How to Recover Deleted Worlds in Minecraft

It’s easy to sink hours upon hours into building the perfect Minecraft world. The levels of creativity and effort that goes into crafting exactly what you want in Minecraft are often off the charts.

That’s why losing a world can be extremely frustrating. One wrong click and you’re back to the beginning, without a trace of all the wonders that you’ve built with so much passion or the progress you’ve made.

Luckily, even if you delete a Minecraft world by mistake, that doesn’t have to mean it’s gone for good. In this article, we’ll show you how to recover deleted worlds in Minecraft and resume from the point you’ve left off.

How to Recover Deleted Worlds in Minecraft: Windows 10

The easiest way to recover a deleted Minecraft world on Windows 10 is to use backup files. You can back up your worlds in two different ways, depending on whether you’re playing the Bedrock or Java Edition.

To back up your Minecraft world in Bedrock Edition, follow these steps:

1. In Minecraft, open the main menu.
   
2. Navigate to the edit button.
   
3. Under “Game Settings,” scroll down.
   
4. You’ll see a “Copy World” button. Click on it, and you’ll create a backup.
   

If you have Java Edition, you won’t need to enter the game to back up your worlds. Instead, you’ll need to:

1. Navigate to the “%Appdata%” folder on your computer.
   
2. Once in “%Appdata%”, go to the “.minecraft” folder, then to saves.
   
3. You’ll find all your saved worlds in here. Simply copy the world files and paste them to a different location.
   

If you’ve backed up your worlds, restoring them will be as easy as copying the files back into the relevant folders.

On the other hand, if you haven’t done the backup, the process might be more complicated. However, there’s something you can try if you’re on the Bedrock Edition:

1. Go to the “%Appdata%” folder.
   
2. Navigate to “roaming.minecraft”, then to saves.
   
3. Find the folder belonging to the deleted world and open it.
   
4. Inside the folder, bring up the “Properties” menu by right-clicking on empty space.
   
5. In the menu, find the “Previous” version tab. There, you should see all the recently deleted worlds.
   
6. Choose the world you’d like to recover and click “Restore.”
   

How to Recover a Deleted World in Minecraft: Mac

You can recover a deleted world in Minecraft on your Mac by using backups. Of course, to do this, you’ll first need to ensure that you have backup enabled for Minecraft. You can check this under Settings/iCloud/Storage & Backup/Manage Storage.

You can also find all files related to your worlds in Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves. From there, you can copy the relevant files into your main Minecraft folder and restore the worlds you’ve deleted.

How to Recover Deleted Worlds in Minecraft: Xbox One

Unfortunately, if you’ve deleted a world on Xbox one, there’s no way to recover it.

All the data from your game gets stored in the cloud, but it also syncs as soon as changes are made. In other words, the world deletion will be recorded on the cloud immediately when it happens, and that world will no longer exist.

It’s good to keep this feature in mind even if you haven’t lost a world in Minecraft. The same thing will happen to every discarded or deleted in-game object.

How to Recover Deleted Worlds in Minecraft: PS4?

If you’ve backed up Minecraft online, you’ll likely be able to restore your lost Minecraft world from the cloud.

You can do this with the following steps:

1. On your PS4, go to “Settings”, then “Application Saved Data Management.”
   
2. Find “Saved Data in Online Storage.”
   
3. Go to the “Download to System Storage” option.
   
4. Look for Minecraft and select it.
   
5. Hit “Download.”
   

This method should help you restore the previous saves and, by extension, the deleted worlds.

If you don’t have access to cloud backup, you can avoid losing your Minecraft files by backing them up to a USB drive. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Insert the USB into your PS4.
   
2. In the console menu, go to “Settings”, then “System”, and, finally, “Back Up and Restore.”
   
3. Select the files you’d like to back up.
   

When you need to restore lost Minecraft files, you can use the same process to pull them from the USB.

You can also try to recover the world files straight from your PS4 hard drive. However, doing this will require installing third-party recovery software on your PC and connecting the console to your computer.

If you choose this technique, make sure to:

1. Free up the hard drive of the console. It would be best to ensure that the drive isn’t in use before connecting your PS4 to the computer.
2. Enable the connection. To do this, you’ll need to take the hard drive out of your PS4 and have a special cable ready.
3. Verify that the PS4 hard drive is showing up in the software interface. If it doesn’t, check if the connection is established properly.

Depending on the software that you decide to use for file recovery, the rest of the process should be relatively straightforward. In most cases, it will involve scanning the hard drive for deleted files and restoring them to their original location.

How to Recover Deleted Worlds in Minecraft: iPad?

iPhones and iPads differ from Android devices in that they operate on a closed OS that doesn’t allow for direct data modification.

Due to this reason, it’s impossible to manipulate the game files on your iPad to get the deleted Minecraft world back. There’s only one thing you could try to get the worlds back, but it might be a too drastic move:

You can restore the iPad backup and revert the entire device to an earlier state. However, this method isn’t recommended if you aren’t completely certain that you won’t lose other, more important files or settings on your iPad.

Take Care of Your Minecraft Worlds

Depending on how much time and effort you’ve invested into building your Minecraft world, losing all that progress can be almost a tragedy. Worse yet, it can happen due to several reasons, including accidental deletion and file corruption.

That’s why you should always take the necessary precautions, especially if you find your Minecraft world expanding and becoming increasingly complex. Of course, the precaution in question is to back up your progress. On most platforms, creating backups will be a sure way to restore your deleted worlds in Minecraft.

And even if you haven’t backed up your creations, there is still a chance that you might bring them back from your device’s Nether. Unfortunately, chances of success reduce significantly if you aren’t playing Minecraft on a computer.

If you want to avoid future mishaps, make sure that you’re using alternative storage units, different drives, or cloud storage to preserve a copy of the vital files. Now that you know how to create a backup and restore your worlds from it, you’ll have no problem making your Minecraft worlds safe and sound.

Have you managed to restore your deleted Minecraft world? Were you playing on a computer, Xbox, PS4, or iPad? Let us know in the comment section below.