How to edit server.properties

Do you want to edit the settings for your Minecraft server? This article will explain how to change certain functions of your server.

This process will require your server to be restarted. If you do not know how to do this, please see this article here.
1. Login to the Modern Hosting Game Panel, select your server, and then click on the “File Manager” button on the left sidebar.
2. Open your server’s configuration file for Minecraft, located at:
Server.properties
3. Make any necessary changes, and then click “Save File” to save your changes. 
4. "Restart" your server using the button on the console page so that your changes will take effect.
A full list of settings and their functions can be found here. Please note that Modern Hosting is publishing this link as a resource, and we are not responsible for content on external links.
Key
Default Value
Description
allow-flight
false
Allows users to use flight on the server while in Survival mode, if they have a mod that provides flight installed.
With allow-flight enabled, griefers may become more common, because it makes their work easier. In Creative mode, this has no effect.false - Flight is not allowed (players in air for at least 5 seconds get kicked).true - Flight is allowed, and used if the player has a fly mod installed.
allow-nether
true
Allows players to travel to the Nether.false - Nether portals do not work.true - The server allows portals to send players to the Nether.
broadcast-console-to-ops
true
Send console command outputs to all online operators.
broadcast-rcon-to-ops
true
Send rcon console command outputs to all online operators.
difficulty
easy
Defines the difficulty (such as damage dealt by mobs and the way hunger and poison affects players) of the server.
If a legacy difficulty number is specified, it is silently converted to a difficulty name.peaceful (0)easy (1)normal (2)hard (3)
enable-command-block
false
Enables command blocks
enable-jmx-monitoring
false
Exposes an MBean with the Object name net.minecraft.server:type=Server and two attributes averageTickTime and tickTimes exposing the tick times in milliseconds.
In order for enabling JMX on the Java runtime you also need to add a couple of JVM flags to the startup as documented here.
enable-rcon
false
Enables remote access to the server console.
sync-chunk-writes
true
Enables synchronous chunk writes.
enable-status
true
Makes the server appear as "online" on the server list.
If set to false, it will suppress replies from clients. This means it will appear as offline, but will still accept connections.
enable-query
false
Enables GameSpy4 protocol server listener. Used to get information about server.
entity-broadcast-range-percentage
100
Controls how close entities need to be before being sent to clients. Higher values means they'll be rendered from farther away, potentially causing more lag. This is expressed the percentage of the default value. For example, setting to 50 will make it half as usual. This mimics the function on the client video settings (not unlike Render Distance, which the client can customize so long as it's under the server's setting).
force-gamemode
false
Force players to join in the default game mode.false - Players join in the gamemode they left in.true - Players always join in the default gamemode.
function-permission-level
2
Sets the default permission level for functions.
See #op-permission-level for the details on the 4 levels.
gamemode
survival
Defines the mode of gameplay.
If a legacy gamemode number is specified, it is silently converted to a gamemode name.survival (0)creative (1)adventure (2)spectator (3)
generate-structures
true
Defines whether structures (such as villages) can be generated.false - Structures are not generated in new chunks.true - Structures are generated in new chunks.
Note: Dungeons still generate if this is set to false.
generator-settings
blank
The settings used to customize world generation. Follow its format and write the corresponding JSON string. Remember to escape all : with \:.
hardcore
false
If set to true, server difficulty is ignored and set to hard and players are set to spectator mode if they die.
level-name
world
The "level-name" value is used as the world name and its folder name. The player may also copy their saved game folder here, and change the name to the same as that folder's to load it instead.Characters such as ' (apostrophe) may need to be escaped by adding a backslash before them.
level-seed
blank
Sets a world seed for the player's world, as in Singleplayer. The world generates with a random seed if left blank.Some examples are: minecraft, 404, 1a2b3c.
