Move your server from Apex Hosting

Apex Hosting gives every server an FTP login. The Migrate tab in our panel connects to it and copies your files straight to your new server. Move your server from another host covers the steps every host shares.

Get your server ready on Apex

Steps checked against Apex Hosting's documentation in September 2026.

1. In the Apex server panel, press the red Stop button near the top of the page so the world finishes saving.
2. Minecraft only: at the bottom of the panel, find the World section with the Change World, Reset Nether and Reset End buttons. The box above those buttons shows your world folder name, such as mc_1_21_5_1778083. Write it down.
3. Note the Minecraft version and server software the Apex server runs.
4. If you use Apex's Server Profiles, note which profile holds the world you want to move.

Find your FTP details on Apex

1. In the Apex panel, click FTP File Access in the left-hand menu and stay on its login page.
2. Copy these four values:
   • Address (some Apex guides say Host).
   • Port, which is 21. Your game port won't work here.
   • Username, the FTP username shown on that page, which differs from your panel login.
   • Password, your Apex panel password (the billing account one won't work). If the page asks you to create a password, set one and use it.

Apex's documentation only describes FTP, so pick FTP on our side too.

Connect Apex to the Migrate tab

1. Go to Servers (/dashboard) and click Open on your Play Your Way server.

2. Minecraft only: in the JAR Manager, set the software and version you noted on Apex, as in Change Minecraft server version or loader. There's no Spigot option, so if Apex ran Spigot, pick Paper. It runs Spigot plugins and uses the same three world folders.

3. Choose Migrate in the left rail and set Protocol to FTP. The Port box changes to 21 on its own.

   

4. Paste the Address, Username and Password from Apex, then click Connect & show my files.

5. Under Tick what to copy, check the ticks. On Minecraft, tick your world folders (next section).

6. Take the backup, start the copy and check the result with Move your server from another host.

Tick Apex's Minecraft world folders

On a Minecraft server, the Migrate tab pre-ticks folders named world, world_nether and world_the_end. Apex names world folders after the server, so tick yours by hand:

• Vanilla - one folder at the top level, with the name you wrote down.
• Paper, Spigot or Purpur - three folders: that name, the same name ending in _nether and the same name ending in _the_end.

Standard names, such as plugins, mods, config and server.properties, stay pre-ticked.

If your files sit inside a profile folder

With Server Profiles, the file list can open with one folder per profile. The migration keeps each file's folder path, so anything ticked inside one lands in a folder of the same name here, where the game won't find it. After the copy:

1. Open the File Manager and go into the profile folder.
2. Click an item once to show its details, then click Move to….
3. Enter / as the Destination folder and click Move.
4. Repeat for each item. If the top level already holds something with that name, such as the new server's own server.properties or plugins, the move fails. Delete the top-level copy, then move yours.

Point Minecraft at your world

1. Open the Config Editor tab. In the World group, check that World folder matches the name you wrote down. If it doesn't, type the name in.
2. Click Save changes.
3. Start the server. When the Console shows Done (…s)!, join and check your builds.

If the move doesn't work

• The old host rejected that username or password - use the FTP username from Apex's FTP File Access page and your panel password, pasted without extra spaces.
• Nothing is listening on that port - set Port to 21.
• The old host didn't answer - check the address, and that the Apex server still exists.
• A fresh world loads instead of yours - World folder doesn't match your folder name, or the folder is still inside a profile folder.
• The tab never connects - download from Apex instead. In FTP File Access, select the world folders, right-click, choose Compress and then Create Archive, then right-click the zip and choose Download. Apex suggests this for worlds under about 100 MB and an FTP client such as FileZilla for bigger ones. Upload the zip with Connect over SFTP with FileZilla or WinSCP and unpack it with Extract here in the File Manager.