Aternos offers users around the globe to create a free Minecraft server and play with their friends without paying any money.
We take over the complete hosting and also the storage of your world, plugins, etc. while the server is not running.
To have the thousands of worlds and server data of all players always available when they are needed, we have multiple specialized machines forming a storage cluster together from which all Minecraft servers are loaded from on every server start and saved to when the server stops (You can see that as "Saving" and "Loading" status on the website).
Due to the specific requirements and features of this storage system, this is one of the most expensive components at Aternos.
To prevent this storage system from being loaded with data from users who have left us and this also remains financially viable, we are forced to delete data that has not been used for some time.
We try to save your server data for at least three months after you used your server for the last time.
The actual time when your server gets deleted depends on the general usage of Aternos at the time.
If an email address is linked to your account and 'Server deletion' notifications are enabled in your account settings, you will receive an email before your server is deleted.
How do I keep my server?
If you plan not to use your Aternos server for a longer time create a full server backup using our backup feature that stores the full server in Google Drive.
When your server gets deleted due to inactivity, backups stored in Google Drive won't be touched and they will stay unless you delete them manually / on your own e.g. in Google settings.
How do I restore my server?
Just create a new server, connect your Google Drive account and restore your backup.
If the connected Google Drive account does not show any available backups you either
- don't have the same Google account connected as the last time.
- never created a backup.
- deleted them on your own in the Google settings
The Aternos support is not able to
- provide information which Google account you used to create backups!
- find out if a backup was ever created!
- restore your server from nothing!
Some further notes:
The deletion of servers does not affect...
- Your account and account related settings. You can still log in with your usual credentials after your server data has been deleted.
- Your backups saved in Google Drive. We won't touch them in any way when we delete server data.
If you want your server data to be deleted now you can just reinstall your server on the options page to start with your server from scratch or close your account if you want to leave us and want all of your data permanently deleted.