Uploading Worlds and Plugins with SFTP

The panel's file manager is fine for editing a config file or dropping in a single plugin. For anything bigger — an existing world, a modpack, fifty plugins at once — you want SFTP. This guide covers connecting, the three jobs people actually use it for, and the mistakes that waste an afternoon.

What SFTP gives you

SFTP is a file transfer connection straight into your server's folder. It's the same files you see in the panel's Files tab, just accessible from a proper file manager on your computer, with drag-and-drop, resumable transfers and no browser upload limits.

It's encrypted (the S is for SSH), so it's safe to use on any network.

Your connection details

Everything you need is on the Files tab of your server — click SFTP Details. The values look like this:

Two things trip people up here. The port is 2022, not the usual 22 — a normal SSH connection to port 22 will fail. And the password is the one you use to sign in to the panel, not your Minecraft password and not anything from your billing account. If you change your panel password, your SFTP password changes with it.

Connecting with FileZilla

FileZilla is free and works on Windows, macOS and Linux.

1. Open File → Site Manager → New Site.
2. Set Protocol to SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol.
3. Enter the host, port 2022, and your username from the panel.
4. Set Logon Type to Ask for password (or Normal, if you'd rather save it).
5. Click Connect and accept the host key the first time.

You'll land in your server's root folder — the same place server.jar, server.properties and your world folders live. WinSCP, Cyberduck and Termius all work the same way with the same four values.

Uploading an existing world

This is the one that goes wrong most often, and the fix is simple: stop the server first. A running server holds its world files open and rewrites them every few seconds, so anything you upload underneath it will be overwritten or corrupted.

1. Stop the server from the Console tab and wait until it reports offline.
2. Connect over SFTP.
3. Upload your world folder — the one containing level.dat, region/ and playerdata/.
4. If your folder isn't called world, open server.properties and set level-name= to match the folder name exactly. It's case-sensitive.
5. Start the server and watch the console. "Preparing spawn area" means it found the world.

Uploading thousands of small region files over SFTP is slow. It's usually much faster to zip the world locally, upload the single archive, then unarchive it in the panel's file manager — right-click the file and choose Unarchive. One big transfer beats ten thousand small ones.

Installing plugins

Servers ship on vanilla Minecraft, which does not load plugins. Switch to Paper (or Purpur, or Spigot) from the software picker on your console page first — it is one click, and Paper is a fork of Spigot, so Bukkit and Spigot plugins then work as-is. Plugin servers want a bit more memory than vanilla, so we recommend them on the 2 GB (Gold) plan and up.

1. Download the plugin's .jar.
2. Drop it into the plugins/ folder over SFTP.
3. Restart the server from the Console tab.
4. Check the console for the plugin's startup line, and look for a new folder under plugins/ holding its config.

Check that a plugin supports your Minecraft version before installing it. A plugin built for an older release will usually fail loudly on startup, and occasionally in ways that stop the server from finishing its boot — if that happens, delete the jar over SFTP and restart.

Mods are different from plugins. Mods go in mods/ and only work if your server is running a mod loader — Fabric, NeoForge or Forge. You no longer need to ask us for that: the panel's Mods tab installs any of the three for you, and can search Modrinth so you don't have to download and re-upload jars at all. Mod loaders need the 2 GB (Gold) plan or larger. SFTP is still the right tool for a pack you already have on disk.

Downloading a backup of your own

SFTP works in both directions. To keep a personal copy of your world, stop the server, then drag the world folder from the remote side to your computer. Your plan also includes automatic backups you can take from the Backups tab, but an off-site copy of anything irreplaceable is never a bad idea.

When something doesn't work

"Connection refused" or a timeout. Almost always the port — it must be 2022.

"Permission denied". Your username needs the full username.serverid form shown in SFTP Details, not just your username.

Files upload but nothing changes in game. The server was running and rewrote them, or the server needs a restart to re-read a config.

A file won't delete or overwrite. Stop the server; it has the file open.

Uploads crawl. Zip it up and unarchive in the panel instead.

Stuck on something this guide didn't cover? Open a ticket from your billing account — include your server name and what you were trying to move, and we'll take a look.