Where worlds belong
Worlds belong to an instance. Open Content, select the instance and switch to Worlds to browse recognized saves, open folders and use management actions.
Creating a world, changing game rules, experiments and data packs still use the actual game screens. A world appearing in the launcher list does not mean it has loaded successfully.
When to back up
Before upgrading Minecraft, changing many mods, restoring old progress or moving a world, save and exit normally.
- Back up world: protects one saved game.
- Back up all game content: includes the instance's configuration and worlds, useful before changing the environment.
- Export world: creates a ZIP you can store or share yourself.
Keep another copy on a different disk for important progress. A backup on the same failed disk can be lost with the original.
Import a world
- Choose Import world from the world page.
- Select one world folder or ZIP.
- Check the target instance and save-folder name.
- If the destination name is occupied, use another name and keep the existing world.
- After import, launch a matching game version and check it.
A world saved by a newer version may not work in an older one. A modded world may need its original content. Experiment with a copy instead of opening your only save in an older environment.
Create and restore a backup
Open a world's management menu, choose Back up world and wait for completion.
To restore, select the correct dated backup and check the target. The current world is preserved first, and other worlds are unchanged. Open the game and check the buildings, items and progress you care about.
To return to the state before restoration, open Recover world and look for the preserved pre-restore copy.
Remove, compress and recover
Remove world moves a save out of the game's save directory. It is retained after compression and validation and can be selected through Recover world.
If a recovery destination already exists, change the folder name. The existing world is not silently overwritten. Use the provided compression action to reduce a retained copy's space, and wait for the result before judging usage.
Recovery only works with records that are still retained. It cannot restore externally deleted files when no copy exists.