level-type
default
Determines the type of map that is generated.default - Standard world with hills, valleys, water, etc.flat - A flat world with no features, can be modified with generator-settings.largeBiomes - Same as default but all biomes are larger.amplified - Same as default but world-generation height limit is increased.buffet - Only for 1.15 or before. Same as default unless generator-settings is set.
max-build-height
256
The maximum height allowed for building. Terrain may still naturally generate above a low height limit. 256 is the maximum possible, it also has to be a multiple of 8.
max-players
20
The maximum number of players that can play on the server at the same time. Note that more players on the server consume more resources. Note also, op player connections are not supposed to count against the max players, but ops currently cannot join a full server. However, this can be changed by going to the file called ops.json in the player's server directory, opening it, finding the op that the player wants to change, and changing the setting called bypassesPlayerLimit to true (the default is false). This means that that op does not have to wait for a player to leave in order to join. Extremely large values for this field result in the client-side user list being broken.
max-tick-time

60000
The maximum number of milliseconds a single tick may take before the server watchdog stops the server with the message, A single server tick took 60.00 seconds (should be max 0.05); Considering it to be crashed, server will forcibly shutdown. Once this criterion is met, it calls System.exit(1).-1 - disable watchdog entirely (this disable option was added in 14w32a)
max-world-size

29999984
This sets the maximum possible size in blocks, expressed as a radius, that the world border can obtain. Setting the world border bigger causes the commands to complete successfully but the actual border does not move past this block limit. Setting the max-world-size higher than the default doesn't appear to do anything.
Examples:
Setting max-world-size to 1000 allows the player to have a 2000×2000 world border.
Setting max-world-size to 4000 gives the player an 8000×8000 world border.
motd
A Minecraft Server
This is the message that is displayed in the server list of the client, below the name.
The MOTD supports color and formatting codes.
The MOTD supports special characters, such as "♥". However, such characters must be converted to escaped Unicode form. An online converter can be found here.
If the MOTD is over 59 characters, the server list may report a communication error.
network-compression-threshold

256
By default it allows packets that are n-1 bytes big to go normally, but a packet of n bytes or more gets compressed down. So, a lower number means more compression but compressing small amounts of bytes might actually end up with a larger result than what went in.-1 - disable compression entirely0 - compress everything
Note: The Ethernet spec requires that packets less than 64 bytes become padded to 64 bytes. Thus, setting a value lower than 64 may not be beneficial. It is also not recommended to exceed the MTU, typically 1500 bytes.
online-mode
true
Server checks connecting players against Minecraft account database. Set this to false only if the player's server is not connected to the Internet. Hackers with fake accounts can connect if this is set to false! If minecraft.net is down or inaccessible, no players can connect if this is set to true. Setting this variable to off purposely is called "cracking" a server, and servers that are present with online mode off are called "cracked" servers, allowing players with unlicensed copies of Minecraft to join.true - Enabled. The server assumes it has an Internet connection and checks every connecting player.false - Disabled. The server does not attempt to check connecting players.
op-permission-level
4
Sets the default permission level for ops when using /op. All levels inherit abilities and commands from levels before them.1 - Ops can bypass spawn protection.2 - Ops can use all singleplayer cheats commands (except /publish, as it is not on servers; along with /debug) and use command blocks. Command blocks, along with Realms owners/operators, have the same permissions as this level.3 - Ops can use most multiplayer-exclusive commands, including /debug, and commands that manage players (/ban, /op, etc).4 - Ops can use all commands including /stop, /save-all, /save-on, and /save-off.
player-idle-timeout
0
If non-zero, players are kicked from the server if they are idle for more than that many minutes.Note: Idle time is reset when the server receives one of the following packets:
​Click Window​
​Enchant Item​
​Update Sign​
​Player Digging​
​Player Block Placement​
​Held Item Change​
​Animation (swing arm)
​Entity Action​
​Client Status​
​Chat Message​
​Use Entity​
prevent-proxy-connections
false
If the ISP/AS sent from the server is different from the one from Mojang's authentication server, the player is kickedtrue - Enabled. Server prevents users from using vpns or proxies.false - Disabled. The server doesn't prevent users from using vpns or proxies.
pvp
true
Enable PvP on the server. Players shooting themselves with arrows receive damage only if PvP is enabled.true - Players can kill each other.false - Players cannot kill other players (also known as Player versus Environment (PvE)).
