Nether and End folders on Paper vs Vanilla Minecraft servers
Why Paper stores the Nether and End in world_nether and world_the_end, where Vanilla keeps them, and how to move worlds between the two.
Updated · 2 min read
Vanilla and Forge store the Nether and End inside the main world folder. Paper (and other Bukkit-based servers) store each dimension in its own top-level folder. Knowing this matters whenever you upload, download, reset or back up a world.
Folder layouts
| Dimension | Vanilla, Forge, singleplayer | Paper |
|---|---|---|
| Overworld | world/ | world/ |
| Nether | world/DIM-1/ | world_nether/DIM-1/ |
| End | world/DIM1/ | world_the_end/DIM1/ |
If you changed level-name, replace world with your name. For example level-name=survival gives survival_nether and survival_the_end on Paper.
The Paper overworld folder also holds shared data such as player inventories (playerdata), advancements and stats. The Nether and End folders only hold their own dimension data.
Moving a Vanilla world to Paper
When Paper starts and finds a vanilla-style world with no world_nether or world_the_end folder, it migrates the DIM-1 and DIM1 data into new folders. You will see migration messages in the console on first start.
- Upload the world as described in upload an existing world.
- Delete any existing
world_netherandworld_the_endfolders first, or Paper will load those instead of migrating. - Start the server and check the console.
Moving a Paper world to Vanilla or singleplayer
Nothing migrates automatically in this direction. Do it by hand:
- Stop the server.
- Move
world_nether/DIM-1intoworld/. - Move
world_the_end/DIM1intoworld/. - Use the
worldfolder on your Vanilla server or in singleplayer.
Resetting one dimension
| Reset | Paper | Vanilla, Forge |
|---|---|---|
| Nether | Delete world_nether | Delete world/DIM-1 |
| End | Delete world_the_end | Delete world/DIM1 |
Stop the server first. The dimension is regenerated on the next start. Resetting the End also resets the dragon fight state.
Backups
On Paper, back up all three folders together. Restoring only world can leave the Nether out of sync with portals in the overworld. See back up your Minecraft world.
Disabling the Nether or End
On Paper, allow-nether in server.properties controls the Nether, and settings.allow-end in bukkit.yml controls the End:
settings:
allow-end: false
Disabling a dimension stops it loading but does not delete its folder. On the newest Minecraft versions, Mojang has been moving some server.properties settings into game rules, so if allow-nether is missing from your file, type /gamerule in-game and use tab completion to find the Nether rule for your version.