To access your local worlds for Java edition, you first need to navigate to the directory where your files are stored.
Windows: Press Win+R, type %appdata%\.minecraft\saves, and press Ok.
MacOS: Open Finder, then paste: ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft in the Search box.
Linux: ~ is your home directory, usually /home/YOURNAME, so ~/.minecraft would be /home/YOURNAME/.minecraft/.
Each device has a specific directory for accessing local worlds from Bedrock edition. Let's break it down:
Windows: Press Win+R, type %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds, and press Ok.
Android & Amazon Fire OS: Worlds are located in /sdcard/games/com.mojang/minecraftWorlds. Look for the folder named games.
Apple iOS: Apps/com.mojang.minecraftpe/Documents/games/com.mojang/minecraftWorlds. Look for the folder named games.
Xbox: Minecraft for Xbox One files are stored locally on the console. If you're signed in with an Xbox Live account, your worlds will be backed up to Xbox One cloud game saves. You can also use a file explorer (paid) and follow this video to access your worlds.
PS4: Exporting worlds on PS4 may involve getting a realms subscription, uploading to realms, downloading to your Windows 10 PC or another device, and then exporting to the server. There is currently no method for locally accessing these files.
Nintendo Switch: There's currently no method for locally accessing files.
In this tutorial, we'll use Windows and import a Java world. The process is similar for most devices: locate the folder, zip it, and upload it to the server. Each folder represents a world on your device. To find the specific world you want, check the levelname.txt file in each folder. In this case, I want to upload "The Underground Kingdom."
Right-click the folder and select "Add to Archive." Name the zip file and ensure the "Archive format" is ZIP, then click Ok. On phones, use the archive option or an app to archive your world folder.
Now, upload this zip file to your server. If it's over 100MB, it's best to use sFTP for a proper upload. Upload it to /home/container, where your home directory usually is.
For Bedrock, upload to /home/container/worlds.
We'll use web upload since our world is under 100MB. Then, extract the folder to the same directory by right-clicking and unarchiving.
Finally, load this world by setting the level-name in server.properties to the folder name. In our case, it's The_Underground_Kingdom.
Once saved, restart the server, and your uploaded world should load in!
After loading your custom world, if you no longer need the default worlds (world, world_nether, and world_the_end), you can delete them. They don't automatically delete after loading your custom world.
Updated on: 17/06/2026
