Updating a Converted Modpack to a New Minecraft Version

Here's a story a lot of modded players know. You found a Modrinth modpack, converted the .mrpack to a plain .zip, dropped the mods into your game, and played happily for months. Then a new Minecraft version lands — with the performance fixes or features you want — and suddenly your whole mods folder is stuck a version behind.

Reinstalling the pack from scratch loses your tweaks, and the pack author may not have published an update for the new version anyway. The good news: the two tools on this site are made to be used together for exactly this. Convert once, then update in place whenever you're ready to jump versions.

The workflow at a glance

1. Convert the .mrpack to a .zip and play — your mods live in a normal mods folder.
2. Time passes. A new Minecraft version comes out and you want to move up.
3. Update that same mods folder to the new version with Mod Updater, then drop the refreshed JARs back in.

The first step is a one-time thing. The rest of this guide is about the part that repeats: moving your existing mods to a new version.

Why not just re-download the pack?

Two reasons converting once and updating later tends to win:

• The pack may not have moved yet. Modpack authors update on their own schedule — sometimes never. Mod Updater pulls each mod's own latest build for your target version, independent of whether the pack itself was updated.
• You keep your setup. Your config files, key bindings, and any mods you added or removed stay exactly as you left them. You're swapping JARs, not rebuilding the instance.

Step by step

1. Back up first. Copy your current mods folder somewhere safe before you change anything, so you can roll back if a mod isn't ready for the new version.
2. Open Mod Updater and drag in every .jar from your mods folder. Each file is hashed locally and matched to its Modrinth project and version.
3. Pick the new target. Select your loader (Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt) and the new Minecraft version. The tool finds the matching build for every recognized mod and refreshes automatically.
4. Handle the stragglers. Any mod without a build for the new version yet is flagged. Use the inline override to see what that mod does offer, or decide to wait — sometimes a single dependency hasn't updated and it's worth holding off a few days.
5. Download and swap. Hit Download all as ZIP, empty your old mods folder (you have a backup), and drop in the refreshed JARs.

A realistic expectation

Right after a major Minecraft release, not every mod will have a compatible build on day one. Mod Updater shows you exactly which ones are ready and which aren't, so you can make an informed call: jump now with a couple of mods left behind, or wait until the holdouts catch up. Either way you're working from facts, not guessing JAR by JAR.

What won't be matched

Mod Updater identifies files by an exact hash, so CurseForge-exclusive mods and any repackaged JARs won't be recognized — update those from their original source. Everything indexed on Modrinth updates in the batch.

In short

Convert the pack once with the .mrpack converter, then lean on Mod Updater every time you want to ride a new Minecraft version forward — keeping your setup intact instead of starting over.