Minecraft 26.3 serverSetting up Wilderness Bound on your own server

Published on November 1, 2026

What is new in Wilderness Bound

Wilderness Bound is the third drop of the year after 26.1 and 26.2. The most important content:

• Dappled Forest: a new forest biome with poplars in red, orange and yellow, plus fallen logs and a complete wood set.
• Abandoned camps: deserted camps that appear in many biomes.
• Cushions and straw beds: cushions come in all 16 wool colours and you can sit on them. A straw bed lasts one night.
• New building shapes: stairs and slabs made of wool and concrete.
• Smaller changes: spectators can use Nether and End portals.

26.3 adds no new mobs. The next update is already running in snapshots, see the Minecraft 26.4 preview. There is no date yet for the stable version.

Whitelist on by default

The change with the biggest consequences is only a single line in the changelog: white-list now defaults to true. A new server therefore rejects everyone who has not been added. Players then see You are not white-listed on this server! and often take it for a fault at the host.

This is how you solve it in the console of the web interface:

whitelist add YourName    # approve a player
whitelist off             # or switch the whitelist off completely

For a private group, it is worth leaving the whitelist on and only adding your players, see Set up a whitelist. Existing servers are not affected: if you update from 26.2, the value from your server.properties stays.

Java 25 and server software

Like all versions since 26.1, 26.3 requires Java 25. With Java 21, the server does not start. How to switch and what the error message means is shown in Change the Java version.

For server software, the state depends on the project:

• Paper: 26.3 runs in the stable channel and is the best choice for most plugin servers.
• Purpur: builds on Paper and follows after it. Before updating, check whether the build is still marked as experimental.
• Spigot: is built with BuildTools for the version in question.
• Fabric and NeoForge: the loader is usually there quickly; what matters is whether your mods are already available for 26.3.

Large modpacks lag well behind. Many stay on 1.21.1 because the choice of mods is largest there, see modpack servers. There is no reason to rush for them.

Update an existing server to 26.3

1. Back up. Download the world, plugins and configuration via WebFTP or SFTP. Backups are self-service with us, see Create backups. An update cannot be undone.
2. Check plugins and mods. Look up whether each plugin has a version for 26.3. Remove what is still missing for the time being, or wait with the update.
3. Check Java. Java 25 must be set.
4. Change the version. The process is explained step by step in Change the version.
5. Test. Join once yourself, read the console and only then tell the group.

Players need the same version. The launcher brings it along by itself, but anyone who has pinned a profile to an older version has to change it. Otherwise, the game reports a version error when joining, see Connection errors.

New content only in new chunks

As with every drop, new biomes and structures only appear where the world has not been generated yet. In an old world, you will therefore only find the Dappled Forest outside the area you have already explored. The new blocks and recipes, on the other hand, are available everywhere right away.

If you want to have everything close by from the start, a fresh world is the simpler option, see Reset the world. Back up the old world first so that the way back stays open.

Frequently asked questions