The core idea: export first, then send

Sending a Minecraft world to a friend isn’t about digging through folders to copy files — it’s a two-step process: first export the world as a single .mcworld file, then send it out using the system share sheet. A .mcworld is essentially a complete, packaged world save, so once your friend has it, they have everything you built.

This is especially true on iPhone — your save lives inside the Minecraft app’s private sandbox, which the Files app usually can’t reach (see Where are Minecraft saves for details). With mcworld.app you can export the world to a .mcworld in one tap, and what you export is a newly generated copy that never overwrites your original save: a new version is generated every time, and the original file and its hash are kept for traceability. That way, no matter how many times you share it, the world on your device stays completely safe.

How to send it to a friend

Once you have the .mcworld, just use the familiar system share channels:

  1. Select the world you want to share in mcworld.app.
  2. Export it to a .mcworld in one tap (a new copy, leaving the original untouched).
  3. Send it to your friend via AirDrop (a nearby Apple device), a messaging app, or by saving it to the Files app / cloud storage.
  4. Once your friend receives it, they can import it in Bedrock by simply opening it; see How to import a .mcworld into Minecraft for details.

Note: what to do if your friend uses Java Edition

The .mcworld format is the Bedrock format — Bedrock can import it just by opening it; but Java Edition can’t import a .mcworld directly. It’s worth noting that mcworld.app’s conversion is a one-way Java-to-Bedrock capability, and the reverse (Bedrock to Java) is not supported — in other words, you can’t hand a Bedrock world to a Java Edition friend to use directly. If you want to play together, we recommend agreeing to both use Bedrock.

Conversely, if you have a Java world and want to send it to a Bedrock friend, you can run a Java-to-Bedrock conversion first and then export the .mcworld; this conversion doesn’t promise to be 100% lossless and comes with a compatibility score and an item-by-item change report.

One last tip: before sharing, go ahead and make a local backup of the world, and run a free on-device diagnostic on the exported .mcworld to confirm its type, version, and health are all fine before sending it out — that’s more reassuring. The diagnostic is free, you pay based on the results, refunds are issued on failure, and prices are as shown in the app.