Moving from another host. What do I need to bring?

Bring your world, your settings, your admin and ban lists, and your mods with their settings. Leave the game’s own files behind, because your new server already has them. Every game keeps these in different places, so the guide for your game below lists exactly which files to copy.

Before you start

1. Don’t cancel the old server yet. Keep it until your world is running here.
2. Stop the old server. Games keep their save files open and write to them as they run, so a copy taken mid-save can be broken. Stopping the server makes it save properly first. Minecraft can pause saving instead (save-off, then save-all flush, then save-on once you’ve copied), but stopping is simpler.
3. Download everything from the old host. Grab the whole server folder, not just the world. It’s your backup if anything goes wrong.

What to bring

• The world or save. This is the bit you can’t get back.
• Settings files. The game’s config, so the server runs the way it did.
• Admin, ban and whitelist lists. So your admins are still admins and banned players stay banned.
• Mods and plugins, with their configs and data. Plugin data often holds things like player balances or permissions.

What to leave behind

• The game’s own files. Your server here installs and updates the game itself.
• The old host’s ports and IP address. Your server here has its own, and old ones left in a config file can stop it starting or stop players connecting.
• Start scripts from the old host. They point at folders that don’t exist here.

Three things that trip people up

1. The version has to match. Move a world onto the same version of the game, or a newer one. Most games can’t load a world from a newer version, and Rust’s forced wipes change the save format, so a save from before a wipe won’t load after it.
2. The world name has to match. Most games quietly make a brand new world if the name in the settings doesn’t match the world you uploaded. If you start up to a fresh map, this is almost always why.
3. Mods have to match. A world built with mods usually needs the same mods, at versions that suit the game version.

Your game

• Rust
• Minecraft
• ARK: Survival Evolved
• Palworld
• Valheim
• 7 Days to Die
• Enshrouded
• Satisfactory
• V Rising

Once it’s running, check it’s your world (your base, your players), and only then cancel the old server.