---
title: "Moving your server from another host"
description: "What to bring and what to leave behind, how to upload everything BEFORE switching on (so you pay nothing), and the three checks for the first start."
url: https://tickserv.com/guides/move-server-from-another-host
site: "TickServ (https://tickserv.com)"
lang: en
published: 2026-09-02
---
# 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

Most hosts give you two routes: the panel's file manager (a "download" button), or FTP/SFTP access with a client such as FileZilla. Take the whole world folder, then the mods folder if there is one.

If the panel offers a full backup, take it — it's often the fastest, and you can sort things out later on your own disk.

## 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](https://tickserv.com/guides/move-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.

## 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.

## If something goes wrong

Write to us from the console — the help button is on every screen, and a human answers. A botched move is almost always recoverable, as long as **you keep your copy at the old host** until you've checked the game here. Cancel only afterwards.