Enabling Experimental Features

Mojang rolls out some of the new Minecraft features through Experimental Features, which may ship in Snapshots, Betas, or full releases of either Java Edition or Bedrock Edition. These features are deemed to be unstable, subject to change, and likely to leave your world unable to update, but it can be fun to play around with the latest features and provide feedback. If you’d like to enable these features on your server, follow the steps below!

Minecraft Bedrock Edition worlds have the option to enable individual Experimental Features that may be changed or even break in future versions. These features may prevent your world from working in newer versions of the game, even versions where those features are fully implemented, and should only be used on worlds you don’t intend to keep.

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For information on what Experimental Features are currently available for Minecraft Bedrock Edition, checkout this article on the Microsoft website.

Using a New World

If you don’t currently have a world you want to enable Experimental Features on, or you don’t already have a save with Experimental Features enabled you can create a new save to do so. The first thing you’ll need to is open your Bedrock Client and create a world. Then you’ll want to enable the Experimental Features you want to use, load into the world, and wait a few moments for the game to save.

Once you have a world with Experimental Features enabled, you can follow these steps to upload it to your server.

1. Stop your server.

   Failure to stop your server before uploading a world may result in data loss or corruption.

2. Locate the Saves you want to upload.

   If your upload a save from a backup of your server, locate the folder that contains a levelname.txt file.
   If you're uploading a world from Single player, use the information below to locate the saves folder.

   Windows

   The location of the saves folder is different for each platform that Minecraft Bedrock runs on, but the client with the easiest saves location is Windows, which you can access by entering the following address into the run box (Win+R) or the address bar of a File Explorer window.

   %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds

   Other systems

   Other versions of Minecraft Bedrock edition may require special privileges on your device, a 3rd-party program, or a pre-existing configuration to store your worlds to an external location. It’s recommended to use Windows if you have access to it, or research other methods of locating or accessing the saves location if you do not.

3. Open FileZilla or another SFTP application.

   You'll need to connect to your server using SFTP in order to upload the world. If you haven't done this before, check out our guide on Using SFTP.

4. Navigate to the worlds folder on your server Using SFTP.
5. Delete the existing world folder (usually named bedrockWorld).
6. Upload your world folder to the worlds directory.
7. Open the server.properties file in your server's root directory.

   You can either use the File Manager in the WinterNode Control Panel or download the file via SFTP, edit it locally, and re-upload it.

8. Find the line that starts with level-name=<world name> and change the value to match the name of your uploaded world folder.

   For example, if your world folder is named MyWorld, the line should read level-name=MyWorld.

9. Start your server.

With the new world uploaded, you’re ready to start your server and take full advantage of the Experimental Features you’ve enabled.

Edit an Existing Server World

If you already have a world on your server that you’d like to use Experimental Features on, you’ll need to start by downloading the world Using SFTP from the servers worlds directory. After you’ve downloaded the world, you can move it to your Bedrock Clients save directory in the next step.

warning

Make sure you take a backup of your existing world. Enabling Experimental Features is a destructive process and can not be reversed.

Locating the Saves Folder

Windows

The location of the saves folder is different for each platform that Minecraft Bedrock runs on, but the client with the easiest saves location is Windows, which you can access by entering the following address into the run box (Win+R) or the address bar of a File Explorer window.

%LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds

Other systems

Other versions of Minecraft Bedrock edition may require special privileges on your device, a 3rd-party program, or a pre-existing configuration to store your worlds to an external location. It’s recommended to use Windows if you have access to it, or research other methods of locating or accessing the saves location if you do not.

Enabling Experimental Features

Now that you’ve located the saves folder, you can move the world you downloaded from your server to your save folder. Then you’ll want to open your Bedrock Client and click the edit button on the right side of the world that has been added to your worlds list. You can then enable the Experimental Features you’d like to use, starting by enabling the first one and accepting the warning about the dangers of Experimental Features and then moving to the new copy of the world that Minecraft creates for you.

Upload and Configure

With experimental features enabled, you'll need to follow these steps to upload the save to your server.

1. Stop your server.

   Failure to stop your server before uploading a world may result in data loss or corruption.

2. Locate the Saves you want to upload.

   If your upload a save from a backup of your server, locate the folder that contains a levelname.txt file.
   If you're uploading a world from Single player, use the information below to locate the saves folder.

   Windows

   The location of the saves folder is different for each platform that Minecraft Bedrock runs on, but the client with the easiest saves location is Windows, which you can access by entering the following address into the run box (Win+R) or the address bar of a File Explorer window.

   %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds

   Other systems

   Other versions of Minecraft Bedrock edition may require special privileges on your device, a 3rd-party program, or a pre-existing configuration to store your worlds to an external location. It’s recommended to use Windows if you have access to it, or research other methods of locating or accessing the saves location if you do not.

3. Open FileZilla or another SFTP application.

   You'll need to connect to your server using SFTP in order to upload the world. If you haven't done this before, check out our guide on Using SFTP.

4. Navigate to the worlds folder on your server Using SFTP.
5. Delete the existing world folder (usually named bedrockWorld).
6. Upload your world folder to the worlds directory.
7. Open the server.properties file in your server's root directory.

   You can either use the File Manager in the WinterNode Control Panel or download the file via SFTP, edit it locally, and re-upload it.

8. Find the line that starts with level-name=<world name> and change the value to match the name of your uploaded world folder.

   For example, if your world folder is named MyWorld, the line should read level-name=MyWorld.

9. Start your server.

Using an Existing World

You can also upload an existing world from your Bedrock Client that has Experimental Features enabled. You’ll want to start by clicking on the pencil icon on the right side of the world on your world list to make sure that all of the features you want are enabled, and then enabling them if they aren’t. You’ll then want to locate the saves folder for your Bedrock Client, then upload it to your server using the following steps.

1. Stop your server.

   Failure to stop your server before uploading a world may result in data loss or corruption.

2. Locate the Saves you want to upload.

   If your upload a save from a backup of your server, locate the folder that contains a levelname.txt file.
   If you're uploading a world from Single player, use the information below to locate the saves folder.

   Windows

   The location of the saves folder is different for each platform that Minecraft Bedrock runs on, but the client with the easiest saves location is Windows, which you can access by entering the following address into the run box (Win+R) or the address bar of a File Explorer window.

   %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds

   Other systems

   Other versions of Minecraft Bedrock edition may require special privileges on your device, a 3rd-party program, or a pre-existing configuration to store your worlds to an external location. It’s recommended to use Windows if you have access to it, or research other methods of locating or accessing the saves location if you do not.

3. Open FileZilla or another SFTP application.

   You'll need to connect to your server using SFTP in order to upload the world. If you haven't done this before, check out our guide on Using SFTP.

4. Navigate to the worlds folder on your server Using SFTP.
5. Delete the existing world folder (usually named bedrockWorld).
6. Upload your world folder to the worlds directory.
7. Open the server.properties file in your server's root directory.

   You can either use the File Manager in the WinterNode Control Panel or download the file via SFTP, edit it locally, and re-upload it.

8. Find the line that starts with level-name=<world name> and change the value to match the name of your uploaded world folder.

   For example, if your world folder is named MyWorld, the line should read level-name=MyWorld.

9. Start your server.

With the new world uploaded, you’re ready to start your server and take full advantage of the Experimental Features you’ve enabled.