How to Start a Fresh World on Your Minecraft Server

Sometimes a world has run its course: the area around spawn is stripped, everyone has everything, or you want to start again on a new seed. Your server can generate a brand new world in a couple of minutes, and you can keep the old one so nothing is really lost.

1Back Up the World You Have

• Log in to your game panel and click your Minecraft server.
• Open Backups and take a manual backup. See how to create a manual backup.
• This is what lets you change your mind, so do not skip it.

2Stop the Server

• Go to Console and press Stop.
• Wait until it is fully offline. A running server saves the world as it shuts down, which would undo the next step.

3Set Anything the New World Needs

• Some settings only apply to a world when it is generated, so now is the moment.
• Open Files and edit server.properties. level-seed= sets the seed, and level-type= picks the generator (minecraft:normal, minecraft:flat, minecraft:amplified, minecraft:large_biomes).
• Leave level-seed empty for a random world.
• Also worth setting now: gamemode and difficulty.

4Move the Old World Aside

• Still in Files, look in the root folder for world, and on most setups world_nether and world_the_end beside it.
• Rename world to something like world-old, and do the same for the other two. Renaming keeps them on the server; deleting does not.
• The server generates a fresh world on the next start because the folder it expects is no longer there.

5Start the Server

• Press Start.
• The first start takes longer than usual because the world is being generated. The console reports Preparing spawn area with a percentage.
• Once it reaches Done, join and look around your new world.

Good to Know

• Your address does not change. Same IP, same port. Nobody needs new connection details.
• Everyone starts over. Inventories, builds and progress live in the world folder you just renamed. Tell your players before you do it.
• Keep or delete the old folders later. They still take disk space. Once you are sure you will not go back, delete world-old to free it up.
• A different seed needs a fresh world. Changing level-seed on an existing world does nothing. That is why this article exists.

Finished

Your server is running a brand new world. If you would rather play someone else's world than a generated one, see how to install a map.