How to Setup Addons on a Bedrock Server
Last modified on Jan 17, 2025 in Control Panel
By Nathan Young

Customizing your Minecraft Bedrock experience allows for many new features and tools to use in your world. This involves using behavior packs, addons that are installed in your world / server files. These are similar to mods or plugins, but are managed differently so everyone can enjoy them. Whether you’re wanting new mob heads or custom gamemodes, using behavior packs provides you with many options. Setting them up on your server can be difficult, especially if you’re unfamiliar with our panel. In some cases, players don’t know where to locate them for this process. Due to these challenges, we’ve created this Apex Hosting guide to show you how to find and install behavior addon packs on your Bedrock server.
Behavior Packs in Bedrock

As mentioned above, there are countless features from behavior packs that you can implement into your server. However, locating them can be harder than finding datapacks or resourcepacks. The best area to look is on CurseForge, as they have a wide variety of addons to check out. Although, there are websites online that are directly from behavior pack developers for you to download. Make sure to keep safety in mind as you explore the internet for them. Once you’ve found suitable ones for your server, there are steps you can take to install it on your world. Ensure you’ve saved the behavior pack .mcpack or .mcaddon file(s) somewhere easily accessible on your computer. The subsections below will guide you through this lengthy process.
Bedrock Server Worlds
Due to recent changes from Mojang, the process to install addons for existing Bedrock server worlds is more complicated. With this in mind, make sure to follow the sections below carefully.
Preparation (1/2)
- Download your desired behavior addon pack from CurseForge or other safe websites.
- Afterward, make sure to save it on your desktop. (
.mcpack
or.mcaddon
files) - Proceed to change its filetype to
.zip
via renaming or using properties.
Use external programs like WInRAR or 7zip to make this process easier. Doing this allows you to open it up and see the hard files inside, required for the remainder of this tutorial.
Preparation (2/2)
- Open the zip file, then drag and drop behaviors & resources on your desktop.
- Use a notepad program to open the
manifest.json
file in the behaviors folder. - Copy the
UUID
andversion
values, located near the top. - Paste that into a new text document or write it down somewhere for later reference.
- Compress the behaviors & resources folder into zip files via WinRAR or 7zip.
Upload Files to Bedrock Server
- Head towards your Apex server panel and click the
Stop
button at the top. - Press
FTP File Access
near the top left and use your password to login. - Select the behavior_packs directory and press the
Upload
button on the left. - Drag and drop the behaviors.zip file accordingly to upload it.
- Wait for this to reach
100%
, then click theBack
button at the top left.
*In the event that it fails to upload entirely, use an external FTP program. - Click the box next to the zip file and press
Unzip
at the top right corner. - Confirm this by selecting
Submit
, then navigate to the resource_packs directory. - Repeat this process, but with the resources.zip file.
We strongly recommend renaming each of the unzipped files to the behavior addon pack name. For instance, using Better on Bedrock from CurseForge – we can rename each uploaded file to “BetterMC” or something similar. This helps when you want to switch between packs or have multiple of them. You can do this by clicking on the box next to the uploaded file (behaviors / resources), then clicking Rename
at the top.
Activating Behavior Addon Packs
- Navigate to your world folder, located in
…/worlds
on the FTP panel. - At the top left, click
New File
and name it world_behavior_packs.json. - Proceed to copy and paste the following code:
[ { "pack_id" : "UUID", "version" : [ version ] } ]
- Enter the
UUID
andversion
accordingly - from the manifest.json file in previous steps. - Press the
Save
button at the top and double check the code and values are correct. - Repeat this for the resources, with the file name world_resource_packs.json instead.
- Head back to the main panel and click
Start
to begin loading the server!
Bedrock Singleplayer Worlds
If you have any existing worlds in singleplayer on Bedrock with addons, then you can relatively quickly get that on your Minecraft server. The following sections will show you how to do that!
Activating Behavior Addon Pack
If you haven’t already activated your behavior addon pack for the singleplayer world, follow these steps. Make sure to have your .mcpack
or .mcaddon
files ready, as they’re used for the importing process. However, if you’ve already done this before - skip to the “Exporting World” section below.
- While having the Bedrock client open, double click your downloaded pack file(s).
- Wait for this to import into your game, then press
Play
from the main menu. - From here, locate your server world in the
Worlds
section and click theEdit
icon. - Scroll down on the left-hand side of your screen, then select
Behavior Packs
. - Press
Available
and choose your desired addon(s), then click theActivate
button. - If prompted to disable achievements, confirm this by selecting
Continue
. - Once all your packs are enabled, they’ll be viewable from the
Active
list.
