How to transfer Minecraft player data to a new player

What this transfers

The main playerdata/<uuid>.dat file normally stores player-specific world state such as inventory, armour, ender chest contents, experience, health, hunger, position, dimension and other NBT data. Some plugins and mods keep additional player data elsewhere and may require separate migration.

1. Find both UUIDs

Find the UUID belonging to the old Minecraft account and the UUID belonging to the new account. Use the same UUID format used by the filenames in your world folder.

2. Stop the Minecraft server

Shut the server down cleanly and confirm it is no longer writing world data.

3. Open the world playerdata folder

For a normal Java server, open your world directory and then playerdata.

world/playerdata/

4. Back up the files

Copy the old player's .dat file somewhere safe. If the new player has already joined, also back up their existing .dat file before replacing it.

5. Rename the old UUID file

Rename the old player data file so its filename uses the new player's UUID.

OLD-PLAYER-UUID.dat\n→\nNEW-PLAYER-UUID.dat

If a file already exists for the new UUID, move or rename that file first rather than blindly deleting it.

6. Check related player files

Depending on your server version and setup, you may also want to inspect world/stats/ and world/advancements/. These commonly use UUID-based JSON filenames and can be migrated in the same way.

7. Start the server and verify

Start the server, let the new account join, and verify inventory, position, experience, ender chest and other expected data. If anything is wrong, stop the server and restore the backup.