When Minecraft releases new updates, you may be keen to update your existing world to experience all of the new features. Updating your singleplayer world is relatively easy, but you should make sure to create a backup in case any issues arise.
How you backup and update your world depends on if you play Minecraft: Bedrock Edition or Minecraft: Java Edition.
Important
You can only update existing worlds to newer versions of Minecraft. Loading an existing world in a version older than the one it was generated with will cause world corruption issues.
# Updating a Java Edition World
- Open Minecraft and navigate to the Singleplayer tab
- Select the world you want to update and click Edit
- Relaunch the game in the newer game version, then join your world
- In the menu that appears, select I know what I’m doing!
Your world will now load the new version of Minecraft in newly-generated chunks. If you wish to locate the backup you took later on, you can do so by clicking the Open Backups Folder button in the Edit menu.
# Updating a Bedrock Edition World
- Open the game and click Play
- Click the Edit button next to the world you would like to update
- Scroll to the bottom and select Copy World to make a backup copy
Alternatively to making a world copy, you can also click the Export World button to download a copy of the Minecraft world file itself to your computer.
- After creating a backup, join your world normally
Your world will now load the new version of Minecraft in newly-generated chunks!
