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The Backups tab lets you create a complete snapshot of your Minecraft server folder with a single click. ServerPilot compresses the entire server directory — including your world, plugins, and configuration files — into a ZIP archive stored inside the server folder itself. You can browse your backup history and restore any previous snapshot just as easily.
Create a backup before making any significant change: updating the server JAR, installing or updating plugins, changing the world seed, or running commands that could permanently alter the world. It takes only a few seconds and gives you a safe rollback point.

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How Backup Creation Works

Clicking Backup Server (or the Backup button on the Dashboard) calls the backups:create IPC handler. The handler:
  1. Resolves the server’s folder path and creates the backups/ subdirectory if it doesn’t exist
  2. Generates a timestamped filename by slugifying the server name and appending an ISO timestamp with colons and dots replaced by hyphens:
    • Format: {server-name-slug}-{ISO-timestamp}.zip
    • Example: My-Paper-Server-2024-01-15T10-30-00-000Z.zip
  3. Creates a writable stream to the output ZIP path and pipes it through archiver with zlib compression level 9 (maximum compression)
  4. Uses archive.glob('**/*', { cwd: server.folderPath, ignore: ['backups/**'] }) so the backups/ subfolder itself is never included in any backup (preventing recursive growth)
  5. Calls archive.finalize() and waits for the output stream to close
  6. Fires a desktop toast notification: “Backup completed — {server name} backup is ready.”
archive.glob('**/*', {
  cwd: server.folderPath,
  ignore: ['backups/**']
});
The backup runs synchronously on the Electron main process. The UI disables the Backup Server button (busy state) while creation is in progress.

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Where Backups Are Stored

All ZIP files are stored in the backups/ subfolder inside your server folder: 
MyServer/
├── world/
├── plugins/
├── server.properties
├── paper.jar
└── backups/
    ├── MyServer-2024-01-15T10-30-00-000Z.zip
    └── MyServer-2024-01-14T08-00-00-000Z.zip

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Backup History List

The Backups tab calls backups:list on mount and after every new backup is created. The handler reads the backups/ directory, filters for .zip files, stats each one, and returns them sorted by creation date — newest first. Each entry in the list shows:
  • Filename — the full backup ZIP name
  • Created — the file creation timestamp formatted with toLocaleString()
  • Size — the ZIP file size formatted as a human-readable value (e.g. 1.2 GB)
If no backups exist yet, the list shows “No backups yet.”

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Restoring a Backup

Clicking Restore next to any backup entry prompts for confirmation (“Restore {name}? This overwrites matching server files.”). If confirmed, the backups:restore IPC handler:
  1. Validates that the backupPath is inside the server’s backups/ subdirectory using a strict path.dirname check — no other paths can be extracted
  2. Calls extract-zip to unzip the archive back into the server folder root, overwriting any files that exist with the same relative paths
  3. Fires a desktop notification: “Backup restored — {server name} was restored from {filename}.”
Stop the server before restoring a backup. Restoring while the server is running will overwrite world and configuration files that the Java process has open, which can cause data corruption, a crash, or an inconsistent world state. Use the Stop Server button on the Dashboard first, wait for the status to show OFFLINE, then restore.

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Triggering a Backup from the Dashboard

You do not need to open the Backups tab to create a backup. The Backup button in the Dashboard header calls backups:create directly. This is useful when you want to snapshot the server quickly before a risky operation without navigating away from the Dashboard.

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Managing Backup Storage

ServerPilot does not automatically delete old backups. Because Minecraft server folders can be large (especially worlds with significant exploration), backups at zlib level 9 can still reach several hundred megabytes or more. You are responsible for managing disk space:
  • Delete old backups manually through the File Manager (navigate into the backups/ folder) or through Windows Explorer
  • Consider keeping only the last few backups and deleting older ones periodically
  • If disk space is a concern, pause regular backups before running long exploration or building sessions, then back up afterward

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IPC Reference

ChannelDirectionPayloadReturns
backups:listRenderer → Mainid (server ID)Array of { name, fullPath, size, createdAt }, newest first
backups:createRenderer → Mainid (server ID){ fullPath, name } of the new ZIP
backups:restoreRenderer → Main{ id, backupPath }true

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