Moving your server from another host

You already have a server somewhere else — a panel with FTP access, a monthly subscription, a world in progress nobody wants to start over. The move comes down to one idea: you can upload everything here before switching anything on, and therefore without paying a single hour just to copy files.

This guide applies to every game in the catalogue. It covers what to bring, what to leave behind, and the order that avoids nasty surprises.

What to bring

Three things, rarely more:

1. The world — the save folder. It's the only truly irreplaceable piece.
2. The mods and their config files, if your game is modded. The exact same versions.
3. Your server config file, if you spent time on it (game rules, difficulty, harvest rates).

What not to bring: the server binaries, the game libraries, the logs, the caches, the old panel's update folders. All of that is reinstalled cleanly on every start — copying it only bloats your archive and lengthens your first boot.

Step 1 — Stop the old server before you copy

This is the classic mistake, and it's a silent one. A world copied while the server is running can be copied half-written: what is still in memory isn't on disk. Depending on the game, shut the server down cleanly, or force a save and wait for its confirmation before downloading.

While you're there, write down the exact game version you were running. You'll need it at step 5, and it's much harder to find afterwards.

Step 2 — Get the files out from your previous host

Most hosts give you two routes: the panel's web file manager or an SFTP/FTP client like FileZilla. Here are the specifics for the most common panels:

On Nitrado

1. Stop the server from the web dashboard.
2. Recommended method: In the left-hand navigation, click "Backups", trigger a manual backup, and download the resulting .tar.gz or .zip archive directly to your computer.
3. Via web file manager or FTP: Head to "File Browser". For most games, the save folder is located under games/<id>/ (e.g. minecraft, palworld/Pal/Saved/SaveGames, valheim). For standard FTP, use the host listed on your server dashboard (niXXXXXX_X.intern.nitrado.net, port 21).

On G-Portal

1. Stop the server from the administration console.
2. Under "Tools" > "Backups", generate a backup or click the download icon on the latest automatic backup.
3. Via SFTP: Check the "Status" tab for your SFTP credentials (note that the port is often 22 or 2822). Download the entire save subfolder (e.g. ShooterGame/Saved, Saved/SaveGames).

On a Pterodactyl-based panel (BisectHosting, Shockbyte, Apex...)

1. Stop the server.
2. In the "File Manager", check the box next to your world save folder (e.g. world for Minecraft, SaveGames for other games).
3. Click the "Archive" (or "Compress") button in the top action bar. The panel will compress the entire folder into a single archive (.tar.gz or .zip) on the server in seconds.
4. Click the three dots next to the created archive and select "Download". This step is crucial: downloading a single archive avoids transferring tens of thousands of individual chunk files, which is ten times faster and eliminates the risk of corrupted files mid-transfer.
5. If you prefer SFTP, look closely in "Settings" > "SFTP Details": with Pterodactyl, the SFTP port is almost never the default port 22, but typically 2022.

Step 3 — Create the server here, and don't start it

Pick the game and the memory, then stop there. A server that is created and never started costs nothing: billing is per hour of play, and the hour only starts when you do.

If you're moving a Minecraft world, the creation form offers an "Import a world" field directly — that's the shortest path.

Step 4 — Upload your world, your mods, your configs

On your server card, two buttons do all the work, with the server switched off:

• "World" for your save archive (.zip or .tar.gz). It is deployed on the first start. The accepted archive shapes and the Minecraft-specific traps are covered in the moving a Minecraft world guide.
• "Files" for everything else. You can send several files at once, or drop a whole folder — its subfolders are recreated exactly as they were. Uploads made while the server is off are queued and applied at the next start, before the game reads anything.

That's where the real difference with a classic host lies: there is no permanent FTP because there is no permanent machine. Your machine is created when you start and destroyed when you stop — that's what makes it €0 when you're not playing. What survives between sessions is your archive, and the file upload writes into it (Cloudflare R2 object storage included without extra storage fees, barring the optional backups plan).

Step 5 — The first start, and what to check

Start it, then check in this order:

1. Does the game version shown on the server card match the one you noted at step 1? A world opened by a newer version doesn't come back down: the conversion is one-way, and none of the games we host guarantees a rollback. If you need to change version, do it after you've confirmed the world loads, never before.
2. Is your progress there? Get in game and look at the place you left off, not just the loading screen.
3. Are all your mods active? A mod that downloaded but never enabled shows up in play, rarely at startup.

Per-game notes

• Minecraft — the Nether and the End aren't always inside the world folder. The dedicated guide explains what to take.
• Project Zomboid — the world, but also the player files and your server .ini. Mods are declared by their Workshop IDs: they download themselves, there's nothing to copy.
• Palworld, Valheim, Core Keeper, Factorio, Terraria — a save folder and, depending on the case, a config file. Nothing else to bring.

The golden rule: never cancel your old host before verifying here

This is the number one trap when moving game servers. Traditional subscription-based hosts (Nitrado, G-Portal, Bisect...) often lock your dashboard or permanently purge your files the minute your subscription expires or cancellation is processed.

Conversely, at TickServ, creating your server, uploading your saves, and preparing the setup while off costs zero cents in compute time. There is no rush.

1. Download your save archive from your old host.
2. Upload it to your stopped TickServ server.
3. Boot the server on TickServ, join the game, and inspect your buildings, chests, and player inventories.
4. Only when everything is confirmed working, return to your old host dashboard and click "Cancel subscription".

If something goes wrong, write to us from the console — the help button is on every screen, and a human answers. A move can always be rescued as long as your old server copy remains intact.