Download your world from Nodecraft and move it

Moving from Nodecraft means downloading your server's files from Nodecraft's panel, then uploading them to your server here. Nodecraft can hand you one world in a single download, a backup, or any files you pick in its File Manager, and FTP handles big servers. Nodecraft steps checked against Nodecraft's help pages in October 2026. Move your server from another host has more on the upload side.

Before you start

1. Open your server's panel. Log in to Nodecraft, go to your Dashboard and click Panel on your Minecraft server. Nodecraft's newer guides call it Manage, under Currently Playing. On a Lite server you may need to wake the server first.
2. Stop the server with Stop in the left sidebar, and wait until it has fully stopped. Nodecraft's help says a running world's files can change while you copy them.
3. Note your world's folder name. In Server Files > Files, open server.properties: the name after level-name= is the world folder the server loads, usually world.
4. Note the version it runs and, on Minecraft, its software (such as Paper or Fabric).
5. Take a backup of your server here in Backups. Uploaded and extracted files can replace files with the same name, and the backup undoes that: How to create and restore backups.

Download from Nodecraft

Option 1: one world from Manage Worlds

1. In the panel's sidebar, click Game Settings > Manage Worlds.
2. Click Manage on the world, then Download, then Compress and download.

Nodecraft stops the server for this and leaves it stopped. The download holds the whole world, Nether and End included, as a .tar.zst file, and a copy stays in the server's main folder on Nodecraft until you delete it. Worlds over 10 GB can't be downloaded this way: use FTP (Option 4).

Option 2: the File Manager

1. Click Server Files > Files in the left sidebar.
2. Tick the world folder, and on Paper, Spigot or Purpur its world_nether and world_the_end folders if your server has them. Tick anything else you want too, such as plugins, mods or config.
3. Open the file options menu and choose the download option. If the panel asks you to compress the folder first, create a .zip and download that.

Option 3: a backup

Click Backups in the left sidebar, then Create Backup. When it has finished, click the three-dot menu beside it and choose Download. A backup can hold your server files and settings as well as the world.

Option 4: FTP, for big servers

1. On your panel's Overview page, click Enable FTP to see the Host, Port, Username and Password.
2. Enter them in FileZilla, WinSCP or Cyberduck and connect. Nodecraft's help says you may see a certificate warning, because it signs its own FTPS certificates or uses Cloudflare's.
3. Drag the files from the server's side (right) to your computer's side (left).

Match the version here

On Minecraft, set the same software and version in the JAR Manager tab (under More) before you upload: Change Minecraft server version or loader. If it ran Spigot, pick Paper: there's no Spigot option here, and Paper runs Spigot plugins.

Upload the files here

1. Stop your server here from the Console.

2. A ZIP up to 100 MB: in the File Manager, select Upload and pick the ZIP. Then select it and choose Extract here, and delete the ZIP once its files are out.

3. Anything bigger, or a .tar.zst: unpack it on your computer and drag the files across over SFTP. Your server's login is on the SFTP connection card in Settings (under More). Or send a ZIP itself over SFTP and use Extract here on it, as long as your storage has room for the ZIP and its files together until you delete the ZIP.

   

4. If the files land inside a folder, select each item, choose Move to…, enter / as the Destination folder and press Move. A move onto a name already at the top level, such as the new server's own world, is refused with Couldn't move this, so delete or rename that one first.

A renamed Minecraft world

If level-name on Nodecraft wasn't world, upload the folder with that name. On Paper, Spigot or Purpur, also bring the _nether and _the_end folders that share its name, if your server has them. Then open the Config Editor tab here, set World folder to the same name and click Save changes.

Check it works

1. Start the server. On Minecraft, Done (…s)! in the Console means it's up.
2. Join and check your builds, inventories and plugin or mod data.
3. Share the new address from Server address in the left rail: Join your Minecraft server (and fix errors).

Cancel Nodecraft last

Keep the Nodecraft server until your players have moved and the world checks out. To cancel, log in to Nodecraft and open Billing Overview, click the game server subscription, open its cancellation tab and complete the form.

If something's missing

• "… is over the 100 MB limit" - send that file over SFTP instead.
• There's no Extract here on the file - it's a .tar.zst or .tzst. Unpack it on your computer, as in the tip above.
• A new world loads instead of yours - the files are still in a subfolder, or World folder in the Config Editor doesn't match your world's folder name.
• The world is too big to download from Manage Worlds - over 10 GB, use FTP.
• Plugins or mods don't load - match the software and version in the JAR Manager.

Contacting support? Quote the exact message you see and say the files came from Nodecraft.