Minecraft
server.properties holds Minecraft's main settings. Edit it in Files, choose Save, then Restart. See Manage files.
The settings you'll actually change
| Setting | What it does | Good value |
|---|---|---|
motd |
The message under your server's name in the multiplayer list. Supports § colour codes. |
Something welcoming, e.g. §aWelcome to §lDragon SMP |
max-players |
The most players that can be online at once. | Your real expected peak. It doesn't reserve memory. |
difficulty |
peaceful, easy, normal or hard. |
normal for survival. |
gamemode |
Default game mode for new players. | survival |
pvp |
Whether players can hurt each other. | Your choice. |
white-list |
Only listed players can join. | true for private servers. |
enforce-whitelist |
Kicks online players who aren't on the whitelist when it's reloaded. | true together with white-list. |
spawn-protection |
Radius around spawn that only ops can build in. 0 turns it off. |
0 if you use a protection plugin; otherwise 16. |
allow-flight |
Stops the server kicking players for "flying". | true if you have mods/plugins with jetpacks, elytra boosts or hover. |
level-seed |
Seed for a new world. Has no effect on an existing world. | Leave blank for random. |
level-name |
The world folder to load. | world |
hardcore |
One life; dead players become spectators. | false unless you want it. |
Performance settings
These have the biggest effect on lag and memory.
| Setting | What it does | Good value |
|---|---|---|
view-distance |
How many chunks around each player are sent and shown. | 8–10 on most servers. Raise only if you have spare CPU. |
simulation-distance |
How many chunks around each player are ticked: mobs move, crops grow, redstone runs. Costs far more than view distance. | 4–6. Keep it lower than view distance. |
entity-broadcast-range-percentage |
How far away other entities are shown, as a % of the default. | 100. Lower it (e.g. 75) on busy farms. |
network-compression-threshold |
Packets larger than this many bytes are compressed. | 256 (default). Behind a Velocity proxy, set it to -1 on the back-end servers so only the proxy compresses. |
sync-chunk-writes |
Waits for each chunk to reach the disk before carrying on. | true (the default, and the safest if the server ever loses power). |
max-tick-time |
Watchdog: if one tick takes longer than this (ms), the server is stopped as frozen. | 60000 (default). Don't set -1 on a public server. |
Network and security settings
| Setting | What it does | Value |
|---|---|---|
online-mode |
Checks every player with Microsoft's login servers. | true for a normal server. false only for a back-end behind a Velocity proxy, and only with forwarding set up (guide). Never false on a server players join directly: anyone could log in as anyone, including you. |
enforce-secure-profile |
Requires signed chat. | true |
enable-rcon |
Remote console. Not needed: the panel has a console. | false |
enable-query |
Lets status tools (and the panel's Players page) see who's online. | true if you want the Players page and status sites to work. Uses your game port over UDP. |
enable-status |
Shows your server as online in the multiplayer list. | true |
hide-online-players |
Hides player names in the multiplayer list hover. | Your choice. |
prevent-proxy-connections |
Blocks players connecting through VPNs/proxies (where Mojang can tell). | false for most servers. |