Can't find my maps in Minecraft

I downloaded a map and extracted the .zip, then I went into the MC launcher, went to edit profile, clicked on open game dir, went into my saves folder, then I transferred my map to that folder, reloaded Minecraft, went into the singleplayer menu, and now I can't find the map. Not only that, but the maps that I created are gone as well!

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Solution 1:

clicked on open game dir, went into my saves folder, then I transferred my map to that folder

That is the right way, but make sure what you are dragging in is a folder with files like level.dat inside directly, not something like dir/to/Map/ which has a folder in it like Parkour, which is the actual map. If there is a level.dat directly in the folder you dragged in to your saves folder, you should be good.

Not only that, but the maps that I created are gone as well!

Without more information, all I can suggest is,

1. Under Edit Profile in the Minecraft launcher, is the box that says Game Directory unchecked? (Or, is it correct if you actually use this feature?)
2. Is anything under saves in the .minecraft(or minecraft on a Mac) folder? Access it using the Open Game Dir button, or go to the search bar and type %appdata% and find .minecraft on Windows, or go to ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/ on a Mac. If not, you likely can't get them back without a backup.