How to back up your Minecraft world

When Minecraft players exit their games, they typically expect that their in-game worlds will be there when they return. Yet Minecraft isn’t infallible, and there is a chance that the game’s files can be lost, destroyed, or otherwise corrupted.

One way that players can make sure their game is safe is by creating a backup of their Minecraft world. A safeguard against world corruption, backups ensure that there is always an extra file for players to fall back on. They're especially useful when Minecraft gets a new update.

Backing up your Minecraft world isn't challenging, and here's a quick step-by-step you can follow to make sure you never lose your progress.

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A guide to backing up your Minecraft world

Backups are an excellent way to keep your in-game worlds safe. (Image via Minecraft)

1) Backing up your Minecraft world

1. First, Minecraft players will need to navigate to the game's single-player menu. From there, you should find the world that you would like to back up.
2. Select the world that you'd like to back up and click on the 'Edit' button. This button will be towards the bottom left of your screen.
3. A list of options will appear on your screen. One of these options will be the 'Make Backup' button. Click on this button.
4. Once you've done this, Minecraft should automatically start backing up your game. Keep in mind that this can take time and that larger backups may take several minutes to complete.
5. Once the backup has been completed, you will be taken back to Minecraft's single-player game selection menu.

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2) Restoring your Minecraft world

Pets are just one thing that players can lose if they don't back up their worlds. (Image via Minecraft)

Now that you have your Minecraft world backed up, here is a quick and easy guide that you can follow to restore your game:

1. Select the world which you have backed up.
2. Click on the 'Edit' button.
3. Navigate to the 'Open Backups Folder' button. Your backup files will be in this folder. They should be in .zip file format.
4. Find the backup file for the world that you would like to restore. Make a copy of it.
5. Go to your Minecraft 'saves' menu.
6. On Mac OS, this can be found in Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves.
7. If you're running Windows, you can locate this folder by hitting Win+R and typing '%appdata%\.minecraft\saves' into the search bar that pops up.
8. Once you've located your game's 'saves' folder, you can paste your backup file into it. Be sure to unzip the file.
9. Close and reopen Minecraft. Your world should now be restored.