwise the server will generate a new world in this directory" - and the freshly generated world is what you see on the next start. The fix is the same either way: level.dat must sit directly inside the folder level-name names.
The second mistake is losing or overwriting level.dat itself. It holds the world's global information - the time of day, the singleplayer player, the level generator used, and the seed - so a world folder with a missing or replaced level.dat loses exactly those settings. The in-folder copy level.dat_old is written when the world loads, so it cannot rescue a copy that has never been loaded; that is the backup rule at the top of this page doing its work.
Your inventory and everyone else's
Player data travels with the world, but it is keyed to accounts, not to names. Server player files are stored as <uuid>.dat files - "Player data files are now named by UUID instead of by Username", a change the wiki dates to 1.7.6 - and they "are used by servers to store the state of individual players". Your own single-player state is different: it lives inside level.dat as the singleplayer player, and in single-player that state "overrides any <player>.dat files with the same name". So your inventory and position arrive with the world folder, while player files saved on a previous server match the UUIDs they were saved under - which may not be the accounts now joining - and sit under players/data rather than playerdata on 26.1 and newer.
Never load the world in an older version
Match the server's version to the world before you upload. "Downgrading is the act of loading a world in an older version than the version of that world last loaded", and the wiki's rule on it is short: "Downgrading a world is not supported." The in-game warning says why - "World was saved in a newer version, loading this world could cause problems!" - and the consequences are listed plainly: after downgrading, the world "may cause the world to be prone to corruption, data loss or crash"; the warning screen states "Downgrading a world could cause corruption - we cannot guarantee that it will load or work"; and, decisively, "Even upgrading back to the original version will not revert the damage." A server on the world's own version, or newer, is the only safe direction.
A Bedrock world is not a Java world
If the world you want to move is a Bedrock world, this procedure is not for it. Microsoft's creator documentation states the format difference outright: "A major difference between Java and Bedrock is the world format. Bedrock uses the LevelDB format for world storage, while Java uses the Anvil format." The two formats are different and not interchangeable, and a Java Edition server loads Anvil region files - so a Bedrock world cannot simply be dropped into the folder level-name names.
Moving the world in is one step of a bigger job, and the rest is covered elsewhere on this site: how to make a Minecraft server for friends walks the whole setup, the server.properties reference covers level-name and every other setting, the backup checklist keeps the world safe once it is live, and moving a server to a new host covers the day you move again.
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