Note: Indirect damage sources spawned by players (such as lava, fire, TNT and to some extent water, sand and gravel) still deal damage to other players.
query.port
25565
Sets the port for the query server (see enable-query).
rate-limit
0
Sets the maximum amount of packets a user can send before getting kicked. Setting to 0 disables this feature.
rcon.password
blank
Sets the password for RCON: a remote console protocol that can allow other applications to connect and interact with a Minecraft server over the internet.
rcon.port
25575
Sets the RCON network port.
resource-pack
blank
Optional URI to a resource pack. The player may choose to use it.
Note that (in some versions before 1.15.2), the ":" and "=" characters need to be escaped with a backslash (\), e.g. http\://somedomain.com/somepack.zip?someparam\=somevalue
The resource pack may not have a larger file size than 100 MiB (Before 1.15: 50 MiB (≈ 50.4 MB)). Note that download success or failure is logged by the client, and not by the server.
resource-pack-sha1

blank
Optional SHA-1 digest of the resource pack, in lowercase hexadecimal. It is recommended to specify this, because it is used to verify the integrity of the resource pack.
Note: If the resource pack is any different, a yellow message "Invalid sha1 for resource-pack-sha1" appears in the console when the server starts. Due to the nature of hash functions, errors have a tiny probability of occurring, so this consequence has no effect.
server-ip
blank
The player should set this if they want the server to bind to a particular IP. It is strongly recommended that the player leaves server-ip blank.Set to blank, or the IP the player want their server to run (listen) on.
server-port
25565
Changes the port the server is hosting (listening) on. This port must be forwarded if the server is hosted in a network using NAT (if the player has a home router/firewall).
snooper-enabled
true
Sets whether the server sends snoop data regularly to http://snoop.minecraft.net.false - disable snooping.true - enable snooping.
spawn-animals
true
Determines if animals can spawn.true - Animals spawn as normal.false - Animals immediately vanish.
If the player has major lag, it is recommended to turn this off/set to false.
spawn-monsters
true
Determines if monsters can spawn.true - Enabled. Monsters appear at night and in the dark.false - Disabled. No monsters.
This setting has no effect if difficulty = 0 (peaceful). If difficulty is not = 0, a monster can still spawn from a spawner.
If the player has major lag, it is recommended to turn this off/set to false.
spawn-npcs
true
Determines whether villagers can spawn.true - Enabled. Villagers spawn.false - Disabled. No villagers.
spawn-protection
16
Determines the side length of the square spawn protection area as 2x+1. Setting this to 0 does not disable spawn protection, but protects the single block at the spawn point. A value of 1 protects a 3×3 square centered on the spawn point. 2 protects 5×5, 3 protects 7×7, etc. This option is not generated on the first server start and appears when the first player joins. If there are no ops set on the server, the spawn protection is disabled automatically.
use-native-transport
true
Linux server performance improvements: optimized packet sending/receiving on Linuxtrue - Enabled. Enable Linux packet sending/receiving optimizationfalse - Disabled. Disable Linux packet sending/receiving optimization
view-distance
10
Sets the amount of world data the server sends the client, measured in chunks in each direction of the player (radius, not diameter). It determines the server-side viewing distance.
10 is the default/recommended. If the player has major lag, this value is recommended to be reduced.
white-list
false
Enables a whitelist on the server.
With a whitelist enabled, users not on the whitelist cannot connect. Intended for private servers, such as those for real-life friends or strangers carefully selected via an application process, for example.false - No white list is used.true - The file whitelist.json is used to generate the white list.
