Server properties
The Properties page is a friendly editor for your server's server.properties file. You change settings with fields, drop-downs and switches instead of editing text.
The page is titled Server properties. Two things to know:
- Changes are saved automatically. There is no Save button.
- Restart the server to apply them. Changes only take effect after a restart. Use Restart on the Console.
There is a search box at the top: type a name, key or description to find a setting quickly.
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 some text and click a colour in the Colors row. It wraps the selection. If nothing is selected, it inserts the colour at your cursor.
- To format text, use the Format buttons: B (bold), I (italic), U (underline), S (strikethrough), Obfuscated (scrambled text) and Reset (go back to plain text).
- Check the PREVIEW box under the editor to see how it will look.
- Restart the server.
The editor writes the Minecraft colour and format codes for you. If you prefer to know them, here they are:
| 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. Leave it on for a normal server. |
| 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 alone unless you know why you want 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?
You can also edit server.properties directly. Open Files, click the file to edit it in the browser, save and restart. Be careful to keep each line in the key=value form.
Tips
- Change one thing at a time and restart, so you know what caused a problem.
- For lag, lower View Distance and Simulation Distance first. See Optimization.
- Make a backup before changing the world settings. See Backups.