Reset your Minecraft world and start fresh

Resetting your world gives the server a brand-new map, and everyone starts again from spawn. There are two ways to do it. You can point the server at a new world folder and keep the old one on disk, or you can delete the old world.

Checked against Minecraft 26.3 and Paper 26.3, October 2026.

What a reset removes and what stays

Deleting the world folder erases the map: every build, every chest, and every player's inventory and position, as the panel warns before you confirm. Only a backup brings it back.

These stay, because they are separate from the world:

• The whitelist, operators and ban lists, which sit in the top folder and are managed from the Players tab.
• server.properties, so your Config Editor settings carry over.

Add-on data also stays, because a reset only deletes the world folder. The panel's own warning says the config folder is where every add-on keeps its settings, including permissions, homes, shops and protection regions, so all of that stays after a reset and will point at places that no longer exist. After a reset, clear or reset those, following each add-on's own guide.

Back up first

Open the Backups tab and press Create backup, then wait for it to finish. Create and restore backups has the steps. If you only want to keep the old map as a download, Download your world to singleplayer shows how.

Choose how the new world is made

Open the Config Editor under Content and stay in the World section:

• World seed holds the seed. Leave it empty for a random one. The panel notes it is ignored once the world exists, so it only counts for a new world.
• World type offers Normal, Superflat, Large biomes, Amplified and Single biome.
• Generate structures switches villages, temples and the rest on or off in new chunks.

Press Save changes. Change your world seed explains seeds in more depth.

Option A: keep the old world

1. Press Stop on the Console tab and wait until the server is offline.
2. In the Config Editor, change World folder to a new name such as world2. The panel says that changing it starts a new world and the old folder stays on disk.
3. Press Save changes, then Start.

To go back later, set World folder to the old name and restart. The old folder still uses disk space, so delete it in the File Manager once you are sure you do not want it.

Option B: delete the old world

1. Press Stop on the Console tab and wait until the server is offline.
2. Open the File Manager and delete the world folder, which is world unless you changed World folder. With the default name the panel asks you to type it to confirm.
3. Press Start. The server generates a new world.

On Paper before Minecraft 26.1 the Nether and the End sit in their own folders, world_nether and world_the_end (named after your World folder). If you see those folders beside your world folder on any software, delete them as well, because they hold the old Nether and End. From 26.1 they are inside the world folder, so there is nothing extra to delete.

When the Console shows Done (…s)!, join and check the new spawn.

If something still looks old

• The old map loads again. World folder in the Config Editor still names the old folder, or the old folder is still in the File Manager under that name. Check both.
• The new world still shows an old Nether or End. Check for a leftover world_nether or world_the_end folder. Those folders hold the old Nether and End. Stop the server, delete them and start again.
• You reset the wrong thing. Restore the backup from the Backups tab.