Backup and Run Your Minecraft Server with Batch Files

Are you getting tired of how complex it is to start or backup your Minecraft server? What if there was simply a file or two that you can just double-click and get on with your game? Well, you’ve come to the right place. You see, I was ALSO very tired of all the copy and paste that I was being made to do. Not to mention, Windows CMD, and even running java commands are a little scary to work with if you have never touched it before.

What Can We Do About It

To help Minecraft players, I created a file that you can double-click to run your server! As a bonus, I added another file that helps to backup your server as well. You can think of it as a “quick save” before you do something crazy (like oh you know, burning your friend’s house or attacking the nether piggies).

As a disclaimer, this is a solution for Microsoft Windows users only, but if you have a Mac and you’re interested, leave a comment down below and I’ll work on one for you too!

Setting Up Your Minecraft Server For the First Time

Note: You can skip this section if you already have your Minecraft Server all setup!

Just so you know, we are simply following the official Minecraft Website’s instructions for this one. Even though it might be tricky, if you complete this tutorial you will only have to do it once!

1. Download the “.jar” file from the Minecraft Website here
2. Move the “.jar” file to the desired folder, let’s name it “Minecraft Server”
3. Shift+Right-Click in the folder and click on “Open PowerShell Window Here”

1. Open the Powershell window, and paste into it the command that the Minecraft Website link from step #1 provided. For example today the website is showing this one command below.

java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.1.16.5.jar nogui

1. Press Enter. The Powershell window will take some time and likely give you the message of “I need you to accept the Eula please”. So just go back into your Minecraft Server folder and you will see the new EULA file, open it and set the value in there from “false” to “true” and save the file

1. Repeat Steps #3 and #4, and the PowerShell Window should show you a progress % number as it loads up your server. When you see the word “Done!” then that means the server is running and ready to play!!
2. When you look at your Minecraft Server folder it should now have a bunch of files. The “world” folder is the one you need to backup as it holds all of your worlds and player data.

Keep reading to know about a way to make your life easier in running this server for next time.

Anyways, Here Are Instructions On Starting Your Server The Easy Way

Here are the steps:

1. Download the files here on my GitHub and click “Download Zip” (or just clone it)
2. Extract the three files to your existing Minecraft Server Folder (if you don’t have this yet, simply follow the steps in the section above)

1. To Run your server, double click on “START_SERVER.bat”!
2. You should see a window pop up and you will know the server is ready once you see the word “Done!”

And that’s all! To stop your server safely (kind of like pulling out a USB safely), just type:

/stop

into the server window and give it some time to close on its own.

Instructions on Backing Up Your Server The Easy Way

Assuming you have downloaded my files from the above section, we can continue to talk about how to backup your server!

How to Backup

1. To Backup your server, double click on “BACKUP_SERVER.bat”
2. You will be given the option to use a default folder location for your backups, or to specify your own folder path. (if choosing the second option, make sure the folder you want is already created).
3. If you chose the default folder location, you should see a new folder created named “SERVER_BACKUPS” appear in your Minecraft Server folder
4. Your preferred backup folder location will be stored in a generated file named “backup_server_settings.txt”. You can feel free to edit this file to a new folder path at any time.
5. The backup folder will hold all the different versions of your “world” folder based on the date, and time.
6. Repeat step #1 every time you want to backup your server! You can think of it as a “quick-save”.

How to Restore a Backup

1. Go into your “SERVER_BACKUPS” or relevant backup folder.
2. Choose a backup that you want to restore to.
3. Paste the backup into your Minecraft Server folder.
4. Delete or move your current “world” folder
5. Rename your backup to “world”
6. Done!

Hope this helped! If you have any questions please comment down below.