Set the server list text of a Minecraft server

The MOTD, the message of the day, is the text under your server's name in the Minecraft multiplayer list. On a Java server it is the motd setting in server.properties. A Bedrock Dedicated Server (BDS) has no MOTD line: the text players see is its server name, the server-name setting. The Server list card on the server's Settings tab edits it, so you do not have to open the file.

• The server must have started once, so that server.properties exists.
• On a server someone shared with you, you need the Files permission (Share a server with other users).
• The server reads the setting when it starts. A change shows in the server list after the next restart.
• To show a different text through a join address, such as a proxy's own message, see Customise the server list entry.

1. In the dashboard, go to App Deployment and open the server, then the Settings tab.
2. In the Server list card, edit Server list text (MOTD) on a Java server, or Server name on a Bedrock server.
3. Select Save.
4. To see the change at once, select Restart now in the message that follows. The button shows only while the server runs. On a stopped server, the change shows when you start it.

The field counts characters as the game does and stops at 256. On a Java server, press Enter for a second line, which the game shows under the first. The preview in the card shows the two lines as plain text, without colours.

Type \u00A7 where you want the section sign §. A § you paste works too. The card turns what you type into §, and writes it to the file the way the game reads it. Follow it with a code:

• \u00A7a for green, \u00A7b for aqua, \u00A7c for red, and the other colour codes 0 to 9 and d, e, f.
• \u00A7l for bold, \u00A7o for italic, \u00A7n for underline and \u00A7m for strikethrough.
• \u00A7r to go back to the plain style.
• \u00A7x\u00A7R\u00A7R\u00A7G\u00A7G\u00A7B\u00A7B, where each letter is one hexadecimal digit written after its own \u00A7, for an exact colour on Minecraft Java 1.16 and newer.

For example, \u00A7aWelcome to \u00A7lSpawnville shows Welcome to Spawnville in green, with the last word in bold.

BDS reads server.properties literally, so we write a Bedrock name without any escapes: § goes into the file as §. The card refuses an equals sign and a line break in a Bedrock server name, with Server name cannot contain = or a line break., because BDS ends the name at the first = and a line break would split the setting in two.

The Bedrock list shows two lines: the server name, then the world name. While the server runs, the world name is the level-name setting in server.properties. The list does not show an icon or a version string, and the name does not take a second line.

A free server that sleeps shows two lines in the Minecraft list. The first line is the offline message set on the join address or by your organization. When neither is set, it is the first line of the last MOTD the server showed, cut to 100 characters. The second line says the server is asleep, starting or queued (How free servers work).

The Bedrock list shows the same two lines, with the state line where the world name goes.

Read server.properties and write it back with the files API. GET files/contents?path=/server.properties returns content and hash, and POST files/write takes path, content and expected_hash. A Java file holds motd=\u00A7aWelcome and a Bedrock file holds server-name=§aWelcome.

server.properties does not exist yet

Start the server once, then open the card again.

server.properties changed on the server since this page loaded. Reload it, then save again.

Someone, or the server itself, wrote the file after the card read it. Reload the card, then save again.

The server list still shows the old text

Restart the server. Then check that you did not set a different text on the server's join address, which wins while your server answers.

• Customise the server list entry
• Manage server files
• Server settings