To keep your world safe and prevent data loss, we recommend creating backups of your server regularly. You can connect a Google Drive account to your Aternos server and store as many backups as you want in your Google Drive storage.
If you don’t use your server for a while, it will be deleted from your Aternos account. We recommend enabling backups to ensure you don’t lose your data. This way, you can easily restore your server whenever you need it. You can find more details in our data retention of server data article.
Creating a Backup
Step 1: Link your Google Drive account
To create and restore backups, you must first link your Google Drive account as a backup service to your Aternos account. Go to your account settings or to a server's backups page and click the "Google Drive" button. After that, grant Aternos permission to store data in your Google Drive account when asked.
Make sure to enable this checkbox when linking your Google Drive account.
Step 2: Add a backup service to your server
Backup services are only used for your server if you've added them to your server as well. This allows you to decide which backup service you want to use for which server. It also allows your friends to link their backup services to your server if you give them shared access with the "Backups" permission.
To add backup services, click the "+" button on the backups page of your server.
Step 3: Manually create a backup
To save your server’s current state, click "Create Backup." This will include all world data, player data, settings, and any plugins, mods, add-ons, or datapacks. Depending on your server's size, the backup process may take a few minutes. If you like, you can enter a custom name for your backup before clicking the create button.
You can configure your server to create backups automatically when stopping the server. It is also possible to set a maximum amount of automatic backups to save storage space. When this limit is reached, an older automatic backup will be deleted whenever a new one is created.
Restore a backup
Step 1: Select the right backup
You can restore backups from the server backups page. If you want to restore a backup from a different server or a backup service that is currently not linked, you can restore it from the account backups page.
Step 2: Restore the backup
To restore the selected backup, press the "Restore" button. Once pressed, the backup will be restored. Depending on the size of your backup, this process may take a few minutes.
Restoring a backup will completely replace your current server files, including your world.
Disconnecting a Google Drive account
Unlink your Google Drive account
You can disconnect your Google Drive account in the account settings. Disconnecting your account will not erase your backups, and you can reconnect your account to access them again at any time.
Delete backup data
If you no longer have access to your Aternos account, you can disconnect it through your Google Drive settings. To do this, open Google Drive and click on the settings icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. Next, navigate to the "Manage Apps" tab. There, locate the "Aternos Backup" app and select "Delete hidden app data" from the options available.