Import an existing world

If you already have a world — from another host, from a local install, or from a friend — you can bring it onto your TrueTick server instead of starting fresh. The import control lives on the server's Settings tab, under Version & world. It's a full replace, not a merge, so read through before you upload.

Step 1: Stop the server

The import control is disabled while the server is running — you'll see "Stop the server to import a world." next to it. Stop the server using the controls at the top of the server page, then come back to Settings → Version & world.

Step 2: Pack the world as .zip or .tar.gz

The uploader accepts .zip, .tar.gz, or .tgz archives — nothing else. Pack your world folder (and anything else you want to bring over) into one of those formats before you start the upload.

There's a size limit: 512 MB per archive. That's the same cap the control plane enforces on its side, so an archive that's rejected in the browser would be rejected on upload anyway. If your world is close to or over that, trim what you don't need (old region files for areas nobody visits, leftover crash-report or log folders) before compressing.

Step 3: Open Settings → Version & world and pick the archive

On the server page, open Settings → Version & world. Under the World heading you'll find the import control — use its file picker to select your packed archive. Nothing is uploaded yet at this point — picking a file just queues it.

Step 4: Confirm the replacement

Starting the import brings up a confirmation dialog, because this step is destructive: it replaces all of /data, not just the world folder. That means:

• All existing world data is permanently overwritten.
• Configs, plugins, and mods currently on the server are removed.

If there's anything on the current server you might want back — configs you tuned, a plugin's saved data, the current world itself — download a backup from the Backups tab before you confirm. The import does not keep a copy of what it replaces.

Once you confirm, the archive uploads and is extracted in place of the existing /data.

Step 5: Start the server

After a successful import you'll see "World imported — start the server to load it." The import itself doesn't start anything — use the Start control at the top of the server page to load the new world.

Troubleshooting

Import button won't do anything / stays disabled. The server has to be stopped first — this isn't optional. Stop it from the top of the server page, then retry.

"Pick a .zip or .tar.gz archive first" means no file was selected, or the file picker was cleared — pick the archive again before confirming.

"Archive is over the 512 MB limit" means the file needs to be smaller before it can be accepted. Strip unnecessary data (unused region files, logs, crash reports) and re-pack.

"Import failed" after uploading. This can mean the connection dropped mid-upload or the control plane rejected the archive — check your connection and try again. If it keeps failing, contact support with the error text shown on the page.

I imported the wrong thing. If you took a backup before confirming, restore it from Server → Backups & data → Backups to get back to where you were; see the backups article for how restore works.