Wondering how to roll back a Minecraft server to a previous state? Well, now you can with the help of this guide! All you need is a backup of your server and a few minutes of your time.
Rolling back a server is especially useful if you accidentally delete something or if someone hacks your server. It can also be used to undo changes that you don’t like.
Plus, rolling back the server will not affect any of the world data or players’ data, but it will reset any changes that have been made to the server files.
How To Restore The Minecraft Backup
Restoring a backup is the only way to roll back a Minecraft server if you have not already installed some plugins such as “Core Protect” that can do rollbacks for you.
Unfortunately, if you have neither, you cannot roll back a minecraft server.
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Many server providers offer an automatic backup service, and you can find them out by checking their web page or contacting customer support. If you have the Core Protect plugin it allows you to roll back changes based on a range of configurable options.
Plus, if there’s been any server griefing, it will allow you to identify which user changed which block.
Let’s now look at how to restore the backup. There are two methods to do that, and we will break down both of these.
Using The Hosting Control Panel
I’ll assume you are using a hosting provider that’s designed for running minecraft servers. I’ll be using shockbyte for this example, but the process is the same for all hosts.
First, go to the shockbyte control panel and head to the server. Then STOP the server before you do anything else as a precautionary measure. Now locate the backed-up file in your computer and ensure it is ready to restore. Finally, before proceeding further, you must delete the server’s existing worlds.
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Now go to the shockbyte control panel, and click files and the backup in the left sidebar. Once the page loads, in the same left sidebar, click restore.
If your backed-up files are on the server, a message will pop up asking you to confirm which backup file you want to restore. Select the file you want to restore and click ok.
Next, go back to your server’s control panel and in the left sidebar, click console.
After a few minutes, there will be a message stating your backup files have been unpacked. Now you can restart the server and roll back to the game where you left and saved the backup.
Using An FTP Client
For this method, you can use a free FTP client like FileZilla or WinSCP.
Before restoring your backup file, you need to check what kind of backup you have. Ensure that your backup files have all the server files and plugins. You can check this by right-clicking on the backup file and clicking extract.
After making sure you have all the server files and plugins, you need to delete everything on the server before you restore the backup. Because if you don’t delete them, they will conflict with the backup files, and restoration may not be successful.
Once you delete the appropriate files and worlds that match the files you are restoring using the FTP client, upload the backup to the server. Once the upload is complete, go back to your server’s control panel and check the world name and server type fields to ensure that you restored the correct backup file.
Now head to your console in the left sidebar and click to restart your server. After a few seconds, the server should begin the restarting process. You should not see any errors on the console.
Congratulations! You have successfully rolled back your minecraft server!
If you don’t have the backup yet and if you are not too late, follow these steps to make a backup of your minecraft server.
How To Create A Backup Of Your Minecraft Server?
There are two ways to create Minecraft backups on your server, automatically and manually. Let me give you a breakdown of each.
How To Manually Back Up Your Server?
Creating a manual backup is not as difficult as it sounds. First, go to the server control panel of the Minecraft server and STOP the server to ensure everything you have done so far is saved, so you don’t lose any progress.
After that, access your server directory using an FTP client. Once connected to the server via FTP, select all the files from your server’s leading directory and copy them into a new folder where you desire to save the backup.
Depending on the size of your server and the plugins you have installed, it may take up to a few minutes to copy all the files. Once you have completed copying the files, restart the server from the server control panel and that’s it!
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You just successfully created a Minecraft server backup manually. Easy peasy.
How To Automatically Back Up Your Minecraft Server?
This is a lot easier than creating a manual backup. Go to the advanced option in your server and schedule a new task. Then create a new task and name it as your wish.
In the drop down menu, set the status to scheduled and give the backup interval of 14 days. You can even create a daily backup if you want. And for the command options, select create backup and click create option.
That’s all, you have created an automatic backup in your server directory every 14 days.
Bottom Line
The bad news is – there is no way to roll back the Minecraft server if you do not have a backup saved. Therefore, the most important thing is to regularly create backups either automatically or manually.
In my experience, it is better to create backups automatically so that you do not have to worry, even if you forget to create backups manually. The restoration is relatively easy if you have the backup files available with you and all you have to do is follow the methods we outlined.
If you still have a problem restoring the backups, please let me know by a comment, and I will try to find a solution.
