Every important option in plain words, with default and allowed values. Import your file, change it and download it again.
Text under the server name in the multiplayer list. Colour codes with § are allowed; two lines are separated by \n.
Default: A Minecraft Server
Port the server listens on. Players type it after a colon unless it is 25565 or an SRV record points to it.
Default: 25565 · allowed 1 to 65,534
How many players can be online at once. Operators can join a full server only with a plugin.
Default: 20 · allowed 0 to 2,147,483,647
Checks every account with Mojang. Leave it on. Turn it off only behind a Velocity or BungeeCord proxy that checks accounts itself.
Default: true
Only players on the whitelist can join. Since 26.3 new servers start with the whitelist on.
Default: true
Kicks online players who are not on the whitelist when it is reloaded.
Default: false
Game mode for new players.
Default: survival
Puts players into the default game mode every time they join.
Default: false
Difficulty of the world: damage, hunger and which mobs spawn.
Default: easy
Players become spectators after death, and the difficulty is locked to hard.
Default: false
Allows flying in survival without a kick. Turn it on if you use plugins or mods that let players fly, otherwise they get kicked for flying.
Default: false
Radius around spawn in which only operators can build. 0 switches it off. Has no effect without operators.
Default: 16 · allowed 0 to 29,999,984
Kicks players after this many minutes without activity. 0 means never.
Default: 0 · allowed 0 to 2,147,483,647
Default permission level for new operators: 1 bypass spawn protection, 2 cheat commands, 3 player management, 4 everything.
Default: 4 · allowed 0 to 4
Name of the world folder. A new name creates a new world on the next start.
Default: world
Seed for a new world. Empty means random. Has no effect on an existing world.
Default: –
World type for a new world: normal, flat, large biomes, amplified or a single biome.
Default: minecraft:normal
Whether villages, temples and other structures are generated in new chunks.
Default: true
Radius of the world border in blocks.
Default: 29999984 · allowed 1 to 29,999,984
How many chunks around a player are sent to the client. The biggest lever for RAM and CPU; 6 to 10 is common.
Default: 10 · allowed 3 to 32
How many chunks around a player are updated (mobs, crops, redstone). Lower than view distance saves CPU.
Default: 10 · allowed 3 to 32
How far away entities are shown to players, in percent of the normal range. Lower values save bandwidth.
Default: 100 · allowed 10 to 1,000
Packets larger than this many bytes are compressed. -1 switches compression off, which makes sense behind a proxy in the same network.
Default: 256 · allowed -1 to 2,147,483,647
Milliseconds a single tick may take before the watchdog stops the server. -1 switches the watchdog off.
Default: 60000 · allowed -1 to 2,147,483,647
Pauses the world after this many seconds without players. 0 or a negative value switches it off.
Default: 60 · allowed 0 to 2,147,483,647
Writes chunks to disk synchronously. Safer for data, slower on slow disks.
Default: true
Compression of the region files: deflate (smallest), lz4 (faster) or none.
Default: deflate
Bind the server to one IP address. Leave it empty unless your host tells you otherwise.
Default: –
Answers status requests. Turn it off and the server shows as offline in the list, even though players can join.
Default: true
Hides the names of online players from the status answer (hover over the player count).
Default: false
Only players with a signed chat key from Mojang can join. Turn it off for servers that change chat messages with plugins.
Default: true
Kicks players whose IP differs from the one Mojang saw at login (VPN and proxy check). Breaks behind your own proxy.
Default: false
Allows other servers to send players here with the /transfer command.
Default: false
Kicks players who send more packets per second than this. 0 switches the limit off.
Default: 0 · allowed 0 to 2,147,483,647
Writes player IP addresses to the log. Turn it off if you do not need them.
Default: true
Enables the GameSpy4 query protocol that some server lists and tools use.
Default: false
UDP port for query.
Default: 25565 · allowed 1 to 65,534
Allows remote access to the console. Only with a strong password, and never open the port to everyone.
Default: false
TCP port for RCON.
Default: 25575 · allowed 1 to 65,534
Password for RCON. Use a long, random password. It is not saved in your browser.
Default: –
Direct download link to a resource pack ZIP that players are offered when joining.
Default: –
SHA-1 hash of the pack in lowercase. Lets clients reuse the cached pack and notice a changed one.
Default: –
Players who decline the resource pack are disconnected.
Default: false
Text shown in the resource pack dialog, as JSON text or plain text.
Default: –
#Minecraft server properties #Generated with BestMCServerList motd=A Minecraft Server server-port=25565 max-players=20 online-mode=true white-list=true enforce-whitelist=false gamemode=survival force-gamemode=false difficulty=easy hardcore=false allow-flight=false spawn-protection=16 player-idle-timeout=0 op-permission-level=4 level-name=world level-seed= level-type=minecraft:normal generate-structures=true max-world-size=29999984 view-distance=10 simulation-distance=10 entity-broadcast-range-percentage=100 network-compression-threshold=256 max-tick-time=60000 pause-when-empty-seconds=60 sync-chunk-writes=true region-file-compression=deflate server-ip= enable-status=true hide-online-players=false enforce-secure-profile=true prevent-proxy-connections=false accepts-transfers=false rate-limit=0 log-ips=true enable-query=false query.port=25565 enable-rcon=false rcon.port=25575 rcon.password= resource-pack= resource-pack-sha1= require-resource-pack=false resource-pack-prompt=
Characters outside ASCII (umlauts, §, small caps) are written as \u codes, which every Minecraft version reads correctly.
pvp, allow-nether, spawn-monsters and enable-command-block are game rules since 1.21.9.
Make a colourful MOTD first: MOTD generator · Start Script Generator
In the main folder of the server, next to the server jar. It is created on the first start.
The server writes the file again when it stops. Edit it while the server is stopped, or the old values come back.
Since Minecraft 1.21.9 they are game rules. Use /gamerule pvp false in the game instead of server.properties.
Java reads \u00F6 as ö in every encoding. That way the MOTD and other texts look right, however the file is opened or uploaded.