Exporting World
The exporting process for your server’s world from singleplayer requires you to install a zipping program. This is used to transform the .mcworld filetype into a .zip format, allowing you to upload it on the panel. We strongly recommend using WinRAR or 7zip, as these are entirely safe and secure to try out. The steps below will help you export and zip the world file accordingly.
- Locate your server world in the
Worlds
section of Bedrock, then click itsEdit
icon. - From here, scroll down and select the
Export World
option fromFile Management
to start this process. - In the newly opened window, save this .mcworld file somewhere easily accessible.
Right-click
this and rename its filetype to .zip, then make sure to save the changes.
You can also use Properties
on your computer to change the filetype, if required. Additionally, you can change the world’s name to anything you want, as it’ll be used for the server. Just make sure it’s using standard characters and not special ones.
Uploading to Server
When the behavior addon pack is activated for your world, it’ll need to be uploaded on the server via an external FTP program. These may include FileZilla or Cyberduck, you decide which application to use for this process. Once you’re prepared, follow along below to get started.
- Head towards your Apex server panel and click
FTP File Access
at the top left. - Copy the
FTP Address
,Host
,Port
, andUsername
for later use. - Proceed to enter your saved FTP information in your installed program, then
connect
.
*This is typically located near the top, but may differ depending on the application. - Afterward, locate and click on the worlds directory in the file list.
- Once there, drag and drop your zipped world in this area and wait for it to finish.
- When this completes, head towards your server panel and log into the FTP area.
- Enter your worlds directory, then check mark the uploaded zip and press
Unzip
. - Confirm this by clicking
Submit
on the next page, then wait for everything to finish. - If done successfully, you’ll see the folder of your behavior pack world.
Enabling the World
With your behavior addon pack world uploaded in the server, you’ll need to activate it through the panel to begin playing it. This is a straightforward process, which is shown down below.
- Return to the main server panel, then scroll down until you see the
World
section. - Once found, press the
Change World
button and enter your uploaded map’s name. - Continue to click
Change World
again to confirm the changes. - Afterward, simply press
Restart Now
in the next prompt to begin loading the world. - When it’s finished, join the server from your Bedrock client to confirm this worked.
Common Issues
In cases where you want to install more than two packs for your Minecraft Bedrock server, it requires you to tweak the world_behavior_packs.json & world_resource_packs.json files. This would look like the following code:
[
{
"pack_id" : "40d18d86-f454-4361-bbcf-b118274dec17",
"version" : [ 1, 2, 6 ]
},
{
"pack_id" : "16b646cb-98eb-41b2-a9e0-dd7f088caab4",
"version" : [ 5, 0, 1 ]
}
]
You would want to replicate this for every desired behavior addon pack. Just make sure that the code is valid and doesn’t have any errors. For instance, common issues include missing commas, incorrect placement, etc.. Contact our Support Team for extra assistance if you need.
If you’re unable to upload using the FTP panel, consider using an external program instead. These may include FileZilla or Cyberduck, requiring your FTP information to login. Afterwards, you’ll be able to navigate as you would on the panel.
In some cases, users may be unable to make any FTP connections to their server. This tends to be caused by using invalid login credentials, such as your password or address. Make sure everything you’re entering in the FTP program matches what you see in the panel. If the situation persists, then this could mean you’ve downloaded the wrong application to use for this process. Ensure you’re using FileZilla, Cyberduck, or similar ones that allow for client connections to FTP servers. Otherwise, try resetting your password to see if that works.
After uploading the server’s world into your local game files, make sure to Restart
the client if you’ve had this open while doing it. Otherwise, simply start it up and confirm it’s in the Worlds
section. On rare occasions, the world may be uploaded in the wrong directory or isn’t valid for it to load. Double check you’ve transferred this into the …\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds
area on your computer. If the problem still continues, then verify it’s a functional map on your server and redownload it again for the process.
While trying to activate your world on the server, make sure you’ve assigned a different name compared to the old counterpart. This is required, as you’ll be entering this new one into your World
section of the panel so it can load. However, the map must be in a folder and not in a .zip or .mcworld file. Only use the zipping function to upload and unzip it from the panel, rather than to play on it. Essentially, you’ll want the contents of “.mcworld” into a folder on the server to load properly. After you’ve verified this is completed, Restart
from the panel with the correct map name selected to begin enjoying your behavior packs.
Most behavior packs should work in your world, unless they are broken or completely outdated. If you’ve confirmed that your desired addons are functioning in singleplayer, then it’ll work on the server. Unfortunately, problems may arise during the uploading process. For example, some users may forget to activate the packs in their Bedrock client. This results in few or all behavior packs not working properly on the server. However, if these don’t work anywhere, then it’s likely broken for the latest version of Bedrock.
Useful Links
How to Download a Minecraft World
How to Upload a Bedrock World
Connecting to a Server via FTP
Setup Crossplay on Minecraft Servers