How to Upload a Singleplayer World to Your Hytale Server

Upload your singleplayer Hytale world to continue your adventure with friends on your WinterNode server.

Before You Start: Back Up Your Server

If your server has any mods installed, back up your mods folder before uploading a singleplayer world. Singleplayer saves include their own mods folder, which may overwrite your server’s mods when you extract the world. If you’re uploading to a fresh server with no mods, you can skip this step.

1. Stop your server from the WinterNode control panel
2. Navigate to File Manager
3. Locate the mods folder in the server root directory
4. Click the … next to the mods folder and select Compress
5. Once compressed, download the .tar.gz archive
6. Save the backup to your PC

Step 1: Locate Your Singleplayer World

Your Hytale singleplayer worlds are stored in a folder on your PC.

1. Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog
2. Type %appdata% and press Enter
3. Navigate to Hytale → UserData → Saves
4. Find the folder for the world you want to upload

Each folder inside Saves represents a different singleplayer world. The folder names usually match what you named the world in-game. If you’re not sure which one is correct, check the “Date Modified” timestamp to find your most recent save.

Step 2: Compress Your World

You need to compress your world folder into a ZIP file before uploading.

1. Right-click on your world folder (the one containing the universe directory)
2. Select Compress to → ZIP File
3. Name the ZIP file something simple with no spaces or special characters (example: myworld.zip)

Step 3: Stop Your Server

Before uploading files, you need to stop your server to prevent file corruption.

1. Log in to your WinterNode control panel
2. Navigate to your Hytale server
3. Click Stop and wait for the server to fully shut down

Step 4: Upload Your World

The upload method depends on your file size.

For Files Under 100MB (File Manager)

1. Navigate to File Manager in your control panel
2. You should be in the server root directory by default
3. Click Upload in the top right
4. Select your compressed world ZIP file
5. Wait for the upload to complete

For Files Over 100MB (SFTP Required)

If your world file exceeds 100MB, you’ll need to use SFTP to upload it.

1. Follow our SFTP setup guide to connect to your server
2. Upload the ZIP file to your server’s root directory
3. Return to the File Manager in your control panel to extract it

Step 5: Extract Your World

Now that the ZIP file is uploaded, you need to decompress it.

1. In File Manager, locate your uploaded ZIP file
2. Either:
   • Click the checkbox next to the file and click Decompress in the popup, or
   • Click the … next to the file and select Decompress
3. Wait for the extraction to complete

The extraction will create a universe folder in your server root (or add to an existing one). Inside universe/worlds/, you’ll find your singleplayer world.

Step 6: Update Server Configuration

Your server won’t automatically load the new world - you need to tell it which world to use.

1. In File Manager, find and open the config.json file in your server root
2. Locate the "Defaults" section
3. Change the "World" value to match your world’s folder name

For example, if your world folder is named myworld inside universe/worlds/, your config should look like this:

"Defaults": {
  "World": "myworld",
  "GameMode": "Adventure"
}

4. Click Save to save your changes

Step 7: Start Your Server

You’re ready to load your world.

1. Return to the main control panel
2. Click Start to start your server
3. Wait for the server to fully start up
4. Join your server and verify your world loaded correctly

Check that your spawn location, builds, and terrain look correct. If everything looks good, you’ve successfully transferred your singleplayer world to multiplayer.

Troubleshooting

Server Loads the Wrong World

The world name in config.json doesn’t match your world’s folder name. Double-check that the "World" value under "Defaults" matches the folder name inside universe/worlds/ exactly, with no typos or extra characters.

Server Starts with a Blank/New World

This usually means the extraction didn’t work properly or the files are corrupted. Try these steps:

1. Stop your server
2. Delete the ZIP file and re-download it from your singleplayer saves
3. Re-compress the world (make sure you’re compressing the folder that contains the universe directory)
4. Upload and extract again

Missing Items or Blocks

If items or blocks appear as “unknown” or disappear entirely, your singleplayer world likely used mods that aren’t installed on your server. You need to install the same mods on your server for everything to appear correctly.

If you overwrote your server’s mods folder during extraction, restore your backed-up mods folder and then manually add any additional mods your singleplayer world requires.