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How to Upload or Reset a World?

Whether you want to continue your private single-player world (Singleplayer) with friends on the server, or simply want to start your adventure anew on a fresh map – this guide will walk you through the entire process step-by-step using direct SFTP file transfer.

How to Find and Prepare Your Local World (Singleplayer)​

Before sending the map to the server, you must locate its folder on your computer.

  1. Open the Minecraft Launcher and navigate to the Installations tab at the top of the screen.
  2. Hover your mouse over the game version you played this world on, and click the folder icon on the right side.
  3. In the opened system window, enter the saves directory. This is where your single-player worlds are stored.
  4. Find the folder corresponding to your map (e.g., MojaMapa).
  1. To make things easier, right-click on it, select Rename and name the folder world (use lowercase letters only), then move this folder to your desktop.

Uploading Clean World Files via SFTP​

Transferring a complete, ready-made folder directly from your computer's disk requires a stable connection, which is why we use the SFTP protocol for this purpose, as it has no file upload limits.

Stop the server​

Go to the Console tab and turn off the server by clicking the STOP button.

Important

Never change anything within the world files while the server is running. The game engine constantly keeps crucial map data (including the level.dat file) in the RAM and overwrites it to the disk every few minutes. Attempting to upload or replace files on the fly will lead to immediate chunk structure corruption and loss of progress.

Removing the Old Map from the Server​

  1. Connect to your server using an SFTP client (e.g., WinSCP or FileZilla). If you are doing this for the first time, you can find detailed instructions in our guide: How to connect to SFTP?.
  2. In the right panel of the program (server files in the /home/container directory), locate the old world folder.
  3. Right-click on it and select Delete.
  4. If your server runs on a plugin-supported engine (e.g., Paper, Purpur, Spigot), delete the world_nether and world_the_end folders in the same manner.

Uploading the New World Folder​

  1. In the left panel of the SFTP client (your computer's files), navigate to the previously located saves directory.
  2. Find your prepared folder named world.
  3. Drag it directly from the left panel to the right panel (the server's root directory).
  1. Wait for the program to finish transferring all files in the queue. The transfer time depends on the number of individual files within the map and your internet speed.

Starting the Server​

Once the SFTP client finishes uploading all subfolders, go to the console in the panel and click START. The game engine will automatically detect the folder named world and load your map.

Why Is the Folder Structure So Important?​

When the server starts, the Minecraft engine executes a very strict file verification procedure. It looks for a binary file named level.dat exactly in the location specified in the configuration, which defaults to the world/level.dat path.

If you accidentally create a nested folder while dragging directories in your SFTP client (for example, world/world/level.dat), the engine will assume the map is empty. As a result, the server will ignore your files and generate a randomized, completely new world from scratch. Before starting the machine, always make sure in the Files tab that upon entering the world folder, you directly see the region and data folders, as well as the level.dat file.

Correct folder structure inside the world folder:

world/
 ├── 📁 advancements/
 ├── 📁 data/
 ├── 📁 datapacks/
 ├── 📁 entities/
 ├── 📁 playerdata/
 ├── 📁 poi/
 ├── 📁 region/
 ├── 📁 stats/
 ├── 📄 level.dat
 ├── 📄 level.dat_old
 ├── 📄 paper-world.yml
 ├── 📄 session.lock
 └── 📄 uid.dat

How to Properly Reset a World​

If you want to abandon your current playthrough and generate a completely new, randomized world from scratch (while keeping your installed plugins, mods, and settings), you need to clear the world folders from the disk.

  1. Stop the server in the Console tab.
  2. Go to the Files tab or use an SFTP client.
  3. Delete the folders responsible for storing the worlds. Most commonly, this includes:
    • world (Overworld)
    • world_nether (Nether)
    • world_the_end (The End)
  4. Go to the console and restart the server. When the engine notices the missing main world folder, it will automatically trigger the structure generation algorithm, creating a factory-fresh map.