Settings
server.properties explained: the settings that matter
Every Minecraft server has a file called server.properties. It’s plain text, one setting per line, and it sits in the server folder. The first start creates it with defaults. Most of the file you can ignore. A dozen lines are worth knowing.
Change settings with the server stopped. Edits made while it runs are overwritten when the server saves its own copy on shutdown.
The ones everyone touches
- motd is the message shown under your server’s name in the multiplayer list. The default is “A Minecraft Server”.
- max-players caps how many people can be on together, and it starts at 20.
- gamemode is the mode newcomers start in, survival unless you say otherwise.
- difficulty can be peaceful, easy, normal or hard. The default is easy.
- hardcore makes players spectators after dying, and it’s off by default.
- pvp allows players to hurt each other. It’s on by default.
Note that gamemode only applies to players who join for the first time, unless you also turn on force-gamemode.
The world
level-name is the name of the world folder, “world” by default. Change it and the server makes a brand new world with that name, so don’t rename it on a world you want to keep unless you also rename the folder.
level-seed lets you choose the seed. Leave it empty for a random one. It only matters when the world is first created, and changing it later does nothing to chunks that already exist.
spawn-protection stops players who aren’t operators from building or breaking blocks within that many blocks of the spawn point. It starts at 16, and it’s the reason half of all new owners ask why nobody can build near spawn. Put 0 there and it’s gone.
Performance
Two settings do most of the work here, and they’re worth understanding because they decide how heavy your server is.
view-distance is how many chunks around each player the server sends to them. The default is 10. simulation-distance is how many chunks around each player the server actually runs mobs, crops and redstone in. It also defaults to 10. Turn either down and the server has less to chew on. Taking simulation-distance to around 6 is a favourite trick, since the world barely looks different.
Values run from 3 to 32 for view-distance, and every step up costs memory and bandwidth for each player on the server.
Who gets in
white-list, together with enforce-whitelist, controls whether only named players can join. We’ll cover them properly in a post about keeping your server private.
online-mode checks every player against Mojang’s account servers and is on by default. Turning it off lets anyone claim any name, including yours or an operator’s. Leave it on unless you really know what you’re doing and have something else protecting the server.
server-port is the door the server listens on. The default is 25565. You only need to change it if you run two servers on one PC.
The ones to leave alone
Some lines look tempting and mostly cause trouble. The max-tick-time setting is a watchdog that stops the server when a single tick takes too long, and the default of 60000 milliseconds is deliberately generous. network-compression-threshold is fine at its default of 256. And enable-command-block should stay off unless you’re building something that needs command blocks.
If you’d rather not edit text files at all, Mineshire has a Properties tab that shows every setting with a short explanation in plain words, and it writes the file for you.
Quick answers
Do I have to restart after editing? Yes. The server reads the file when it starts, so stop it, edit, and start it again.
Where is the file? In the server’s own folder, next to the server jar. In Mineshire you can reach every setting from the Properties tab.