Minecraft
Edit server.properties
What each setting actually does, and the ones worth changing on day one.
3 min read
The panel has a visual editor for this file, so you do not have to remember the key names. Everything below is also editable by hand in the file manager.
- gamemode — survival, creative, adventure or spectator for new players.
- difficulty — peaceful, easy, normal or hard.
- max-players — a soft cap. Your real limit is memory, not this number.
- view-distance — the biggest single lever on performance. 10 is a sane default; drop to 6–8 on a busy server.
- simulation-distance — how far entities keep ticking. Lower it before you lower view-distance.
- spawn-protection — blocks around spawn that non-operators cannot edit. Set to 0 to disable.
- online-mode — leave this true. Setting it false lets cracked clients in and anyone can impersonate any username.