Minecraft Server MOTD and Icon: How to Set Them

The message (MOTD)

On NapNodes you change it without opening the file: “Settings” → “Server list message”. It takes § colours as they are, saves on its own and applies on restart. By hand, on your PC or on any server, it goes like this:

1. Stop the server

   In the panel, stop the server: if it's running, some versions overwrite server.properties when they shut down and you lose the change.

2. Edit the motd line

   In “Files”, open server.properties and change motd=… to your text, for example motd=Survival with friends. A single line, no quotes.

3. Two lines

   The MOTD can have two lines. Separate them with \n, for example motd=Survival with friends\nRules on our Discord.

4. Save and start it

   The server reads the file when it starts. Go back to the server list in the game and refresh it.

Colours and bold

Colours and styles are written with the § symbol followed by a code: §a light green, §c red, §6 gold, §b aqua, §l bold, §o italic and §r to clear all formatting. For example, §6§lMy server§r §7· Survival.

Watch out with server.properties: save the file with the symbol written as \u00a7 instead of §, because the file doesn't handle accents and stray symbols well. In other words, §6 is written \u00a76. That's why “” or odd squares show up in the list.

Since 1.16 there are also hex colours in the form §x§R§R§G§G§B§B (each digit with its own §). They're long to type; for everyday use the 16 colours are enough. With the free MOTD generator you see it as it looks in the server list and copy the line already written with \u00a7.

Don't make it too long: with very long text the list may cut the line or not show it. Always test it in the game.

The icon

The icon is a PNG file of exactly 64×64 pixels called server-icon.png, in the server's main folder (the same one as server.properties). If it's any other size, Minecraft doesn't show it.

1. Prepare the image

   Crop or resize your logo to 64×64 and export it as PNG, named server-icon.png, all in lowercase. Our free icon tool does it in a moment and gives it to you with that name already.

2. Upload it

   In the panel's “Files”, upload it to the main folder, next to server.properties.

3. Restart

   Restart the server and refresh the list in the game. If it doesn't change, close the server list and open it again.

If it doesn't show up

Icon not showing: it's almost always the size (it isn't 64×64), the name (server-icon.png.png because the system hides the extension) or that it's in another folder. Check all three before anything else.

MOTD not changing: either you haven't restarted, or the server was running when you saved and it got overwritten. Stop it and edit again. And remember that the game caches the list: refreshing it or going back into the multiplayer menu is usually enough.

There are also MOTD plugins for Paper, but for a fixed message you don't need them: server.properties is enough.

Frequently asked questions