Note: Ops are automatically whitelisted, and there is no need to add them to the whitelist.
enforce-whitelist
false
Enforces the whitelist on the server.
When this option is enabled, users who are not present on the whitelist (if it's enabled) get kicked from the server after the server reloads the whitelist file.false - No user gets kicked if not on the whitelist.true - Online users not on the whitelist get kicked.
​

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Key	Default Value	Description
allow-flight	false	Allows users to use flight on the server while in Survival mode, if they have a mod that provides flight installed. With allow-flight enabled, griefers may become more common, because it makes their work easier. In Creative mode, this has no effect.false - Flight is not allowed (players in air for at least 5 seconds get kicked).true - Flight is allowed, and used if the player has a fly mod installed.
allow-nether	true	Allows players to travel to the Nether.false - Nether portals do not work.true - The server allows portals to send players to the Nether.
broadcast-console-to-ops	true	Send console command outputs to all online operators.
broadcast-rcon-to-ops	true	Send rcon console command outputs to all online operators.
difficulty	easy	Defines the difficulty (such as damage dealt by mobs and the way hunger and poison affects players) of the server. If a legacy difficulty number is specified, it is silently converted to a difficulty name.peaceful (0)easy (1)normal (2)hard (3)
enable-command-block	false	Enables command blocks
enable-jmx-monitoring	false	Exposes an MBean with the Object name `net.minecraft.server:type=Server` and two attributes `averageTickTime` and `tickTimes` exposing the tick times in milliseconds. In order for enabling JMX on the Java runtime you also need to add a couple of JVM flags to the startup as documented here.
enable-rcon	false	Enables remote access to the server console.
sync-chunk-writes	true	Enables synchronous chunk writes.
enable-status	true	Makes the server appear as "online" on the server list. If set to false, it will suppress replies from clients. This means it will appear as offline, but will still accept connections.
enable-query	false	Enables GameSpy4 protocol server listener. Used to get information about server.
entity-broadcast-range-percentage	100	Controls how close entities need to be before being sent to clients. Higher values means they'll be rendered from farther away, potentially causing more lag. This is expressed the percentage of the default value. For example, setting to 50 will make it half as usual. This mimics the function on the client video settings (not unlike Render Distance, which the client can customize so long as it's under the server's setting).
force-gamemode	false	Force players to join in the default game mode.false - Players join in the gamemode they left in.true - Players always join in the default gamemode.
function-permission-level	2	Sets the default permission level for functions. See #op-permission-level for the details on the 4 levels.
gamemode	survival	Defines the mode of gameplay. If a legacy gamemode number is specified, it is silently converted to a gamemode name.survival (0)creative (1)adventure (2)spectator (3)
generate-structures	true	Defines whether structures (such as villages) can be generated.false - Structures are not generated in new chunks.true - Structures are generated in new chunks. Note: Dungeons still generate if this is set to false.
generator-settings	blank	The settings used to customize world generation. Follow its format and write the corresponding JSON string. Remember to escape all `:` with `\:`.
hardcore	false	If set to true, server difficulty is ignored and set to hard and players are set to spectator mode if they die.
level-name	world	The "level-name" value is used as the world name and its folder name. The player may also copy their saved game folder here, and change the name to the same as that folder's to load it instead.Characters such as ' (apostrophe) may need to be escaped by adding a backslash before them.
level-seed	blank	Sets a world seed for the player's world, as in Singleplayer. The world generates with a random seed if left blank.Some examples are: minecraft, 404, 1a2b3c.
level-type	default	Determines the type of map that is generated.default - Standard world with hills, valleys, water, etc.flat - A flat world with no features, can be modified with generator-settings.largeBiomes - Same as default but all biomes are larger.amplified - Same as default but world-generation height limit is increased.buffet - Only for 1.15 or before. Same as default unless generator-settings is set.
