Update your Bedrock server version

Why a Bedrock update is not optional, how to move your server onto the current build safely, and what tends to break when you do.

6 min read · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team

Bedrock is stricter than Java about versions. A Bedrock client and a Bedrock server have to speak the same protocol, and there is no tolerance either side: one version apart and the connection is refused outright. Since Bedrock updates itself through the Microsoft Store, Google Play, the App Store or the console's own store, your players get the new version whether they want it or not, usually within days. Your server then has to catch up, and until it does nobody can get in.

The message players see

Bedrock tells you which side is behind, which is genuinely useful:

• Could not connect: Outdated server! Their game is newer than your server. This is the one you will see after a Minecraft update, and it is the one you fix by updating the server.
• Could not connect: Outdated client! Your server is newer than their game. They need to update Minecraft on their own device, which on consoles and phones means letting the store finish its update.

If you have a mix of both messages from different players, your server is in the middle and the honest answer is to move it to the current build and ask everyone else to update too. Fix the outdated server and outdated client errors covers the client side of this in more detail.

Back up before you touch anything

Updating a world is a one way trip. Once a newer Bedrock version opens your world, it upgrades the save format, and an older server will not open it again cleanly. That is why the backup is not optional advice here.

1. Open Backups in the server menu and click Create backup.
2. Name it something you will recognise, like before update.
3. Once it shows Ready, click Lock on it so it is never cleared out to make room, and click Download if you want a copy off the server entirely.

Backups: creating, restoring and scheduling has the full tour of that page. While you are being careful, also open server.properties on the Files tab and copy its contents into a text file on your computer. An update can rewrite the default config files, and having your settings written down means you are never trying to remember what view-distance used to be.

Update the server

Bedrock server files are downloaded by your server's install script rather than fetched fresh on every boot, so a plain restart will not usually move you to a new build. Re-running the install is what does it.

1. Stop the server with the Stop button at the top of the server page and wait for Offline.
2. Open the Settings tab and look at Startup settings. If your server has a version option there, set it to the build you want (or to the value that means the latest) and press its Save button.
3. Scroll down to the Reinstall server card and click Reinstall…. Read the warning, type REINSTALL in the box and click Reinstall server.
4. The server shows Installing while it works, which usually takes a couple of minutes.
5. Start the server and watch the Console tab. The startup lines name the version it is running, so you can confirm you landed where you meant to.

Reinstalling replaces the core server files and the configs the installer creates. Your worlds folder is not something the installer goes out of its way to delete, but there is no promise, which is the whole reason for the backup above. Reinstalling your server explains exactly what that card does and what it leaves behind.

If you are not sure your server has a version option, or you want to land on a specific older build rather than the newest one, ask us in Discord before you reinstall. Our team is online 24/7 and it takes a minute to check for you.

Check it worked

1. Confirm the status shows Online and the console has settled.
2. Join yourself from an updated client. If you get in, the protocol matches.
3. Check server.properties on the Server properties page under Minecraft tools. If the update reset something, put your value back and restart. Minecraft Bedrock server.properties explained lists what each setting does, including the four the panel manages from Startup settings.
4. Walk around your main base, check a redstone contraption and look at a couple of chests. World upgrades are usually clean, but it is worth ten seconds.

What tends to break

• Addons. Every pack's manifest.json declares a min_engine_version, and packs written for an older Bedrock can misbehave or stop loading after an update. Scripted behavior packs are the most fragile, because the scripting API changes between versions. Check the addon's page for an updated release, and switch on the content log (content-log-file-enabled=true) while you test so errors are written down. Reinstalling a pack is the same job as installing it the first time.
• Experiments. A Minecraft update sometimes graduates an experimental feature into the normal game, and sometimes drops one. Either can change how a world that relied on it behaves. The flags live inside the world itself, as Enabling experiments and Beta APIs on Bedrock explains, and they cannot be switched back off.
• New and renamed settings. Bedrock adds keys to server.properties and occasionally renames one. If a setting you relied on seems to do nothing, read the comment lines in your freshly installed file: they are generated by the version you are running, so they are more current than any guide.
• Custom world settings. A reinstall can reset the game mode, difficulty or allow list back to defaults. Check those first if your server feels oddly open or oddly hard afterwards.

Keeping on top of it

• Follow the update, do not chase it. There is no prize for being on a build on day one. Giving a new Bedrock release a few days means other people find the addon breakages first.
• Tell your players. A line in your Discord saying the server is updating tonight saves you a dozen messages about an outdated server error.
• Keep a locked backup per update. One good snapshot from before each update, locked so it survives, is the cheapest insurance there is.
• Update when nobody is on. The Scheduled tasks page can restart the server at a quiet hour, and doing your updates in that same window means nothing is interrupted mid build.

Common questions

Why can't my server just stay on an older version?

Because your players cannot. Bedrock updates itself through the device's store, and on consoles and phones there is effectively no way to refuse. Once their game is newer than your server, they get the outdated server error, so staying behind means nobody can play.

Does updating delete my world?

It should not. The update replaces the server program and the default config files, not your worlds folder. The reason we still insist on a backup is that the world save format is upgraded by the newer version, and that part cannot be reversed, so the backup is your only route back to the old build.

A player still cannot join after I updated. What now?

Check which message they get. Outdated client means their own game has not finished updating, which is their device's store to sort out, not your server. Outdated server means your server is still not on the current build, so look at the version line in the console and check the reinstall actually completed.

My addon stopped working after the update. Can I undo it?

You can restore the backup you took and be back where you started, which is the quick fix if the addon is essential. The better path is to look for a release of the addon built for the new Bedrock version, since the one you have will keep falling further behind each update.

Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.

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