Griefing, a faulty plugin or a single mistyped command can wreck your world in a moment. The good news: with a proper backup setup, getting back takes minutes. Here's what each of the three protection layers does, how long it's kept, and which one to rely on when.

1) Manual backups — always within reach

From the Backups section you can take a snapshot with one click at any time. A backup contains your worlds, your plugins or mods and your configuration files in a single archive. It can be taken while the server runs; the system flushes the world to disk first, so you never get a half-written copy.

You can label a backup. One taken before a big change and given a meaningful name is what lets you tell, months later, which snapshot was which.

You can keep up to 10 manual backups at a time; to take an eleventh you'll need to delete an old one. Manual backups are independent of the automatic ones and are never cleared on their own.

2) File Protection — automatic and independent of the server

File Protection keeps your world in cloud storage independent of the machine your server runs on. It is on for every server: your server is backed up automatically every day and only the most recent automatic backup is kept, with older ones cleared to free space. All of your manual backups stay.

File Protection is on and free on every server; it costs nothing and cannot be turned off. The only limit is your server's own disk space: backups accumulate until that space is full, after which no new restore point is taken and your existing backups stay untouched. The panel shows how much space you are using live, and you can free some up by deleting backups you no longer need.

There is nothing to switch on or off, and nothing to pay: protection is part of every server.

3) Cloud restore points — a half-hour window

On servers with File Protection on, a cloud backup is taken roughly every 30 minutes while the server runs. That narrows the data-loss window to about half an hour: in an unexpected failure you lose at most the last thirty minutes.

Points stack in order on top of the daily full backup, so when restoring you choose which moment to return to. No new points are produced while the server is off — an idle server takes no unnecessary space.

How to restore

Pick a snapshot in the Backups section and press Restore. The server is stopped safely, your current worlds, plugins and settings are replaced with the state in that backup, and the server restarts.

Remember this is irreversible: restoring writes over the current state. That's why taking a manual backup right before a restore is a good habit — if you realise you went back to the wrong point, you can step forward again.

The operation takes anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on backup size. Players drop briefly while it runs.

The safety net when you change software

When you change server software (from Fabric to Spigot, say), all content from the current family is automatically saved into a profile. Return to the same software and your worlds and plugins come back as they were.

That net does its job, but don't make it your only one: it covers software changes only, and won't recover a deleted world or a corrupted file.

How long are backups kept? What if I delete the server?

Read this section carefully, because it's the most misunderstood one. If you permanently delete your server, all backups belonging to it are deleted too. Backups live in storage independent of the machine your server runs on, but they're tied to the server record; when the server record goes, so does the backup record.

So before deleting a server, we recommend downloading what you want to keep to your own computer. You can download a snapshot from the Backups section, a world from the Worlds section, or individual files from the Files section. Deletion cannot be undone.

There is one more retention rule: a server that is never started for 30 days is archived and deleted. You're warned by email before that happens, and the archive waits a while longer so you can bring the server back. If you're taking a long break, starting the server occasionally — or downloading your world — is the safest route.

Which one, when?

  • Installing a new plugin or mod — take a manual backup first. If something breaks, one click brings you back.
  • Changing server software or version — take a manual backup; the profile safety net is already in play as well.
  • Running a lasting community server — the half-hour restore window makes recovery after griefing straightforward; add a manual backup before any big change.
  • Taking a break for months — leave File Protection on, or download and store your world.
  • Decided to shut down and delete the server — download your world first. There is no recovery after deletion.

Good practice

  • Give backups meaningful labels — write the reason, not the date (before-big-update, for instance).
  • Actually TEST a restore, even once a year. An untested backup isn't a backup.
  • If you suspect griefing, stop the server first and think second. While it runs, new points keep being produced and your decision window narrows.
  • Download a copy of an important world to your own machine now and then. A cloud copy and a local copy don't replace each other; they complement each other.

Data loss usually isn't irreversible — usually it's one backup away. You never pay extra for backups; for what is and isn't billed, see the pricing guide.