max-build-height	256	The maximum height allowed for building. Terrain may still naturally generate above a low height limit. 256 is the maximum possible, it also has to be a multiple of 8.
max-players	20	The maximum number of players that can play on the server at the same time. Note that more players on the server consume more resources. Note also, op player connections are not supposed to count against the max players, but ops currently cannot join a full server. However, this can be changed by going to the file called ops.json in the player's server directory, opening it, finding the op that the player wants to change, and changing the setting called bypassesPlayerLimit to true (the default is false). This means that that op does not have to wait for a player to leave in order to join. Extremely large values for this field result in the client-side user list being broken.
max-tick-time	60000	The maximum number of milliseconds a single tick may take before the server watchdog stops the server with the message, A single server tick took 60.00 seconds (should be max 0.05); Considering it to be crashed, server will forcibly shutdown. Once this criterion is met, it calls System.exit(1).-1 - disable watchdog entirely (this disable option was added in 14w32a)
max-world-size	29999984	This sets the maximum possible size in blocks, expressed as a radius, that the world border can obtain. Setting the world border bigger causes the commands to complete successfully but the actual border does not move past this block limit. Setting the max-world-size higher than the default doesn't appear to do anything. Examples: Setting max-world-size to 1000 allows the player to have a 2000×2000 world border. Setting max-world-size to 4000 gives the player an 8000×8000 world border.
motd	A Minecraft Server	This is the message that is displayed in the server list of the client, below the name. The MOTD supports color and formatting codes. The MOTD supports special characters, such as "♥". However, such characters must be converted to escaped Unicode form. An online converter can be found here. If the MOTD is over 59 characters, the server list may report a communication error.
network-compression-threshold	256	By default it allows packets that are n-1 bytes big to go normally, but a packet of n bytes or more gets compressed down. So, a lower number means more compression but compressing small amounts of bytes might actually end up with a larger result than what went in.-1 - disable compression entirely0 - compress everything Note: The Ethernet spec requires that packets less than 64 bytes become padded to 64 bytes. Thus, setting a value lower than 64 may not be beneficial. It is also not recommended to exceed the MTU, typically 1500 bytes.
online-mode	true	Server checks connecting players against Minecraft account database. Set this to false only if the player's server is not connected to the Internet. Hackers with fake accounts can connect if this is set to false! If minecraft.net is down or inaccessible, no players can connect if this is set to true. Setting this variable to off purposely is called "cracking" a server, and servers that are present with online mode off are called "cracked" servers, allowing players with unlicensed copies of Minecraft to join.true - Enabled. The server assumes it has an Internet connection and checks every connecting player.false - Disabled. The server does not attempt to check connecting players.
op-permission-level	4	Sets the default permission level for ops when using `/op`. All levels inherit abilities and commands from levels before them.1 - Ops can bypass spawn protection.2 - Ops can use all singleplayer cheats commands (except `/publish`, as it is not on servers; along with `/debug`) and use command blocks. Command blocks, along with Realms owners/operators, have the same permissions as this level.3 - Ops can use most multiplayer-exclusive commands, including `/debug`, and commands that manage players (`/ban`, `/op`, etc).4 - Ops can use all commands including `/stop`, `/save-all`, `/save-on`, and `/save-off`.
player-idle-timeout	0	If non-zero, players are kicked from the server if they are idle for more than that many minutes.Note: Idle time is reset when the server receives one of the following packets: Click Window Enchant Item Update Sign Player Digging Player Block Placement Held Item Change Animation (swing arm) Entity Action Client Status Chat Message Use Entity
prevent-proxy-connections	false	If the ISP/AS sent from the server is different from the one from Mojang's authentication server, the player is kickedtrue - Enabled. Server prevents users from using vpns or proxies.false - Disabled. The server doesn't prevent users from using vpns or proxies.
