Minecraft Tutorials

Backing Up Your Minecraft Bedrock Server

Back up your Minecraft Bedrock server on WinterNode: where the world lives, what a snapshot restore does and does not do, and how to take manual backups.

Last updated: September 11, 2026

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Backing up a Bedrock server means knowing which folder holds the world and which files hold everything else, because the world, the add-ons, and the server configuration live in different places. WinterNode also takes automatic snapshots of your whole server every 12 hours as an additional safety net, taken between 2AM-3AM and 2PM-3PM CST and kept for 45 days.

Where your data lives

Everything below is relative to your server root, which is what you see when you open the File Manager or connect over SFTP.

World data

Every world is a folder inside worlds, named after the level-name setting in server.properties. On WinterNode the default is bedrockWorld, so the live world is worlds/bedrockWorld. Inside it you will find:

  • db, the LevelDB folder that holds every chunk, entity, and player. This is the world.
  • level.dat and level.dat_old, the world settings (seed, game rules, spawn).
  • levelname.txt, the display name shown in the client.
  • world_behavior_packs.json and world_resource_packs.json, the list of packs applied to this world.

Unlike Java, there are no separate Nether or End folders. All three dimensions and all player data are inside db, so copying the single world folder captures everything. If you changed level-name, look for a folder with that name instead. The world import guide covers the same folder from the other direction.

Add-ons and configuration

These are not inside the world folder. Losing them does not affect your world, and restoring the world does not bring them back:

  • behavior_packs and resource_packs in the server root, where installed add-ons are unpacked. The world only stores a list of which packs to load, not the packs themselves.
  • server.properties, allowlist.json, and permissions.json in the server root. These hold the server settings, the allowlist, and every operator.

A full manual backup should include the world folder, both pack folders, and those three root files. If you only have room for one thing, take the world folder.

Restoring from a WinterNode snapshot

Our snapshots are a copy of your whole server directory, taken between 2AM-3AM and 2PM-3PM CST and kept for 45 days. Request one with the /request-backup-files command in a Discord ticket, or by ticket in the Client Area with your server’s Node, UUID, and the backup window you want. Restores are usually done well inside 24 hours.

Moving the restored world into place

  1. Wait for the bot to post its Backup Restoration Complete message in your ticket
  2. In the Game Control Panel, select your server and click Stop
  3. In the sidebar, click File Manager
  4. Rename your current worlds/bedrockWorld folder (for example to bedrockWorld.old) so you can fall back to it
  5. Open the /backup-restore/worlds folder
  6. Move the restored bedrockWorld folder (or whatever your level-name is) into worlds in your server root
  7. Click Start

Your server should now show as Online with the restored world loaded. Restoring Your Server from a Backup walks through the move with screenshots.

You do not have to move everything. If the world is corrupt but your add-ons are fine, move only the world folder and leave the rest of /backup-restore alone. If a bad add-on broke the server, move behavior_packs and resource_packs and leave the world as it is.

What the snapshot leaves out

Individual files over 5GB and MySQL databases are excluded. A Bedrock world is made of many small files inside db, so this almost never affects the world itself. It does apply to any single large file you keep on the server, such as a compressed archive of an old world, so download those rather than leaving them in place.

Taking a manual backup

Bedrock Dedicated Server has no built-in automatic backup. Take one yourself by copying or downloading the folders listed under Where your data lives while the server is stopped. Bedrock writes to db constantly while running, and a copy taken mid-write can fail to load.

The quickest way is to select the world folder in the File Manager, compress it into a single archive, then download that archive over SFTP or from the File Manager. Back Up Your Server Files Manually shows each step. Downloading gives you a remote copy, so even if every file on the server is cleared you still have something to restore from.

Take one before every server update. Bedrock clients update automatically and cannot be rolled back, so the server has to follow, and a world that fails to load on the new version is much easier to deal with when you have a copy from a few minutes earlier.

Restoring a manual backup

  1. In the Game Control Panel, select your server and click Stop
  2. Rename or delete the world folder you are replacing inside worlds
  3. Upload your copy over SFTP into worlds, named exactly as your level-name
  4. Click Start

See Restoring from a Personal Backup for the full upload walkthrough.

Still Not Working?

If your restored world does not load or the files are not where you expect, contact our support team with:

  • Your Server UUID
  • The backup date and time you requested
  • What is currently inside /backup-restore and which folder you moved

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Bedrock stores player data inside the world's db folder, so a world restore rolls inventories back to the same point.

No. Restored files are placed in a /backup-restore folder and are not moved into place for you. Stop the server, then move the world folder you need out of /backup-restore. Running /request-backup-files again does not move it.

Rarely. Bedrock stores the world as many small files inside the db folder rather than one large file, so the per-file 5GB exclusion almost never applies. It only matters if you keep a large archive or other single file on the server.

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