Bedrock Worlds

Craftplicator reads Minecraft Java Edition worlds. If you play on a console, a phone, a tablet, or through the Microsoft Store on Windows, you have Bedrock Edition, and it stores worlds in a completely different way.

That does not lock you out. Bedrock worlds convert to Java with a free tool, and the conversion is a one-time step. This page is the whole route, from wherever your world lives now to having it open in Craftplicator.

First: which one do you have?

You play on	Edition
Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch	Bedrock
iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet	Bedrock
Windows, installed from the Microsoft Store (“Minecraft for Windows”)	Bedrock
Windows, macOS or Linux, started from the Minecraft Launcher as “Java Edition”	Java
Minecraft Education	Bedrock-based

If you are not sure, look at the world folder. A Java world contains level.dat and a region folder full of .mca files. A Bedrock world contains a db folder full of many small files.

Step 1: Get the world off the device

Windows, iOS or Android. Export it from inside the game. Open Minecraft, go to the world list, press the pencil or edit icon next to the world, scroll to the bottom of the settings and choose Export World. You get a single .mcworld file, which you can put on a USB stick, in a cloud folder or email to yourself.

Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch. There is no file export on consoles, and this is the awkward case. The route people use is a Realm: upload the world to a Realm from the console, then download it from that Realm on a Windows PC or a phone, where the export above becomes available.

A Realms subscription costs money, though it has a free trial. Realms features change, so check Minecraft’s own support pages before you rely on this. If a world exists on both your console and a PC because you played it on both, use the PC copy and skip the detour.

Minecraft Education. Worlds export as .mcworld the same way. Be aware that Education-specific blocks have no equivalent anywhere else and will not survive the conversion.

Step 2: Convert it to Java

Use Chunker. It converts Minecraft worlds between Java and Bedrock in both directions and between game versions. It is free, open source under the MIT licence, developed by Hive Games, funded by Mojang, and listed in Microsoft’s own creator documentation as the recommended conversion tool. If your school or workplace IT asks what you want to install, that sentence is the answer.

Download it only from the official releases page on GitHub. Several third-party sites offer “Chunker downloads” with their own mirrors. There is no reason to use them and every reason not to.

The desktop version has four steps and no command line:

Install and open Chunker.
Select your world: the .mcworld file, or the world folder if you have one.
Choose the output format. Pick a Java version — a recent one is fine, Craftplicator reads Java 1.13 and newer.
Press convert, and save the result.

There is also a command line version for anyone who wants to script it. It needs Java 17 or newer and takes one line:

java -jar chunker-cli-VERSION.jar -i "my_world" -f JAVA_1_21 -o output

Version coverage runs from Java 1.8.8 and Bedrock 1.12.0 up to current releases on both sides, with new game versions added as they appear. If your world is very new, check the release notes before assuming it is supported.

Step 3: Open the result in Craftplicator

The conversion produces a Java world folder containing level.dat and a region folder. Open it the way you would open any other world: press Choose folder and select it, or zip it and use Choose ZIP.

From here everything works normally. Map, walkthrough, selection, export as schematic, glTF or STL, and importing models onto the terrain.

What the conversion does and does not carry over

It carries the world. Terrain, buildings, blocks, block states. That is what Craftplicator works with, and it comes through well.

It does not carry everything else. Mobs and parts of the entity data are not converted, and some Bedrock features have no Java equivalent at all. Chunker documents its own limitations, and that page is worth two minutes before you convert something you care about.

Large worlds can run out of memory. Chunker takes up to 75 % of available memory by default, and conversions of very large worlds do fail on machines with little RAM. If that happens, close other programs, or use Chunker’s pruning settings to convert only the region you actually need.

Do not convert it back

This is the part worth being blunt about. Converting Bedrock to Java and then back to Bedrock is not a round trip that returns your world unchanged.

On the way back, the whole world is rebuilt from the converter’s internal model — not just the part you edited. Anything the converter does not model is gone, everywhere. For a world somebody has spent hundreds of hours in, that is not an acceptable trade for placing one build.

So treat the converted world as what it is: a Java copy, for looking at, exporting from and experimenting in. Keep playing the Bedrock original. Nothing Craftplicator does will touch it, because it never sees it.

If you want a build to end up in your real Bedrock world, that is a different problem with a different answer, and it does not involve converting your world twice. Ask us — it is a route we are looking at.

For teachers

The useful thing about this process in a classroom is that it happens once, on one machine, done by you.

Convert the world yourself in advance, zip the Java result, and hand that out. Students open the zip in Craftplicator and never see a converter. That matters on managed school devices, where installing a desktop application is often impossible but opening a web page is not.

Two practical notes. Pick or build a small world for the class rather than converting somebody’s four-year survival save: conversions of small worlds are quick and reliable, and a trimmed world is a better teaching artefact anyway. And check any Education Edition specific content before you build a lesson on it, since those blocks do not convert.

Why Craftplicator does not just read Bedrock directly

Because it is not one missing feature, it is a second implementation of everything.

A Bedrock world is a LevelDB database rather than a folder of region files. Reading it means implementing the database format, its compression, its write-ahead log, a different byte order for the tag data, a different sub-chunk layout and a translation table for block names that differs from Java — plus rebuilding the way the map is drawn, because Bedrock has no regions to use as tiles. It is comparable in size to everything Craftplicator does today, with a maintenance tail for every new game version.

Meanwhile a free, well-maintained converter funded by the game’s own publisher already exists and does the job well. Pointing at it is the honest answer.

If Bedrock support would make a real difference for your school, museum or project, tell us. Demand is what decides this, not difficulty.

Chunker is developed by Hive Games and is not affiliated with Craftplicator. Details on this page were last checked in September 2026; converter features and Realms functionality change, so check the official sources if something does not match.

Not an official Minecraft product. Not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft.