Import an existing world

If you already have a world — from another host, from a local install, or from a friend — you can bring it onto your TrueTick server instead of starting fresh. The import control lives on the server's Settings tab, under Version & world. It's a full replace, not a merge, so read through before you upload.

Step 1: Stop the server

The import control is disabled while the server is running — you'll see "Stop the server to import a world." next to it. Stop the server using the controls at the top of the server page, then come back to Settings → Version & world.

Step 2: Pack the world as .zip or .tar.gz

The uploader accepts .zip, .tar.gz, or .tgz archives — nothing else. Pack your world folder (and anything else you want to bring over) into one of those formats before you start the upload.

Pack the world folder itself, at the top of the archive. A Minecraft server loads one folder — the one named by the level-name setting, world by default — and an archive is extracted exactly as it was packed. So a .zip whose top level is The Harpy Express/ (with level.dat inside) arrives as a folder of that name. When your archive brings exactly one world, the import points level-name at it for you and tells you so. When it brings several, the import can't guess: the server keeps booting whatever it booted before, and you choose in the Worlds tab. Both cases are spelled out in the message you get when the upload finishes.

There's a size limit: 512 MB per archive. That's the same cap the control plane enforces on its side, so an archive that's rejected in the browser would be rejected on upload anyway. If your world is close to or over that, trim what you don't need (old region files for areas nobody visits, leftover crash-report or log folders) before compressing.

Step 3: Open Settings → Version & world and pick the archive

On the server page, open Settings → Version & world. Under the World heading you'll find the import control — use its file picker to select your packed archive. Nothing is uploaded yet at this point — picking a file just queues it.

Step 4: Confirm the replacement

Starting the import brings up a confirmation dialog, because this step is destructive: it replaces all of /data, not just the world folder. That means:

• All existing world data is permanently overwritten.
• Configs, plugins, and mods currently on the server are removed.

If there's anything on the current server you might want back — configs you tuned, a plugin's saved data, the current world itself — download a backup from the Backups tab before you confirm. The import does not keep a copy of what it replaces.

Once you confirm, the archive uploads and is extracted in place of the existing /data.

Step 5: Start the server

The import itself doesn't start anything — use the Start control at the top of the server page. The message you get when the upload finishes tells you which world the server will load:

• "active world set to …" — the archive brought one world under a name of its own, and the import pointed the server at it. Start, and that's what loads.
• "World imported — start the server to load it." — the archive's world folder already matched what the server boots. Nothing to choose.
• "Imported N worlds …" — several worlds arrived; the server still boots the one it booted before. Open the Worlds tab, Set active on the one you want, then start.
• "no world folder turned up at the top level" — the archive extracted, but nothing at its top level looks like a world. Open the Files tab to see what actually arrived; a world nested one folder deep is a common cause.

Troubleshooting

Import button won't do anything / stays disabled. The server has to be stopped first — this isn't optional. Stop it from the top of the server page, then retry.

The server generated a fresh empty world instead of loading mine. The server boots the folder named by level-name, and your world folder has a different name — so Minecraft found nothing to load and made a new one beside it. Open the Worlds tab: your world is listed there by its folder name. Set active on it, then start. (Imports since 2026-08 do this for you when the archive brings exactly one world; an archive with several still needs the choice.)

"Pick a .zip or .tar.gz archive first" means no file was selected, or the file picker was cleared — pick the archive again before confirming.

"Archive is over the 512 MB limit" means the file needs to be smaller before it can be accepted. Strip unnecessary data (unused region files, logs, crash reports) and re-pack.

"Import failed" after uploading. This can mean the connection dropped mid-upload or the control plane rejected the archive — check your connection and try again. If it keeps failing, contact support with the error text shown on the page.

I imported the wrong thing. If you took a backup before confirming, restore it from Server → Backups & data → Backups to get back to where you were; see the backups article for how restore works.