Minecraft World Management

Configure your Minecraft server’s world settings (seeds, world types, game rules, difficulty, world borders, and multi-world setups) by editing server.properties or using in-game commands.

In single player, Minecraft gives you a GUI for all of these options when creating a world. On a server, you configure them through files and commands instead.

Resetting Your World

Delete only the world folders to get a fresh world. Your plugins, mods, and config files stay in place.

1. In the Game Control Panel sidebar, click Console
2. Click Stop and wait for the server to show as Offline
3. Take a manual backup of your world folders
4. In the sidebar, click File Manager and delete the world folder named after level-name in server.properties (world by default). On Spigot, and on Paper before 26.1, also delete world_nether and world_the_end
5. To pick a seed or world type for the new world, set level-seed or level-type in server.properties now (press CTRL+F to search). See the sections below
6. Go back to Console and click Start

The server generates a new world on startup. Backing Up Your Minecraft Server lists which world folders your server software uses.

Kept	Lost
server.properties, ops.json, whitelist.json, banned-players.json, banned-ips.json	Terrain and builds in every dimension
plugins (Paper and Spigot) or mods and config (Fabric, Forge, NeoForge)	Player inventories, ender chests, stats, and advancements (stored in the world folder)
Server Options such as RAM and Java version	Game rules (stored in level.dat)

Plugins keep their own data in their folder inside plugins (for example CoreProtect’s database.db), so that data survives the reset. Delete a plugin’s data too if you want it gone.

When to wipe everything instead

If you want “nothing from the last” (no plugins, mods, or configs either), use FORMAT in the Edition Installer under Advanced > Server Actions, or FORMAT when you install a pack with the Modpack Manager. Both delete every file on the server and cannot be undone, so back up first. See How to Reset Your Server World Without Losing Settings for how the two compare.

Using a Specific Seed on a New World

1. Stop your server
2. Delete the existing world folder(s)
3. Open server.properties and find the level-seed property
4. Paste your desired seed as the value
5. Start your server

A new world will generate using the seed you provided. If you delete the world again later, it will regenerate with the same seed.

Setting the World Type on a New World

1. Stop your server
2. Delete the existing world folder(s)
3. Open server.properties and find the level-type property
4. Set it to one of the values from the Minecraft Wiki. For example, minecraft/:large_biomes for Large Biomes (make sure to escape the : with a /)
5. Start your server

The new world will generate with the type you selected. Like seeds, deleting the world and restarting will regenerate it with the same settings.

Managing Game Rules on an Existing World

Game rules modify in-game behavior and are changed using the /gamerule command from the server console or by a player with Operator status.

1. Run /gamerule <rule> <value>. For example, /gamerule waterSourceConversion false to disable infinite water
2. The change takes effect instantly with no restart needed

You can find the full list of available game rules and what they do on the Minecraft Wiki.

Changing World Difficulty on an Existing World

1. Run /difficulty <level> from the console or as an Operator. For example, /difficulty easy
2. The change takes effect instantly with no restart needed

You can also change difficulty by editing the difficulty property in server.properties, but changes made there require a server restart.

For details on what each difficulty level changes (mob damage, effects, spawning behavior), see the Minecraft Wiki.

Setting a World Border

The /worldborder command sets a visible boundary that prevents players from traveling past a defined area. Run these commands from the server console or as an Operator.

Set the border size

1. Run /worldborder set <diameter> where <diameter> is the total width in blocks. For example, /worldborder set 10000 creates a border that extends 5,000 blocks in each direction from the center
2. The border appears immediately as a blue-tinted wall at the edges

The border size is a diameter (total width), not a radius. A 10,000-block border covers -5,000 to +5,000 from the center.

Move the border center

The border is centered on 0, 0 by default. To move it:

1. Run /worldborder center <x> <z> with the coordinates you want. For example, /worldborder center 500 -200

Shrink or expand the border over time

You can make the border change size gradually:

1. Run /worldborder set <diameter> <seconds>. For example, /worldborder set 5000 600 shrinks (or expands) the border to 5,000 blocks over 10 minutes

This is commonly used for UHC or event servers where the border closes in over time.

Check the current border

1. Run /worldborder get to see the current border width

Set border per dimension

On Paper and its forks, the border is shared across dimensions by default. To set a different border for the Nether or End, use the execute command:

1. Run execute in minecraft:the_nether run worldborder set <diameter>
2. Run execute in minecraft:the_end run worldborder set <diameter>

Custom Generator Settings for a SuperFlat World

The generator-settings property in server.properties controls SuperFlat layer configuration, but there is no established generator for the format it needs. The easier approach is to configure the world in single player and upload it:

1. Create a SuperFlat world in single player and customize the layers, structures, and settings to your liking
2. Upload the world folder to your server’s root directory using SFTP
3. If you’re running Spigot or a fork, convert the world from Vanilla to Spigot format using our guide
4. Make sure the level-name property in server.properties matches the name of the uploaded world folder
5. Start your server

New chunks generated on the server will use the generator settings from the uploaded world. However, if you delete the world file, the server will fall back to its default settings.

Importing an Existing World

1. Stop your server
2. Upload your world folder to the server’s root directory using SFTP
3. Make sure the world folder contains the regions folder and level.dat directly inside it (not in sub-folders)
4. Open server.properties and set level-name to the name of your uploaded world folder
5. Start your server

For more detailed instructions, see our dedicated article on Importing a World, which walks through the SFTP upload method step by step.

Switching Between Worlds

With Vanilla

1. Stop your server
2. Open server.properties and change the level-name property to the name of the world folder you want to load
3. Start your server

The server will look for a world folder matching that name. If none exists, it creates a new one. You can switch back to a previous world at any time by changing level-name to the old folder name.

With MultiVerse (Spigot)

MultiVerse is a long-standing plugin that lets you create, load, and switch between multiple worlds without restarting your server. Each world is a separate dimension with shared player data by default.

1. Download MultiVerse Core
2. Follow the installation instructions
3. Use MultiVerse commands to create and manage worlds in-game

MultiVerse also has addons for separate inventories per world, nether portal routing between worlds, and more. Check the MultiVerse wiki for full setup details.