Minecraft server.properties explainedThe most important settings of your server

Published on October 20, 2026

Where do I find the file?

server.properties is in your server's main directory and is created automatically on the first start. You edit it conveniently in the online config editor in the panel or via SFTP. After changes, a restart is needed for them to take effect.

The most important settings

• gamemode - default game mode (survival, creative, adventure, spectator)
• difficulty - difficulty (peaceful, easy, normal, hard)
• level-name - name of the world folder (default: world)
• level-seed - seed for world generation (see Change the seed)
• max-players - your own player limit (slots are unlimited with us, but you can deliberately set a limit)
• motd - the text shown in the server list
• white-list - whitelist on/off (see Set up a whitelist)
• pvp - allow player-versus-player combat (true/false). Only applies up to Java 1.21.8: since 1.21.9, PvP is no longer in server.properties but a game rule - you then set it in the game or in the console with /gamerule pvp false. The same applies to spawn-monsters, allow-nether and enable-command-block.
• online-mode - Mojang authentication (true on single servers; false in networks behind a proxy)
• view-distance and simulation-distance - view distance; smaller values ease the load on the CPU
• spawn-protection - protected area around the spawn

Design the MOTD

The MOTD (message of the day) is the line under your server name in the list. With formatting codes (e.g. using the section sign), you colour it or make text bold. In the panel, a MOTD formatter helps you so that you do not have to memorize the codes. A clean server name plus a meaningful MOTD looks inviting and professional. Next to it, you can show your own server icon.

For performance tuning with many players, fine-tuning view-distance and simulation-distance is worthwhile - reducing it from 12 to 8 often brings noticeably better TPS without being very noticeable in the game. More in Lag and TPS.

Values that only apply to a new world

Some settings take effect at any time after a restart; others determine something when the world is generated and have no effect afterwards. This distinction saves you the most common futile troubleshooting:

level-name plays a special role: the value determines which folder is loaded. A new name creates a new world; the old folder is kept alongside it. That is the simplest way to switch between two worlds - and at the same time the most common reason why an uploaded world does not appear, see Upload a world.

online-mode: do not touch

One value deserves a clear warning. online-mode=true ensures that the server checks with Mojang whether a player actually owns the account they are joining with. If the value is set to false, this check is dropped - and anyone can connect under any name.

The practical consequence: someone joins under your name and has all OP rights. On a publicly reachable server, this is not a theoretical danger but happens within days. Leave the value at true.

Bedrock players on a crossplay server do not need this shortcut - Floodgate solves it cleanly, see Set up crossplay.

Edit without losing work

The file consists of key=value lines, without spaces around the equals sign. max-players = 20 is not read reliably, max-players=20 is. Comments start with # at the beginning of the line.

The timing is even more important: Minecraft rewrites the file with its own state when it shuts down. If you edit it via WebFTP or SFTP while the server is running, you lose the changes at the next stop. The clean order is: stop the server, edit, start.

Before major changes, backing up the server folder is worthwhile - backups are self-service with us throughout, see Create backups. And if a setting simply will not take effect, check in this order: was there a restart? Does the value belong to world generation? Does a plugin override it? The third case is more common on a Paper server than you would think.

Frequently asked questions