How to Import Your Minecraft World to a Server

You've just purchased a SimpleGameHosting server. Now, it's time to import your world onto to the server. 

📝 Note: This will work with other custom maps as well, but in this tutorial, we are focusing on adding your singleplayer world to your server. We have a dedicated guide to other custom maps if you want to add another map.

Step 1: Finding Your Single-Player World

First things first, you need to access your single-player world. 

To do this, open the Minecraft Launcher. Then, click the "Installations" tab. 

On the installations tab, hover over the Minecraft version that you usually play on your world with, and click the folder that appears. 

This will open your .minecraft folder. All of your single-player data for Minecraft is stored here including your worlds. 

In this folder, click on the saves folder. 

You will now see a list of all of the single-player Minecraft worlds you have. 

Once you have found the world you want to add to your server:

• Right-click on the world, and select copy. 
• Navigate to your desktop. 
• Right-click on your desktop, and click paste. 
• A copy of your world should then appear on your desktop. 

➡️ By using the copy-paste method outlined above, your world will still be in single-play, and should you have any issues can still be accessed safely there.

Step 2: Preparing Your World for Your Server

With the world on your desktop, we need to prepare it to be added to your server. 

To do this, right-click on the folder you moved from the saves, and select "Rename". Change the name to "world". This will ensure that the name is correct when we upload it later.

Next, we need to take the "world" folder on your desktop, right-click on it, select "Send to" and "Compressed (zipped) folder". This will create a new .zip file of your world. 

Step 3: Accessing Your File Manager

We can now access the SimpleGameHosting Control Panel and navigate to the File Manager. 

First, login to the Control Panel, and select the server that you want to upload your world to. 

After you have logged in, we need to navigate to the File Manager by selecting it in the menu bar. This is where you will upload your world.zip. 

Once you have accessed the File Manager, we can move on to the next step. 

Step 4: Removing the Old World on The Server

�� Skip this step if you have never started your server before or if you don't have an existing "world" folder in the File Manager.

Before we can upload the new single-player world, we need to remove any existing world from the server. 

In File Manager, find the "world" folder, click the three dots next to it, and select "Rename". 

A box will appear where you can rename your world folder. We suggest making the name "world_old". This will keep the world in case you want to access it again, but it will allow you to upload your new world as well. 

Once the new name is entered, click the "Rename" button to save the name change. 

Step 5: Uploading the World to Your Server via SFTP

We can now add your world to the server. To do this, we will be using SFTP. This ensures that we can upload the entire world without any issues. 

⭐ View our full SFTP guide here! 

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.  

Uploading Your Minecraft World to the Server

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. Make sure you are moving the file into the MAIN directory meaning do not drag it to an existing folder. This may take a while depending on the size of the map you are upload.  

Step 6: Unzipping the World

Finally, we need to navigate back to the File Manager on the SimpleGameHosting control panel.  

Then, locate the world.zip file you uploaded. Click on the three dots next to it, and select "Unarchive". The File Manager will then refresh as your world.zip is unzipped. 

Before we join the server, it is worth locating and opening the "world" folder. In it, you should see similar files to the image below. Your's may be slightly different with some additional files or some files missing. However, the "region" folder should be there no matter what. 

🚧 If you do not have a "world" folder, you most likely forgot to rename your world in Step 2. If this is the case, the name of the world on the server will be the same as it was in your "saves" folder. Locate this folder, click on the three dots, and select rename. Rename the folder to "world", and you are done!

Step 6: Restarting & Joining Your Server

Finally, navigate back to the "Console" tab in the Control Panel, and Start or Restart your server. When you do, your single-player world will be updated to your server. 

You can join your server, and your world will be there!