Tutorials/Saved data Dropbox guide

This tutorial explains how to migrate your saved games to Dropbox so you can play your levels on multiple computers.

Download and Install Dropbox

The first step is to download Dropbox. Dropbox is a nifty little tool that automatically syncs content to their servers, and allows you to access it both online and through a client on your PC. The good thing about Dropbox is that it is cross platform, plus available on the web and web-enabled smartphones.

Go to http://www.dropbox.com, register for a free account, download the application and install it. You get 2GB for free automatically.

Once you have installed Dropbox, you'll need to know where the folder is that it will sync from:

• On most Windows machines, it is located inside the "My Documents" Folder.
• On Linux, the default location is in the user's home folder. For example in Ubuntu, that folder is located at ~/Dropbox
• On Mac OS, it should also be in the user's home folder.

Whichever operating system you are using, Dropbox has very good documentation and can assist you in finding help: http://www.dropbox.com/help

Copy your Minecraft saved data to your Dropbox folder

Next, we will need to make a copy of your minecraft data on the Dropbox server.

Windows

On Windows, your Minecraft data is saved in your application data folder. You can access this by holding Windows+R or hitting Start > Run and then typing "%appdata%\.minecraft" in the box. This will open your minecraft folder (if it doesn't, it may be because you have not enabled "view hidden files/folders"). Copy all the files in this folder to your Dropbox folder. For organization sake, I usually create a subfolder inside my Dropbox folder and title it "Minecraft".

Once these files are done copying, navigate back up to your appdata folder, and rename the .minecraft folder to .minecraft2 This step ensures that you:

1. Have a backup of your files in case of catastrophe, and
2. Allows us to make the symbolic link to the correct location in a later step.

Mac OS X

In Mac OS X, the minecraft data folder is located in your Username > Library > Application Support folder. You can get here quickly by opening Finder > Go > Go To Folder > type ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft. For future reference, it's best to make an alias for this folder and copy it to your desktop.

Now, copy the saves directory (~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves/) to your Dropbox's Minecraft folder (~/Dropbox/Minecraft/), unless you already have saves from Windows or Linux there.

Alternate (command line) method

mkdir ~/Dropbox/Minecraft/
cp -r ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/saves ~/Dropbox/Minecraft/
mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/saves ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/saves.old

Linux

In Linux, your minecraft data folder is located in your user home folder. However, it may be hidden from view. If you are using a GUI, ensure that you choose View > Show Hidden Files.

Copy the contents of the .minecraft folder to your Dropbox folder. As mentioned above, I usually create a folder inside the Dropbox called "Minecraft".

Once the copy is complete, rename the .minecraft folder to .minecraft2

Alternate (command line) method

Open the Terminal and type in:

cp -r ~/.minecraft ~/Dropbox/Minecraft
mv ~/.minecraft ~/.minecraft2

Create the Symbolic Links

This is the final step that will allow us to create links to the online versions of your files.

Windows

Symbolic links are similar to shortcuts, but are much more powerful. In Windows, the command mklink or junction will allow us to create a symbolic link.

'Note: If you are running Windows XP, you need to download Junction and place it in your root folder in order to enable symbolic links. Junction is available here.'

Click Start -> Run and type cmd in the box. Press enter. You'll be presented with the command line interface.

Type the following command to set up the symlink (be sure to replace <username> with your username!):

Windows Vista & 7

WARNING: Use caution when creating or deleting hardlinks! Hardlinks create an alias reference to filedata, deleting a hardlink will also delete the associated data

mklink /d "%AppData%\.minecraft" "%HomePath%\Dropbox\Minecraft"

To make sure you write the filenames and paths without any typos, it is possible to simply drag and drop a folder into your command prompt window. For example, type "mklink /d", drag and drop the .minecraft folder into the command prompt window, drag in the target Dropbox window, and then press enter.

If you get and error Cannot create a file when that file already exists. Try this... (NOTE: this links your .minecraft folder to your Dropbox folder. It appears that this confuses Dropbox and it does not update the files into the cloud).

mklink /d %HomePath\Dropbox\Minecraft %AppData%\.minecraft

Before trying this method, make sure your .minecraft folder in appdata\Roaming is deleted or renamed, mklink tries to make a "folder" called .minecraft and can't replace one if it's already there.

Deleting a Hardlink

To disconnect a hardlink use this command instead of delete:

fsutil reparsepoint delete <path>

This will remove the link but leave an empty file of the same name in its place which you can then safely remove. (Verify the folder is empty before you delete it.)

Windows XP (after installing junction.exe)

Open the Terminal and type in:

junction "%AppData%\.minecraft" "%HomePath%\My Documents\Dropbox\Minecraft"

If you are successful, the .minecraft folder should reappear in your appdata folder. When you start Minecraft after this, you should have all your previously generated worlds!

Mac OS X

Creating symbolic links in Mac OS X is easy thanks to a free application called SymbolicLinker, which will allow you to create a symbolic link via right-click in the Finder.

Download and install SymbolicLinker, available here: [1] (free).

Once installed, move your minecraft folder (located in ~/Library/Application Support/) to a folder in your Dropbox. Rightclick on this new folder and choose Make symbolic link. This will create a symbolic link in the same folder. Move this back to your minecraft folder's original destination (make sure it has the same name as the original) and you are all set to pull your game data off the internet.

Alternate (command line) method

Open the Terminal and type in:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/minecraft/saves ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves

Linux

To create the symbolic links in Linux, open up the terminal and type the following commands.

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Minecraft ~/.minecraft

Now, the .minecraft folder should be listed in your home directory and your saved worlds should all be there when you start Minecraft.

In order to link any additional computers you wish to play on, you just need to follow these steps - install Dropbox, and create the symbolic links. Voilà!

Note on Multiple Operating Systems

If you wish to sync your Minecraft files between different operating systems, it is possible that the method above will not work. This is because the bin folder inside your minecraft folder, which contains binary files which run the program (as opposed to data files, like your saved games) may be different depending on your operating system. It is possible that Linux and MacOSX are compatible in this respect, and possibly Windows Vista and Windows 7, but certainly between Windows and either Mac or Linux you may have trouble.

As of 15 May 2011, it is possible to sync your single player saves between Windows 7 and Mac OSX (tested working). This may change in the future.

If you have this problem, and still need to sync your Minecraft files between multiple computers with varying operating systems, there is a solution. It is not necessarily difficult, but it is painstaking.

Go through all the steps mentioned on your primary computer. On another computer, such as a Mac OS X computer, delete all files in the minecraft folder, except for the bin folder. In the bin folder, delete only the minecraft.jar. Proceed to make symbolic links for every folder and file into the minecraft folder. In the bin folder specifically, symbolic link the minecraft.jar into the bin folder.

If you did everything correctly, you should now have a properly functioning link between the two computers (even though they use different operating systems), using dropbox as the man-in-the-middle, that updates the other's files when one computer's files get updated.