Backups and restores

A backup is a saved copy of your server. If something breaks, you can put the server back.

What is saved, and when

We make backups for you:

• once a day, on days the server was played,
• each time your server goes to sleep, and
• before every change your AI makes, and before big changes you make yourself (a version switch, a world reset, a world import, a rollback). These are called snapshots.

We also make one before a world reset, before an upload that replaces a world, and before your server moves to a newer build of its Minecraft version.

You can also make one yourself any time: press Back up now on the Backups page. The list shows each backup's time, what kind it is (for example Daily backup, When it went to sleep, Before an AI change), whether it covers everything, only the worlds or only the configs, and its size.

When your server is running, a backup of its worlds first has the server save everything and hold off saving until the copy is made, so no world file is caught half written. Players keep playing the whole time, and saving starts again as soon as the backup is done.

There are three sizes of backup:

• Settings: server.properties, your config files and your plugins folder. Quick, made before settings and plugin changes.
• Worlds: every world on the server.
• Everything: the whole server folder, without caches the server makes again by itself.

How many you keep

• Free: the last 3 backups, plus the last 3 snapshots taken before a change, plus one pinned known-good copy. Backups your AI asks for and backups made by a timer are counted on their own (the last 3 of them), so they never push out your daily, sleep or own backups.
• Paid plans: everything from the last 14, 30 or 60 days, plus pinned copies: 14 days for 2 to 3 GB, 30 days for 4 to 7 GB and 60 days for 8 GB and up.

Backups are stored encrypted, each server with its own key, and only the parts that changed take new space, so keeping many is cheap. The machines that run servers can add backups but can never delete them or write over them, and the storage keeps every earlier version, so a broken machine cannot wipe your history. The key to that storage never sits where your server's files or plugins could reach it.

The pinned known-good copy

Each time your server goes to sleep cleanly, with no crash in the last hour, we keep that backup as the known-good copy and pin it. A pinned backup is never removed to make room. Snapshots taken before AI changes can never push it out, so however many changes your AI makes, you can always go back to a copy that worked.

You can pin a backup yourself with Pin. On the free plan there is one pin: pinning a backup yourself replaces the known-good copy, and we stop moving the pin while yours is there. Paid plans can pin up to 5 backups, plus the known-good copy. Unpin a backup and it follows the normal rules again. Only you and your team can pin or unpin; your AI cannot.

Download

Open a backup's more button and choose Download as zip. We pack it and the download starts when it is ready. The link works for an hour, and only for the person who asked for it: other team members see that a download was made, not the link.

Restore

There are three ways to bring something back.

• Roll back. Puts the live server back as it was in that backup. You can roll back everything, only the worlds, or only configs and plugins. A snapshot of now is taken first, so a roll back can be undone.
• Restore some files. Browse inside the backup, tick the files or folders you want, and put them back. Everything else stays as it is.
• Restore into a new copy. Makes a new server from the backup with its own address. It uses one of your server slots, and your live server is not touched. Good for looking before you decide.

Your AI can roll back too if you set that to Allow; it starts on Ask.

A restore never writes straight over your server: the backup is unpacked to one side first, checked, and then put in place. Shortcut files (links) in a backup come back as links and are never followed.

If one item in a backup cannot be put back (for example a shortcut that a plugin was changing while the backup ran), that item is skipped and everything else is restored. The result lists what was skipped.

Restoring is never a surprise: the panel tells you what will change and asks you to confirm with the real names, for example "Roll back Mossgrove SMP to Yesterday 19:22?".

Undo an AI change

The AI page lists everything your AI did, in plain words. Next to each change it made, Undo puts the server back to the snapshot taken just before it. An action can be undone once.

Copy a server

Duplicate copies your server as it is now into a new server. Like a restore into a new server, it goes into the owner's free server slot and never spends credits.

Leaving with your files

You can take everything with you at any time: worlds, configs and your own plugins in one download. See Your account.