Minecraft – What file format is used for Minecraft worlds on the PS4? How to tell if a downloaded Minecraft map is PS4 compatible

minecraft-legacy-consoleps4

I've been trying to work out how to download Minecraft worlds from the internet & upload them to my PS4. This is for casual split-screen play for my kid.

Here is an example of a map I downloaded. The map is marked as "PS4" & says:

the showcase video below got made on the PS4 by JuicyTaz201, but the
map can be played on both the PS3 and the PS4

I tried using this guide to upload the file to my PS4 & had no luck. At this point I started to wonder if the file I was downloading was in the correct format & or if the instructions were correct.

Downloading a saved Minecraft world from the PS4 to a USB results in the following directory/file structure:

--PS4
----SAVEDATA
------522695218d6772fa
--------CUSA00265

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But the file format of the file I downloaded is very different:
enter image description here

From some experimenting the PS4 will upload files in the /PS4/SAVEDATA/number/hash/.bin format.

I'm guessing that either:

  1. The file I downloaded cannot be used on PS4 Minecraft & the website I got the reference from shouldn't be trusted:
  2. or the file needs to be converted into .bin files that can be read by the PS4. If this is the case I have no idea how to do that.

I have a PS3, PS4, Ubuntu 18.04 laptop & Windows 10 laptop so if some conversion is needed hopefully I've got the right tools.

So coming back to my questions:

  1. What file format is used for Minecraft worlds on the PS4?
  2. How can I tell if a downloaded Minecraft map is PS4 compatible?

And finally is it possible to make .mcworld files PS4 compatible?

Best Answer

The root cause of your problems is that the term "PS4 edition" is ambiguous. On one hand, there's the MineCraft edition that has been on PlayStation consoles since PS3, known as Legacy Console Edition. On the other hand however, there's Bedrock Edition which results from Pocket Edition, Windows 10 Edition, Gear VR Edition and Fire TV Edition being merged in the Better Together Update, and which has since been released on PS4 as well.

You have Legacy Console Edition, whereas the .mcworld format is used by Bedrock Edition. And as you noticed, the save formats are not compatible out of the box.

Fortunately, you can convert the worlds using Universal Minecraft Converter. I've been looking into whether MCEdit Unified can be used as an alternative, but that doesn't seem to be the case. As VanguardPlayer points out, you additionally need to assign the save data to your profile, which you can do with Save Wizard. Be warned that it's paid software, costing a whopping $60. Apparently, a software called Xploder is capable of assigning save data as well, but there's a few problems with that:

  1. I couldn't find a clean direct download,
  2. it's closely associated with cheating and dirty business (might be the cause for point 1),
  3. the price tag is supposedly the same anyway.
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