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Changing the Minecraft server description (MOTD)

Set the description players see under your server's name in the server list, with colours and a second line.

The MOTD is the description players see under your server's name in the in-game server list. It has two lines and can be coloured.

Changing the description

The client panel is available in Polish only, so its labels are given in Polish with a translation.

  1. Open server.properties

    In the client panel, go to the Pliki (Files) tab and open the server.properties file.

  2. Change the motd line

    Find the line that starts with motd= and type your description after the equals sign.

  3. Save and restart the server

    The new description appears after a restart.
server.properties
motd=The best survival server

Colours and a second line

Set a colour or style with the § code followed by one letter or digit, and start the second line with \n. In server.properties, write the § sign as a code, as in the example:

server.properties
motd=\u00A76\u00A7lMy Server\n\u00A77Survival 1.21 \u00A7a• open

The most-used codes:

CodeEffectCodeEffect
§agreen§6gold
§baqua§7grey
§cred§fwhite
§eyellow§lbold
§9blue§rback to plain text

You'll find the full list of colours and styles on the Minecraft Wiki (opens in a new tab).

Common problems

Accented letters show up as strange characters

Older server versions can't read accented letters typed directly. Write them as codes instead:

é = \u00E9   è = \u00E8   ü = \u00FC   ö = \u00F6   ñ = \u00F1
The description doesn't change

Restart the server after saving the file, then refresh the server list in the game. If the server runs behind a BungeeCord or Velocity proxy, players see the description from the proxy's configuration, not from server.properties.