pvp	true	Enable PvP on the server. Players shooting themselves with arrows receive damage only if PvP is enabled.true - Players can kill each other.false - Players cannot kill other players (also known as Player versus Environment (PvE)). Note: Indirect damage sources spawned by players (such as lava, fire, TNT and to some extent water, sand and gravel) still deal damage to other players.
query.port	25565	Sets the port for the query server (see enable-query).
rate-limit	0	Sets the maximum amount of packets a user can send before getting kicked. Setting to 0 disables this feature.
rcon.password	blank	Sets the password for RCON: a remote console protocol that can allow other applications to connect and interact with a Minecraft server over the internet.
rcon.port	25575	Sets the RCON network port.
resource-pack	blank	Optional URI to a resource pack. The player may choose to use it. Note that (in some versions before 1.15.2), the ":" and "=" characters need to be escaped with a backslash (\), e.g. http\://somedomain.com/somepack.zip?someparam\=somevalue The resource pack may not have a larger file size than 100 MiB (Before 1.15: 50 MiB (≈ 50.4 MB)). Note that download success or failure is logged by the client, and not by the server.
resource-pack-sha1	blank	Optional SHA-1 digest of the resource pack, in lowercase hexadecimal. It is recommended to specify this, because it is used to verify the integrity of the resource pack. Note: If the resource pack is any different, a yellow message "Invalid sha1 for resource-pack-sha1" appears in the console when the server starts. Due to the nature of hash functions, errors have a tiny probability of occurring, so this consequence has no effect.
server-ip	blank	The player should set this if they want the server to bind to a particular IP. It is strongly recommended that the player leaves server-ip blank.Set to blank, or the IP the player want their server to run (listen) on.
server-port	25565	Changes the port the server is hosting (listening) on. This port must be forwarded if the server is hosted in a network using NAT (if the player has a home router/firewall).
snooper-enabled	true	Sets whether the server sends snoop data regularly to http://snoop.minecraft.net.false - disable snooping.true - enable snooping.
spawn-animals	true	Determines if animals can spawn.true - Animals spawn as normal.false - Animals immediately vanish. If the player has major lag, it is recommended to turn this off/set to false.
spawn-monsters	true	Determines if monsters can spawn.true - Enabled. Monsters appear at night and in the dark.false - Disabled. No monsters. This setting has no effect if difficulty = 0 (peaceful). If difficulty is not = 0, a monster can still spawn from a spawner. If the player has major lag, it is recommended to turn this off/set to false.
spawn-npcs	true	Determines whether villagers can spawn.true - Enabled. Villagers spawn.false - Disabled. No villagers.
spawn-protection	16	Determines the side length of the square spawn protection area as 2x+1. Setting this to 0 does not disable spawn protection, but protects the single block at the spawn point. A value of 1 protects a 3×3 square centered on the spawn point. 2 protects 5×5, 3 protects 7×7, etc. This option is not generated on the first server start and appears when the first player joins. If there are no ops set on the server, the spawn protection is disabled automatically.
use-native-transport	true	Linux server performance improvements: optimized packet sending/receiving on Linuxtrue - Enabled. Enable Linux packet sending/receiving optimizationfalse - Disabled. Disable Linux packet sending/receiving optimization
view-distance	10	Sets the amount of world data the server sends the client, measured in chunks in each direction of the player (radius, not diameter). It determines the server-side viewing distance. 10 is the default/recommended. If the player has major lag, this value is recommended to be reduced.
white-list	false	Enables a whitelist on the server. With a whitelist enabled, users not on the whitelist cannot connect. Intended for private servers, such as those for real-life friends or strangers carefully selected via an application process, for example.false - No white list is used.true - The file whitelist.json is used to generate the white list. Note: Ops are automatically whitelisted, and there is no need to add them to the whitelist.
enforce-whitelist	false	Enforces the whitelist on the server. When this option is enabled, users who are not present on the whitelist (if it's enabled) get kicked from the server after the server reloads the whitelist file.false - No user gets kicked if not on the whitelist.true - Online users not on the whitelist get kicked.