How to merge the nether/end into the world folder

Last modified on Jun 20, 2022 in Control Panel

By ApexHosting

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Overview

One of the key concerns for nearly every server owner is being able to provide a server with the absolute best experience for their community. Knowing how to properly optimize a Minecraft server and configure can be difficult, especially if the server owner has no prior experience in doing so. In trying to create the perfect server, many owners will use Spigot or Paper as these not only optimize the server, but allow for the use of plugins.

While Spigot and Paper are great, a point of confusion for many users is the way they keep the Nether and End world files. Whereas the default Minecraft server holds the Nether and End world files within the world’s folder, Spigot and Paper’s Nether and End world files are kept in separate folders, outside of the world’s folder.

 
Having the Nether and the End files separate from the main world folder may not seem like much of an issue. However, if the server owner changes their server to run the default Minecraft software, or they just want to run the world on singleplayer, they will find that their Nether and End have disappeared.

Luckily, these can be merged back into the main world folder. Outlined below are the steps you need to take to merge the Nether and End into the world folder, so that they may be loaded by non-Spigot/Paper Minecraft.

Dimensions

Minecraft holds dimensions (the nether and end) inside of the main world folder. However, in some cases the dimensions will be located separately.

If your server is running Spigot or Paper and you’ve ever gone into your server’s FTP, you might have noticed that, alongside your world’s folder, there are two additional ones with the labels _nether and _the_end appended to the end of their names. These are the folders that contain the Nether and the End connected to the main world.

For instance, if your main world is called Survival and you’ve explored both the Nether and the End, you will see the following three folders that correspond to your current world:

	Survival
	Survival_nether
	Survival_the_end

Checking Current World

1. Head to your server’s control panel and memorize what the World field says. By default, it’s set to “world”, but if you’ve changed it at any point in the past, it will be named something else.

2. Stop your server. This part is integral, as changing world files while the server is running will result in errors.
3. Click FTP File Access on the left-hand side of the panel.
4. Log into the FTP with your panel password.
5. Locate your current world’s folder and enter it.
6. Check if either of these sub-folders exist in your world’s folder: DIM and DIM-1.

If either of them exists, you’ll want to rename them to avoid any file conflicts. Click the checkmarks next to their names to select them, then Rename on top of the page, and set their names to something else — for instance, you could just add -unused to the end of their names, so they’re called DIM-unused and DIM-1-unused.
 

Locating and moving the Nether

1. Head to the main directory of your FTP
2. Click on the _nether folder to enter it.

3. Click the checkmark next to the DIM-1 folder. We’ll want to move this folder into your world’s main folder.
4. Click Move on top of the page.
5. Set the Target directory as /[world_name], where [world_name] is the name of your world. For example, if your world was named Survival, you’d set this to /Survival.
6. Leave Target name as it and press “Submit”.

Locating and moving the End

1. Head to the main directory of your FTP
2. Click on the _end folder to enter it.
3. Click the checkmark next to the DIM1 folder.

4. Click Move on top of the page.
5. Set the Target directory as /[world_name], where [world_name] is the name of your world.
6. Leave Target name as it and press “Submit”.

Once this is over, your world’s Nether and End will have been converted to be compatible with the default Minecraft server, as well as singleplayer.
 

Unmerging the Dimensions

In some cases, you may wish to unmerge the dimensions back into their own folders. This can be vital if you are using a vanilla world on PaperMC or Spigot, as they will not always convert the dimensions automatically. Performing this is the same as before, but simply doing the steps in reverse.

Unmerging the Nether

1. Locate your world folder in the FTP File Access.
2. Create a new folder here named [world_name]_nether
3. Enter your world folder, then checkmark the DIM-1 folder.
4. Press Move at the top of the page.
5. Set the target directory to [world_name]_nether from earlier.
6. Press Submit to begin the move.

Unmerging The End

1. Locate the world folder in the FTP File Access.
2. Create a new folder here named [world_name]_the_end
3. Enter your world folder, then checkmark the DIM1 folder.
4. Press Move at the top of the page.
5. Set the target directory to [world_name]_the_end from before.
6. Press Submit to begin the move.

Common Issues

No DIM files
In some cases you will not find the DIM1 and DIM-1 folders nested inside of their respective _nether and _the_end folders. This would indicate that you are possibly on an older build version of either Spigot or Paper. Previously instead of placing the DIM1 and DIM-1 folder inside of the _nether and _the_end folders the software would just rename the entire folder to _nether and _the_end. If you find that this is the case for you please rename the entire folder to its respective DIM names and put them in the world’s main folder.

_nether : DIM-1
_the_end : DIM1

 
Nether/End Reset
After following the guide you may find that your Nether and End dimensions are still reset to their original state. You will want to make sure that you have properly followed the steps above to ensure that the conversion is done correctly. One step that is important to note is Step 7. You must rename any DIM folders that are already inside of the overworld to avoid file conflicts.

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