How to Upload a Custom World to Your Minecraft Server
Replace your server's world with a custom map, pre-built survival world, or a world migrated from another host — step by step.
When Would You Do This?
- You've downloaded an adventure map and want to run it for friends
- You've been playing on a local/single-player world and want to move it to your server
- You're migrating from another hosting provider
- You've generated a world with a seed tool or world pre-generator and want to use it
Before You Start
Back up your existing world if you want to keep it. Uploading a new world replaces the current one.
See How to Back Up and Restore Your Minecraft Server.
Step 1: Stop Your Server
In the WISP panel, stop the server. Never replace world files while the server is running — it will either ignore your changes or cause corruption.
Step 2: Check Your World Folder Structure
A standard Minecraft Java world folder looks like this:
YourWorldName/
├── level.dat
├── level.dat_old
├── region/
│ └── *.mca files
├── playerdata/
├── data/
└── (other subfolders)
The folder name must match the level-name value in server.properties. By default that's world.
For a world that includes Nether and End data, you'll also have:
YourWorldName_nether/
YourWorldName_the_end/
Step 3: Remove the Old World
In the WISP file manager, delete (or rename to world_old as a safety net) the existing world/, world_nether/, and world_the_end/ folders.
Step 4: Upload the New World
Option A — Upload via WISP File Manager (small worlds / zipped):
- Zip your world folder locally.
- In the Files tab, click Upload and upload the zip.
- Once uploaded, right-click the zip and select Unarchive or Extract.
- Confirm the extracted folder name matches what you expect.
Option B — Upload via SFTP (large worlds or many files):
- Get your SFTP credentials from the WISP panel (Settings tab).
- Connect with FileZilla, WinSCP, or another SFTP client.
- Drag your world folder into the server root directory.
- Wait for the transfer to complete — large worlds (1 GB+) can take a few minutes.
Step 5: Verify the level-name Setting
Open server.properties in the file manager and check:
level-name=world
If your uploaded folder is named MySurvivalWorld, update this line to:
level-name=MySurvivalWorld
Save the file.
Step 6: Start the Server
Start your server and watch the console. You should see it loading your world:
[INFO] Preparing level "world"
[INFO] Preparing start region for dimension minecraft:overworld
If it instead generates a new empty world, the folder name or level-name setting didn't match — double-check both.
Notes on Adventure Maps
Some adventure maps include a server.properties or readme with specific settings required (like gamemode=adventure or difficulty=peaceful). Check for a readme in the zip and apply any noted settings before starting.