How To Fix A Mod Causing A Crash On Minecraft

Minecraft is a game that lends itself to hundreds of hours of exploration and building. Don't allow your creations go upwardly in a puff of dying-hard-drive smoke; read on as we bear witness you how to locate and (automatically) back upwardly your critical Minecraft files.

Why Back up Your Minecraft Universe

As you can imagine the word around the neighborhood is that those How-To Geek guys know computers and love Minecraft, so nosotros've received more than a few panicked telephone calls and knocks on the door from neighborhood parents whose children's elaborate Minecraft creations have gone missing.

We can't overemphasize the importance of backing up your Minecraft creations, both to protect them from information loss and game upgrades-gone-wrong, but besides to protect them from hiccups in the modification process as you move onto more advanced Minecraft modding. We're excited to build on our original Minecraft series and testify you how to change your game and expand the Minecraft experience in ways yous may not take even realize y'all could, but nosotros want to existvery sure yous don't destroy your awesome creations in the process.

Let's have a look at where the critical files are stored, which ones yous need to dorsum up, and how to automate the process. While this series, like the terminal series, is primarily focused on the PC edition and non the smaller simply popular Pocket Edition, nosotros'll fifty-fifty highlight how to back up mobile editions of Minecraft.

Locating the Critical Files

The first thing yous need to know near backing upwards Minecraft files is that there is an enormous departure between the Minecraft launcher and the Minecraft system files.

The Minecraft launcher is the application you showtime the game with and is labeled equally the following for the three supported operating systems:

Minecraft.exe

Windows

Minecraft.dmg

Mac OS X

Minecraft.jar

Linux

This launcher is too a tool that helps yous customize pregame options such as which contour you wish to use. It communicates with the Minecraft servers, it helps y'all log into your business relationship, and it launches the game. Bankroll up the launcher does cipher and this is where many players find (too late) that they've missed the important files.

The bodily game files, including game libraries, logs, and most chiefly your saved games, are typically located in a completely different spot than your launcher.

For the iii primary operating systems they are located in the following places past default:

Windows

%appdata%\.minecraft

Mac OS Ten

~/Library/Application Support/minecraft

Linux

/home/[username]/.minecraft/

The just time you volition not observe the Minecraft system files in these locations is if yous are using an culling third-political party launching tool or you have manually changed your game contour to point to a new directory location.

Identifying Which Files Need to Be Backed Up

There's a whole lot going on in the Minecraft organization folder. Everything required to run the game as well as all the content you've created equally a player (game worlds and screenshots) also as content you've added (similar resources packs) is located here.

Let's take a wait at the Minecraft directory to get a better sense of where irreplaceable data are located. Within the directory y'all'll find the following subdirectories. We've bolded the directories and files that contain user-created content that volition not be downloaded automatically from Mojang if the directory is deleted or corrupted.

/assets/

Contains game avails like icons, language packs, and sounds. If you want to mind to the Minecraft theme songs outside of the game you lot'll find them in /music/game/

/libraries/

Contains Java libraries for handling sound/video rendering and other tasks.

/logs/

Contains debug/game logs. Useful for troubleshooting problems, but otherwise unimportant.

/resources packs/

Contains user-downloaded resource packs (which used to exist called texture packs). Resource packs allow players to reskin the game with new textures and/or new sounds.

/screenshots/

Contains all in-game screenshots captured using the in-game screenshot tool (by default, activated with F2).

/saves/

Contains your Minecraft worlds. Each earth has a unique directory based on its name (e.g. /New World/, /Magician Land/, etc.)

/versions/

Contains your current and (potentially) by versions of Minecraft organized via version-numbered sub-directories.

/launcher_profiles.json

Database file; contains all the relevant information nearly your individual profiles including the default profile.

/launcher.jar

Archive of assets and game libraries.

/launcher.pack.lzma

Auxiliary launcher-related file.

/options.txt

Text file containing all the user-configurable in-game options like mouse sensitivity, chat options, and central bindings.

Now, the nigh barebones way to deal with backing up Minecraft would be to grab only the files that will not automatically be downloaded during a fresh Minecraft install. In that case y'all need to absolutely re-create the /saves/ directory to dorsum up your actual worlds, and and so copy the /resourcepacks/ directory if you've installed whatever custom resources packs. You would also need the /screenshots/ directory if you want to save your screenshots, and the launcher_profiles.json and options.txt files to ensure your profile settings and your in-game settings are preserved. Everything else in the above table volition be downloaded automatically from the Mojang servers.

That said, cherry picking which files to download or writing a custom batch script to exercise so is a bit irritating when information technology's just as easy to support the entire directory (the Mojang supplied content is generally just around 200MB).

(Semi) Automating the Backup Process

There are dozens of ways you tin can automate the backup process for your Minecraft universe; more than we could maybe cover here given the variety of backup services and tools bachelor.

Nosotros can't stress the importance of backing up your creations enough, all the same, so allow'southward get over some of the methods we'd urge y'all to consider.

Manual Fill-in

This is the to the lowest degree complicated and to the lowest degree efficient method only trust u.s.a., you'll forget to go on up on your backups. You'll do information technology in one case or twice, faithfully copying your glorious Minecraft world over to a flash drive or backup hard drive, and and then you'll forget.

You know when you lot'll remember y'all forgot to practice a recent backup? Right after that 200+ hour mega creation vanishes and you remember that you lot final backed information technology up around 15 hours into the project.

Transmission fill-in gets the job done, but there's as well much human error/forgetfulness for our taste.

Add Your Minecraft Directory to Local Backup Tools

Whether you're playing Minecraft on a Windows machine paired with Windows Home Server'southward backup tool, a Mac paired with Time Machine, or a Linux box setup with Crash Programme, brand sure your Minecraft system directory is either directly added to the fill-in list or within a sub-directory that is already backed upwardly.

Sync with a Cloud Based Tool

Although we take Minecraft gear up to back up with the aforementioned method (to a fill-in server in the office basement), our favorite Minecraft backup fob is to motility the Minecraft organization directory correct into the root directory of Dropbox (or a similar cloud-based folder).

Not just does this automate the backup process completely but it likewise means that your creations tin be synced across computers to enable you to work on the same earth whether you're sitting at home on your desktop calculator or traveling with your laptop.

The easiest manner to enable this kind of syncing is to simply copy your Minecraft directory into your Dropbox folder, run the launcher, and and then edit the contour entry so that information technology no longer points at the old directory, e.chiliad. /AppData/Roaming/.minecraft/, and now points at the new directory, e.g. /My Documents/Dropbox/.minecraft.

Backing up Minecraft Pocket Edition

Don't worry, nosotros think backing up all that work yous've invested in Minecraft is important enough that we're not going to leave the Pocket Edition players hanging.

The Minecraft data files are located in the following directories on Android and iOS devices:

Android

/sdcard/games/com.mojang/minecraftWorlds

iOS

/ Documents/games/com.mojang/minecraftWorlds/<WorldName>

You can edit and copy both directories without rooting or jailbreaking your respective devices; you simply need a file explorer to browse to the directory and make a copy. You can hands do so on Android using a tool like ES File Explorer or iFileExplorer on iOS.

The same fill-in tips for the PC edition definitely apply to the Pocket Edition. Manual backups are better than no backups, but they're non as good equally automated backups. Both ES File Explorer and iFileExplorer (if you upgrade to the Pro edition) support deject-based syncing.

Armed with a consistently applied fill-in routine your Minecraft worlds will be rubber, sound, and ready for restoration in the event of an unfortunate hard drive failure: no tears over lost cities and sprawling mines necessary.