Backups on Torchlite: make, restore and keep your own copy

Every free server on Torchlite gets one backup slot. That is enough to undo a bad plugin update or a version change that went wrong, but it is not an archive of your world's history.

This guide shows how to make and restore a backup on the Backups page, what the one-slot limit means in practice, and how to keep copies of your own so a mistake never costs you a world.

What a panel backup is

A backup is a compressed copy of your server's files, taken at one moment. It includes the world, the configs, the plugins or mods, and anything else in the server folder.

It does not include:

• the MySQL database from the Databases page, if you use one. Plugins such as LuckPerms keep their data there, and it needs its own copy;
• anything you excluded when you made the backup.

Backups are kept on the node your server was on when you made them, not inside your server's own files. When a server is deleted, for example after 5 days with nobody using it, you lose its backups along with it. That is the main reason to keep your own copy too.

Make a backup

A backup of a running server can catch files halfway through being written. For a game that saves its world every few seconds, like Minecraft, the safest backup is one made while the server is stopped.

1. Stop the server and wait for the status to say Offline.
2. Open Backups in the sidebar and click Create backup.
3. In the Create server backup window, give it a Backup name you will recognise later, such as before-1.21-update.
4. Optionally fill in Ignored Files & Directories, one path per line, to leave out things you do not need, such as logs. Leave it empty to back up everything.
5. Tick Locked if you want to protect it from being deleted by accident or replaced by a scheduled backup.
6. Click Start backup.

The backup appears in the list straight away and fills in its size when it is done. Big worlds take a few minutes. Start the server again afterwards.

If you cannot stop the server, for Minecraft you can run save-off and then save-all in the console, make the backup, and run save-on when it finishes. That stops the game writing to the world while the copy is made.

The one-slot limit

Once your slot is used, the page says "1 of 1 backups have been created for this server" and the Create backup button disappears. To make a new backup you have to delete the old one first.

That makes the order of steps important:

1. If you might still want the old backup, open its menu and Download it first.
2. If it is locked, choose Unlock. A locked backup has no Delete option.
3. Choose Delete and confirm. This is permanent.
4. Make the new backup.

A schedule can also take backups for you. In Schedules, a task with the Create backup action replaces the oldest unlocked backup when the slot is full, so a nightly schedule always leaves you the most recent copy. If your only backup is locked, there is nothing it may replace and the scheduled backup cannot run.

Restore a backup

Restoring puts the files from the backup back into your server.

1. Open the backup's menu and choose Restore.
2. Read the warning. The server is stopped, and until the restore finishes you cannot start it, use the file manager or make another backup.
3. Decide on Delete all files before restoring backup.
4. Confirm.

The checkbox decides what happens to files that were created after the backup:

• Ticked: the server folder is emptied first, so you get an exact copy of the moment the backup was made. Use this to undo a modpack install or a broken update.
• Not ticked: files from the backup overwrite the ones with the same name, and anything newer stays. A plugin you added since the backup, for example, is still there.

When the restore finishes, start the server and check the console. Anything that happened in the world after the backup is gone, so tell your players before you restore.

Keep your own copies over SFTP

The panel backup is a quick undo, not a safe place for a world you care about. It sits in one slot, it is deleted with the server, and it leaves out the database. Keep your own copy on your computer as well.

There are two easy ways:

• Download the backup. In its menu, Download gives you the whole thing as one archive, a .tar.gz file. 7-Zip and most archive tools open it.
• Copy the folders yourself over SFTP. Stop the server, connect with FileZilla or WinSCP as shown in the SFTP guide, and drag the world folder and your config files to your computer. For Minecraft that is usually world, plus world_nether and world_the_end on Paper, Purpur and Spigot.

Take a copy of your own before anything that rewrites many files at once:

• changing the Minecraft version or server software on Versions;
• installing a modpack from Modpacks, which reinstalls the server and can delete the existing files;
• Reinstall Server in Settings;
• updating several plugins or mods together;
• big world edits, or trying out a new world generator.

If you are away for a few days, a copy on your own computer also protects you from the inactivity rule. The renewal guide explains when an unused server is deleted.

Common problems

The Create backup button is missing

Your one slot is already used. Download the old backup if you need it, unlock it if it is locked, delete it, and the button comes back.

"Backups cannot be created for this server because the backup limit is set to 0"

This server has no backup slot. Every server created on torchlite.host should have one, so ask on our Discord and include the server ID from Settings.

The backup shows as failed

Something interrupted the copy. Delete the failed backup and try again, this time with the server stopped and with large folders you do not need listed under Ignored Files & Directories. If it keeps failing, ask on our Discord with your server ID.

I restored and my latest progress is gone

That is how a restore works: the world goes back to the moment the backup was taken. There is no way to merge the two. If you still have a copy of the newer world on your computer, upload it again over SFTP.