Minecraft: Here’s How To Save, Transfer, and Backup Your Java World

It’s easy to get lost in the worlds you created in Minecraft. Some keep them tidy and have only a handful of them stored in their files, but others might have a list of dozens of worlds saved that they may or may not use regularly. Perhaps you have a world you don’t want to be deleted or a world with too many redstone contraptions that are prone to lagging. Whatever the reason, how do you save, transfer, and back up your Minecraft Java Edition world?

How do I save and exit Minecraft?

The game guides you through how to always save your world in the easiest and safest way: simply press ESC and select Save and Quit To Title. This will save all of your progress even when you exit the game, which is done in the main menu.

On that note, the game is also pretty forgiving when it comes to messing up your world saves and updates because it automatically prompts you to do it before you exit the game. Of course, there are ways to bypass this if you’re in a hurry, so will your world be saved in that case?

Minecraft, like many other games, has a backup system in place for saving files, so no matter how you exit the game, your world and your progress with them should be saved. Let’s assume that you wanted to delete all the progress you made in one gaming session simply because you weren’t happy with the outcome or you accidentally died. Could you revert back to the game state before you started playing that day?

To bypass it, you have two options. You can either press ALT + F4 while in your world, or you can go to the task manager by pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL, find your Minecraft launcher (it should be named Java Platform or something similar), and end the task. That way, when you go back to your Minecraft world, you’ll be faced with the changes from your last save.

How do I permanently save a Minecraft world?

Suppose by any chance you got tired of Minecraft but would like to come back to it sometime later in life to reminisce or keep adding to the ideas that you had when you were younger. In that case, there is a way to save your Minecraft world permanently and it’s pretty easy. To do just that, follow these steps;

1. Go into your search bar in the Windows taskbar and search for the folder named %appdata%. This is a hidden folder in Windows that you can’t otherwise find by normal means.
2. Enter the folder and locate the .minecraft folder. Open it.
3. Once you’re there, you want to begin searching for Saves. This is where all of your worlds are located and the data surrounding them.
4. Locate the specific world you want (it’s best to have the world named something specific so it’s easier to find) and make a copy of it somewhere on your computer.
5. To copy the folder, right-click it and select copy, then go into whatever folder on your computer and right-click + paste the folder. Make sure it’s somewhere you know you’ll find it later.

You can now safely delete the entirety of Minecraft. Once you play it again, you can download it, enter the %appdata% folder again, go into .minecraft and Saves, and move the copied world from your computer to the folder. But what if the world was last edited in another version, and now you have the brand new version of Minecraft?

The game has a way of ensuring that you can enjoy your world, no matter how old they are and no matter when you last played Minecraft. You can follow these steps to get your world into a different version:

1. Open the game and navigate to the Singleplayer Tab in the game’s main menu.
2. Select the world you just added into saves and click on Edit.
3. You’ll want to create a backup by clicking the Make Backup button.
4. Now, if you need to, update the version of Minecraft and relaunch the game.
5. Open your world and click on I Know What I’m Doing.
6. If you’re unable to open your world, the backup of the world is located; you can go into the Edit World menu and click on Open Backups Folder to find it.

How to transfer a Minecraft world on a new device?

Although Minecraft.net helps you do this, there are way too many steps involved for such a simple task. To do it, go into the %appdata% folder again, locate the saves folder, and transfer the files onto a USB or any other portable storage device. Then, once you’re done, you can install Minecraft on your other computer and transfer the files back into the saves folder on the new PC.

There are two recommendations I have when you’re doing this. The first one is not to deinstall Minecraft on your old device before making sure that the worlds are running smoothly, and secondly, it’s also advised for you to make backups of your worlds somewhere else so you’ll make two copies of the worlds.

Why is any of this important?

Minecraft is a game many of us return to every year. We might give up on it, but chances are we’ll come back. When this happens, it’s good to have a backup of the worlds you had before you decided to delete Minecraft. Some do it for sheer nostalgia, and others might do it because they want to try and remember their builds to get inspired for future builds.

Whatever the reason for you wanting to backup, transfer, or save your Minecraft worlds, you know now how to and a little extra.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!