Fix "Exception ticking world" and corrupted chunks
One mob, block or chunk in your world errors every time the server touches it. The crash report gives you its coordinates, and a backup is almost always the cleanest fix.
6 min read · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team
Before anything else: take a backup right now, before you touch a single file. Open the Backups page and create one. Everything below involves either restoring data or deleting it, and a snapshot of the broken state costs you nothing and can save the whole world. Backups covers how, including downloading a copy away from the server.
Done? Good. Now read the crash.
The messages and what each one narrows down
In crash-reports on the Files tab, or in the Console tab, the Description: line tells you what kind of problem you have.
| Description | What is broken |
|---|---|
Exception ticking world | Something in the world, but the report has not narrowed it down |
Ticking entity | One mob, item, projectile or armour stand |
Ticking block entity | One chest, hopper, sign, spawner or machine |
Ticking player | One player's data or the chunk they are in |
Exception generating new chunk | World generation, often a mod or a custom generator |
Loading entity NBT or Loading Block Entity NBT | Saved data that cannot be read back |
Each one is a different repair, so do not skip this step.
Read the coordinates
This is the part people miss, and it is written right there in the report.
For Ticking entity, scroll down to the section headed with the entity's details. You get something like:
-- Entity being ticked --
Details:
Entity Type: minecraft:villager (net.minecraft.world.entity.npc.Villager)
Entity ID: 4812
Entity Name: Villager
Entity's Exact location: 412.50, 64.00, -1183.30
Entity's Block location: World: (412,64,-1183)
For Ticking block entity, the same thing with a block position. For Exception ticking world, look in the Affected level section, which gives the world name and often a chunk position.
Write those numbers down. They tell you exactly where to go.
Work out which region file holds it
Minecraft stores the world in region files, each covering an area 512 by 512 blocks. They live in world/region and are named r.<x>.<z>.mca.
To find the one containing your coordinates, divide the X and Z block coordinates by 512 and round down (towards negative infinity, so -1183 divided by 512 is -2.31, which rounds down to -3).
For the villager above, at X 412 and Z -1183:
- 412 / 512 = 0.80, rounds down to 0
- -1183 / 512 = -2.31, rounds down to -3
So the file is r.0.-3.mca.
The Nether and the End live in their own folders, world/DIM-1/region and world/DIM1/region, so check the world name in the Affected level section before you go looking.
The repairs, safest first
Restore a backup. If you have one from before the problem, this is the right answer and it takes two minutes. Open the Backups page and restore the most recent healthy backup. A restore overwrites current files, so you lose anything built since, which is why the frequency of your backups matters. If you have never set them up, Your game server backup plan is worth reading today rather than next time.
Remove only the broken thing. Download the world and open it in a desktop chunk editor such as MCA Selector, which can show you individual chunks and delete them. Delete the single chunk containing your coordinates and nothing else. On the next start the server regenerates that chunk as fresh terrain, which means anything built there is gone but the rest of the world is untouched. This is the surgical option and it is usually what you want when the backup is too old.
Some editors can also strip entities from a chunk without deleting the terrain, which saves a build while removing the mob that errors.
Let the server delete it for you. On Forge, forge-server.toml in the config folder has options to remove erroring entities and block entities instead of crashing:
[server]
removeErroringBlockEntities = false
removeErroringEntities = false
Setting either to true makes the server delete whatever errors rather than crashing. That gets you running again immediately, and it deletes something permanently without asking. Only use it with a backup in hand, and set it back to false afterwards so a future problem does not get silently eaten.
Delete the region file. The blunt option. Delete r.0.-3.mca and that whole 512 by 512 area regenerates from scratch. Everything built in it is lost. Only reach for this when you know nothing important is in that area.
When level.dat is the problem
If the server crashes before it loads any chunks, and the error mentions level.dat, the world's main data file is damaged rather than a chunk.
Minecraft keeps a spare. In the world folder there is usually level.dat_old. Rename level.dat to something else, then rename level.dat_old to level.dat, and start the server. You lose whatever changed between the two saves, which is usually seconds of game time.
If both are damaged, restore a backup.
Why it happened
Worth knowing so it does not happen again.
- A hard stop during a save. This is the big one. Force stop during a world save, or a crash mid-save, leaves half-written files. Always use Stop and wait for Offline: Start, stop and restart your server safely covers the difference.
- Out of memory. A server killed for exceeding its memory limit does not get to finish saving. Fix java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space covers that cause.
- A mod removed from a world that used it. Blocks and entities from a mod you deleted have saved data nothing can read. Put the mod back, remove the content in game, then remove the mod.
- A version upgrade gone wrong. Converting a world to a new format is one way, and an interrupted conversion leaves a mess. Always do it on a copy.
- An impossible entity state, usually from a mod bug or a command that created something the game cannot handle.
For reading crash reports generally rather than this one error, Minecraft server crashing? Read the crash report covers the skill.
A routine that works
- Take a backup of the broken state.
- Read the
Descriptionline and the coordinates. - Restore a healthy backup if you have one. Stop here if that works.
- If not, work out the region file and delete just that chunk with an editor.
- Start the server, read the Console, and check the area in game.
- Set up scheduled backups so next time step three is the whole answer.
Common questions
Will deleting a chunk delete my whole world?
No. Each region file covers a 512 by 512 block area and a chunk is 16 by 16, so a chunk editor deleting one chunk removes a very small patch that then regenerates as fresh terrain. Deleting the whole region file is the much larger change, and that is a separate decision.
Can I fix a corrupted chunk without losing anything?
Sometimes. If you have a backup from before the damage, restoring it loses only what you built since. Some chunk editors can also strip just the entities from a chunk, which removes the mob that errors while leaving the terrain and builds in place.
How did my world get corrupted in the first place?
Most often an interrupted save: a force stop, a crash, or the process being killed for running out of memory while it was writing world files. Removing a mod from a world that still contains its blocks does it too, because the saved data no longer has anything that can read it.
Should I turn on removeErroringEntities on Forge?
Only with a current backup and only temporarily. It gets a crashing server running again by deleting whatever errors, which is useful in the moment but permanently destroys that entity or block without telling you what it was.
Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.
- minecraft
- java
- crash
- world
- chunks
- troubleshooting
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