Installing a downloaded map
Unpack the download into your saves folder and the world shows up in the singleplayer list.
Java Edition, singleplayer
A Minecraft world is a folder, and installing one means putting that folder where the game looks for saves. There is no installer and nothing to run.
- 1Download the .zip from My purchases and unpack it. You should end up with a folder containing a level.dat file — that folder is the world.
- 2Open your saves folder. On Windows press Win+R and enter %appdata%/.minecraft/saves; on macOS use Finder → Go → Go to Folder → ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves; on Linux it is ~/.minecraft/saves.
- 3Move the world folder into saves. Keep it as one folder — if level.dat ends up sitting directly in saves, you unpacked one level too deep.
- 4Start Minecraft on the version the map was made for and open Singleplayer. The world is in the list under its own name.
Using a launcher with separate instances (Prism, MultiMC, CurseForge, the Modrinth app)? Each instance keeps its own saves folder. Use the launcher's own folder button instead of the paths above, or the world lands in an instance you are not playing.
Putting a map on a server
- 1Stop the server first. Copying a world into a running server corrupts it.
- 2Rename or remove the existing world folder. Its name comes from level-name in server.properties, and it is world by default.
- 3Upload the map folder and give it that same name.
- 4Start the server and check the console for the version it loaded.