Server properties
The Properties page edits your server's server.properties with fields, drop-downs and switches. A search box at the top finds a setting by name, key or description.
- Changes are saved automatically. There is no Save button.
- Restart the server to apply them, with Restart on the Console.
Edit the MOTD
The Message of the Day (MOTD) is the text players see under your server name in their server list.
- Open Properties. The MOTD editor is at the top, in the Server section.
- Type your text in the box.
- To add colour, select text and click a colour in the Colors row. With nothing selected, the colour is inserted at the cursor.
- Format with B (bold), I (italic), U (underline), S (strikethrough), Obfuscated (scrambled text) and Reset (plain text).
- Check the PREVIEW box under the editor.
- Restart the server.
The editor writes the Minecraft colour and format codes for you. For reference:
| Code | Colour | Code | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|
0 | Black | 8 | Dark gray |
1 | Dark blue | 9 | Blue |
2 | Dark green | a | Green |
3 | Dark aqua | b | Aqua |
4 | Dark red | c | Red |
5 | Dark purple | d | Light purple |
6 | Gold | e | Yellow |
7 | Gray | f | White |
Format codes: l bold, o italic, n underline, m strikethrough, k obfuscated, r reset. Each code follows a section sign, for example §6.
The most important properties
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Max Players (1-1000) | The most players that can be online at once. |
| Difficulty | Peaceful (no mobs), Easy, Normal or Hard. |
| Gamemode | Default mode for new players: Survival, Creative, Adventure or Spectator. |
| Online Mode | Verifies players with Mojang. Turn it off only for offline servers. |
| Whitelist | Only whitelisted players can join. Manage names in Players. |
| Enforce Whitelist | Kicks players who are not whitelisted when you turn the whitelist on while the server is running. |
| World Name | The name of the world folder. Changing it loads a different world. See Worlds. |
| World Seed | Seed for new worlds. Leave empty for a random one. |
| World Type | Normal, Flat, Large Biomes, Amplified or Single Biome. |
| Hardcore | Players are banned on death. |
| Spawn Protection Radius | Radius around spawn where only operators can build. |
| Allow Flight | Allows flying in survival. Turn it off to kick fly-hackers. |
| Force Gamemode | Puts players in the default gamemode every time they join. |
| View Distance (2-32) | How far players can see, in chunks. Lower is better for performance. |
| Simulation Distance (2-32) | How far from players the world is active, in chunks. Lower is better for performance. |
| Entity Broadcast Range % | How far entities are visible. 100% is the default. |
| Pause When Empty Seconds | Pauses the server after this many seconds without players. -1 turns it off. |
Other settings on the page (such as Max Tick Time, Network Compression, Max Chained Neighbor Updates, Region File Compression and Sync Chunk Writes) are advanced. Leave them unless you know why you need to change them.
Do not turn Online Mode off on a public server. Anyone could then join with any name, including an operator's name.
A setting is not on the page?
Edit server.properties directly in Files, save and restart. Keep each line in key=value form.
Tips
- Change one thing at a time and restart.
- For lag, lower View Distance and Simulation Distance first. See Optimization.
- Make a backup before changing the world settings. See Backups.