The Locator Bar and Coordinates on Your Minecraft Server: Turn Them Off, Hide or Limit Them

What the locator bar is

It's the experience bar turned into a compass: every player in the same dimension as you shows up as a coloured dot pointing to where they are, with an up or down arrow if they're higher or lower. When you gain experience, the usual bar comes back.

It doesn't say how many blocks away anyone is, or their coordinates, only the direction. But two readings from different spots are enough to find any base, and on a PvP server that's all it takes.

It's controlled by the server, not by each player: one game rule switches it off for everyone. This is Java; Bedrock has a similar bar that's switched off with a different rule, playerWaypoints.

Turning it off for everyone

With a game rule, typed by an op in chat or in the server console (in the console, without the slash):

1. Minecraft 1.21.11 or later

   /gamerule locator_bar false. Since 1.21.11 rules are lowercase with underscores.

2. From 1.21.6 to 1.21.10

   /gamerule locatorBar false, with the old name. If you type the name from the other version, the command fails.

3. To turn it back on

   The same rule with true: /gamerule locator_bar true.

In the Nether and the End too

The rule is saved with the world: set it once and it stays after restarts. But on Paper each world has its own rules, so to hide it in the Nether and the End as well, repeat it for each one from the console: execute in minecraft:the_nether run gamerule locator_bar false, and the same with minecraft:the_end.

If you need to move more rules from the old names to the new ones, the gamerules generator does it for you, and the gamerules guide explains the rest.

Keeping it, but only up close

There's a middle ground: seeing teammates nearby but not someone 2,000 blocks away. That isn't a rule but two attributes on each player: waypoint_transmit_range (how far away others can see them) and waypoint_receive_range (how far away they can see others). By default they're huge, which is why everyone shows up.

The /attribute command only takes one player at a time, so for everyone online you use execute as:

1. Nobody visible beyond 200 blocks

   /execute as @a run attribute @s minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range base set 200

2. Hide one specific player

   /attribute Ana minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range base set 0: Ana disappears from everyone else's bar, but she still sees them.

3. Stop a player from seeing anyone

   /attribute Ana minecraft:waypoint_receive_range base set 0: Ana's bar goes empty, and the others can still see her.

4. Back to the default

   /attribute Ana minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range base reset (and the same with waypoint_receive_range).

Players who join later

The attribute is saved with each player, but only with those online when you typed it: anyone joining for the first time afterwards arrives with the default values. If you want the limit for everyone who turns up, it's easier to switch the bar off with the rule or repeat the command every now and then. More on this command in the /attribute guide (in Spanish).

Hiding without touching anything

Without commands, any player can vanish from everyone else's bar while doing one of the things below. That's why on a PvP or hide and seek server saying «no looking at the bar» isn't enough: either you switch it off with the rule or you accept that anyone who wants to can hide. The hide and seek guide (in Spanish) explains how to run one with the bar off.

1. Sneaking

   While you're sneaking you don't show up on anyone's bar. Stand up and you're back.

2. Wearing a carved pumpkin or a mob head

   Worn on your head, it takes you off the bar for as long as you wear it. The pumpkin covers half the screen; the mob head doesn't.

3. Drinking a potion of invisibility

   While the effect lasts, you don't show up on the bar.

Changing each player's colour

Each player gets their own colour, picked by the game. An op can change it with /waypoint, for example so each team stands out:

1. See who's on the bar

   /waypoint list shows the players that appear as a dot.

2. Set a colour

   /waypoint modify Ana color red with the game's colour names (blue, green, gold, light_purple…), or an exact one: /waypoint modify Ana color hex FF8800.

3. Remove the colour you set

   /waypoint modify Ana color reset.

Hiding the F3 coordinates

The other way to know where everything is: the F3 screen, which shows exact coordinates (and F3 + C copies them). To remove them for everyone: /gamerule reduced_debug_info true (before 1.21.11, reducedDebugInfo).

With the rule on, F3 is cut down: no coordinates, no exact facing and fewer debug helpers, such as showing chunk borders. Warn the players who build farms or redstone, because they use it for that.

It's a rule for regular players, not a lock: with client mods it can be seen again. For anarchy or competitive servers where it really matters, there are Paper plugins that offset the coordinates each player receives, such as CoordinateOffset; try it on a copy of the world first.

If what you want is for your friends to know where something is, better than handing out coordinates: a warp or a /home from EssentialsX, or a web map showing the whole world.

On NapNodes

Minecraft servers run Paper on the latest version, so the rules use the new names (locator_bar, reduced_debug_info).

No typing needed: in the panel, «Settings» → «Game rules» has «Enable player Locator Bar» and «Reduce debug info». With the server on, they change in the world, the Nether and the End at once.

The attributes and /waypoint do need commands: from the panel's «Console» (without the slash) or in game if you're op (op YourName in the «Console»).

If you don't have a server yet, the free server has all of this, just like a paid one.

Frequently asked questions