How to Add Custom Maps to a Minecraft Server

Embarking on adventures in new worlds is a fundamental part of the Minecraft experience. With custom maps, you can enhance this journey, providing yourself and others with unique scenery and biomes to explore. Whether it's a meticulously designed adventure map, a thrilling survival island, or an intricate city build, adding a custom map to your Minecraft server can significantly add to the player experience. 

⚡ Note: If you're looking to add a world you've previously created in Minecraft to your server, check out this article on how to import your world. 

Let's dive into how to upload a custom map to your server at SimpleGameHosting. 

Step 1: Prepare the Custom Map for Your Server

🔴 Note: This article assumes that you already have found and downloaded a custom map for your server. If you haven't found one yet, check out our article on how to find multiplayer maps for your Minecraft server. 

The first thing you need to do before you upload your custom map/world to your server is prepare the folder. With your folder containing the map, right-click and select 'Rename.' Change the name of the folder to 'world' to ensure that it is correct when we upload it to the server. 

Convert to .zip

Next, you will need to compress the folder to a .zip file. 

If you're on Windows, right-click on the folder and find "Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder" in the options. You may have to select the 'Show More' option on Windows 11. 

If you're on macOS, right-click on the folder and select 'Compress' to create a .zip file. 

Step 2: Accessing Your Server via SFTP

To add a map to your server, we will need to access the server via SFTP. 

Getting an FTP Client

To get started, we need to download an FTP client. We have a complete guide on this here, but we recommend FileZilla as it is free and very well-known as a high-quality FPT client.  

⭐ Want a more in-depth SFTP guide? Check out our complete guide here!

Finding Your SFTP Login Info 

It's now time to sign in to the SimpleGameHosting Control Panel. You can do this by directing your browser to Panel.SimpleGameHosting.com and using the login information used to create your account after purchasing your server.  

🛑 If your server is currently running, be sure to click the red 'Stop' button on the console page before you continue.  

Once you have signed in to your account, navigate to 'SFTP' in the menu bar.  

This will show you your connection address and username for SFTP. We will use these in the next step.

Logging Into Your Server via SFTP

With your SFTP login information in hand, we can now open our FTP client. For this guide, we will be using FileZilla, but the process is the same in other FTP clients as well. 

In FileZilla, click the "Site Manager" in the top left.  

Click the "New Site" button. Name the server anything you want, and then, we need to move to the panel on the right side.  

Name the server anything you want, and then we need to move to the panel on the right side.

1. Protocol: Change this to “SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol.”
2. Host: This is the server address you found on the control panel. 
3. Port: The port can be left blank. 
4. Logon Type: Set this to normal.
5. Username: This is the Username found in the SFTP details section of the control panel. 
6. Password: The SFTP password is the same password used to log in to the SimpleGameHosting Control Panel. 

Once all the above information has been entered, click “Connect”. You will most likely be promoted to trust the connection. When you do this, you will log in into the server via SFTP. 

Step 3: Remove Old World Files

👉 You can skip this step if you have never started your server before or if there is no existing "world" folder on the server.

It's now time to remove the existing world files from the server. In the FTP Client, find the 'world' folder, and right-click on it. From here, select 'Rename.'

Here, you will be able to rename the world folder. We suggest renaming it to 'world_old' instead of deleting the folder. This will allow you to retain access to the world in case you want to access it again. 

Once you've changed the name, we can move on to adding your new map to the server.

Step 4: Uploading Your Custom Map

With the FTP client logged into the server, locate the custom map you want to upload to the server. Your computer displays on the left-hand side of FileZilla. 

Then, drag-and-drop the map from your computer to the server and let the upload finish. This may take a while depending on the size of the map you are upload. 

Step 5: Unzipping the World

The next to last step starts by navigating back to the SimpleGameHosting Control Panel. Once you are there, select your server and click the "File Manager" tab at the top of the control panel. 

With the File Manager open, find the file you just uploaded in the server via SFTP. Click the option dots to the right, and select 'Unarchive.' The File Manager will refresh as your compressed file is unzipped. 

Step 6: Checking The Files & Renaming the World

With the world updated, it is important to check to ensure that the world you updated displays the "region" folder as soon as it is opened. Basically, there should be a region folder immediately after opening the world. If not, keep going through until you see the "region" folder. 

 Once you do, go back one folder, and click the three dots next to the folder that contained the region file. Select "move" and remove everything from the text box and click the "move" button. 

👾 Finally, click the three dots next to the folder you uploaded and name it "world". If you don't do this, the world will not work. 

Your map is now uploaded to your Minecraft server. 

Step 7: Restarting Your Server

Once the file has been uploaded to your server, navigate to the 'Console' page in the menu bar and click 'Start' in the console window. This will restart your server with the changes applied, and your new world will be joinable!