Direct answer
Stop the server, open server.properties in a plain-text editor, change only the settings you understand, save the file, and start the server again. For most home servers, keep server-ip= blank and change the port only when you have a reason.
Important settings
| Setting | Typical use | Beginner note |
|---|---|---|
server-ip= | Bind to a specific local interface | Usually leave blank |
server-port=25565 | Java server listening port | Default is 25565 |
online-mode=true | Use account authentication | Keep enabled for normal internet servers |
white-list=true | Restrict joins to approved players | Good for private servers |
max-players= | Player cap | Does not reserve hardware by itself |
view-distance= | Chunk data sent around players | Higher values cost resources |
simulation-distance= | Distance where entities and game logic tick | Often more CPU-sensitive |
level-name=world | Main world folder name | Useful when importing a world |
level-seed= | Seed for a newly generated world | Does not rewrite existing chunks |
Do not put your public IP in server-ip
server-ip blank in most setups.This setting controls which network interface Java binds to; it is not the place to type the public IP your friends use. A wrong value can cause a “failed to bind to port” startup error.Change one group of settings at a time
If you change ten values and the server stops working, troubleshooting becomes harder. Make a backup, edit a small set of related settings, restart, and verify the result before continuing.
Paper has additional configuration files
Paper also uses files under config/ and world-specific Paper configuration. Do not copy old paper.yml snippets from years-old tutorials into a modern server without checking the current documentation.
- Stop the server before editing and preserve a copy of server.properties. After restart, check the log for invalid or renamed options rather than assuming every key was accepted.
- Test view-distance and simulation-distance separately: one controls terrain sent to players, the other influences simulation range. Confirm values and limits against the software/version you run.
- For a standalone internet-facing server, keep online-mode authentication enabled. A Velocity backend has a different security architecture and must follow proxy forwarding and firewall documentation.
Official references
These references were checked while preparing this guide. Version-specific behavior can change, so use the project documentation for your exact release when a detail differs.
Related guides
Help us improve this article
Tell us what is missing, unclear, outdated, or incorrect. You can also suggest something we should add.