Importing your existing world to AndroHost

You have an existing world. You're moving it to your new AndroHost server. This article walks through the migration in the order you should actually do it: stop, upload, validate, switch over.

The process is the same whether you're coming from Aternos, a competitor, a friend's self-hosted box, or singleplayer. The difference is just where you get the world files from.

There's a separate, longer article on the strategy of migration: Migrating a world between hosts, a checklist. This one is focused on the AndroHost-specific mechanics.

What "the world" actually is

A Minecraft "world" is one folder on disk. Inside it are subfolders for chunks, player data, structure templates, etc. The folder is usually named world (or world_nether for the Nether, world_the_end for the End).

For a typical SMP server the structure is:

serverroot/
├── world/              ← overworld, the big one
├── world_nether/       ← Nether dimension
├── world_the_end/      ← End dimension
├── ops.json            ← admin list (optional to migrate)
├── whitelist.json      ← whitelist (optional)
├── server.properties   ← config (DO NOT directly copy — see below)
└── plugins/, mods/     ← depends on server type

The world folders are what you need to migrate. Everything else (server config, admin lists) is either re-creatable or already on the new server.

Getting the world off the old place

From a competitor host's panel

Most providers expose:

• A backup download (gives you a .zip or .tar.gz of the whole server).
• An SFTP login (gives you direct file access).

Either works. The backup-download path is usually easier; the SFTP path gives you more granular control if the host is slow or the backup mechanism is unreliable.

From Aternos specifically

Aternos has a "Download World" button under the World section. It gives you a .zip of just the world folder. There's a longer article on Aternos migration if you want the full walkthrough.

From your own self-hosted server

Stop the server. Copy the world/ (and world_nether/, world_the_end/) folders off whatever machine they're on. Zip the whole world folder for upload convenience.

From a singleplayer world

Singleplayer worlds live at:

• Windows: %appdata%\.minecraft\saves\<World Name>\
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves/<World Name>/
• Linux: ~/.minecraft/saves/<World Name>/

Inside the folder, the level.dat is the world's metadata; the region/ folder is the actual chunk data. Zip the whole folder.

Note: singleplayer worlds don't have separate world_nether / world_the_end folders the way servers do. They're inside the world's DIM-1/ and DIM1/ subfolders respectively. When you upload to a server, you'll need to extract those and rename them.

Uploading to AndroHost

Method 1: panel upload (small worlds)

Works for worlds under ~50 MB. Bigger and the browser will struggle.

1. Stop your AndroHost server (panel → power → Stop).
2. Files tab → navigate to the server root.
3. Delete the existing world/ folder so the imported one has somewhere to land (right-click → Delete). If you want to keep the existing one as a backup, rename it to world.original first.
4. Drag your local world folder into the panel. Wait for upload to complete.
5. Verify the folder is named exactly world (case-sensitive on most servers).
6. Start the server.

Method 2: SFTP (medium and large worlds)

Faster for anything over a few MB. Setup is in Uploading files to your AndroHost server with SFTP.

1. Stop your AndroHost server.
2. Connect via SFTP. You should see the server's file tree in your SFTP client.
3. Delete or rename the existing world/ folder.
4. Drag your local world folder into the server root.
5. Start the server.

Method 3: zipped upload + extract on server (large or many-file worlds)

When you have a world with millions of region files, transferring each one over SFTP one-at-a-time is slow. Compress first.

1. On your computer, zip the world folder (right-click → "Send to compressed folder" on Windows, similar on Mac).
2. Upload the .zip to the AndroHost server via the panel's Files tab.
3. Right-click the uploaded .zip → Unarchive (or similar option name).
4. Move/rename the extracted folder to world.
5. Delete the .zip.

This is much faster than uploading thousands of individual files because zip + transfer + unzip is one big stream instead of millions of tiny ones.

Before you start the server

A few things to verify before the first boot:

Version match

Your imported world was generated on some specific Minecraft version. Your AndroHost server is running some specific version. If they don't match, you can have problems:

• Imported world was newer than server: server can't open it. You need to either upgrade the server or downgrade the world (downgrade is dangerous and usually impossible past a couple of versions).
• Imported world was older than server: server will offer to "upgrade" the world. Take a backup first; the upgrade is usually safe but irreversible.

Check server.properties for the server's version implicitly (the egg you selected at signup determines it). Check your local world's level.dat if you're unsure (NBTExplorer tool reads it).

Modded vs vanilla

A world generated with mods that added blocks/biomes won't fully work on a vanilla server. Mod-added blocks become "missing" / converted to a placeholder. If you're moving a modded world, make sure the new server has the same mods at the same versions.

Player data

world/playerdata/ has each player's inventory, position, and effects. When players first log in to the imported world, they pick up where they left off as long as their UUID is in there. If you switched servers and players' UUIDs are the same (Mojang accounts), this all transfers cleanly.

First boot

Start the server. Watch the console:

• Look for "Preparing spawn area" or "Preparing start region" — that means the world loaded correctly.
• "Done (X.XXXs)!" — server is ready to accept connections.
• "Couldn't load chunk" / errors mentioning specific block names — possible mod mismatch.

Join the server. Verify:

• Your inventory is intact.
• The spawn looks like your old world.
• Existing builds are visible.
• Other players can join.

If something looks wrong, stop the server immediately and restore the world.original you kept as backup.

Common pitfalls

Folder named World (capital W) instead of world. Linux is case-sensitive. The server expects exactly world.

Forgot to delete the existing world/ first. Some browsers / SFTP clients will MERGE the upload with the existing folder, giving you a corrupted hybrid. Always delete or rename the existing one first.

Singleplayer Nether and End not separated. Servers need them as world_nether and world_the_end folders at the root, not inside the world folder. Extract them out manually.

Modpack version mismatch. Migrating a modded world to a different version of the same modpack often works for player data but breaks new chunks. Stay on the same modpack version when migrating.

No backup taken. Always take an AndroHost-side backup BEFORE importing, AND keep a local copy of the source world for at least a week. If something goes wrong on day 3, you'll want a way back.

After successful import

Once the world is in and verified:

1. Take a backup in the panel (Backups tab → Create backup → "post-import").
2. Re-op yourself (the imported ops.json may not have your username, especially if you migrated from singleplayer or a different host). See Giving admin or OP.
3. Update player permissions in plugins (LuckPerms etc.) — those configs don't usually transfer.
4. Test a few common actions before letting the public in.

When you're confident the migration is clean, tell your community and they'll reconnect to the same world they remember.