Reset a Minecraft worldStart a new season without losing everything

Published on October 20, 2026

First: back up the old world

A reset is final. Before you delete anything, download the complete world folder via WebFTP or SFTP - see Create backups.

This is more than caution: old seasons are valuable to communities. You can put them back later as a museum world, export builds or simply look at how things used to be. A deleted world, on the other hand, is gone - there are no automatic backups; everything is in your hands.

Variant 1: new world via level-name

The cleanest route, because the old world is kept. You simply change the world's name in server.properties:

level-name=season4

1. Stop the server.
2. Set level-name to a new name.
3. Optionally specify a level-seed - see Change the seed.
4. Start the server - it creates the new world automatically.

The old world folder stays untouched on the server. Going back is therefore possible at any time: switch level-name back, done. Just keep an eye on storage - old worlds add up.

Variant 2: reset only individual dimensions

Often it is not the whole world that is exhausted, but only the Nether: all portals stand, the fortresses are looted, but the overworld bases should stay.

Dimensions are stored as separate subfolders in the world directory - the Nether as DIM-1, the End as DIM1. If you delete one of them with the server stopped, it is regenerated the next time someone enters it.

• Warn players in advance. Everything players built or stored in the Nether is gone afterwards.
• Portals shift. Existing overworld portals lead to new places after the reset.
• Back up the folder first, in case the decision was too hasty after all.

Resetting the End brings the dragon back - a popular way to give a community a shared goal without touching the bases.

Variant 3: regenerate individual areas

Sometimes only part of the map should be fresh - for example because a new Minecraft update brings new biomes or structures that do not appear in already explored chunks.

To do this, you delete the region files of the affected areas selectively. That is the trickiest route of all: wrongly deleted regions take player builds with them, and the seams between old and new often look ugly on the surface.

Anyone planning this must back up beforehand and be clear about which coordinates are affected. For most communities, a new world via level-name is the better compromise.

What the reset does not touch

A world reset only affects the world data. These things live outside and are kept:

• Whitelist and bans - whitelist.json, banned-players.json.
• Operator list - ops.json, see Become OP.
• Plugins and their configuration - including ranks and permissions.
• server.properties, except for the changed level-name.

Watch out for plugin data tied to coordinates: claim regions from griefing protection point into nothing after the reset and need cleaning up. The same applies to player inventories if an inventory plugin stores them separately per world - see Multiple worlds.

Frequently asked questions