What is a ‘Ticking Entity Error’?
An entity is a dynamic moving object in your Minecraft world, like mobs or minecarts. Each entity has data associated with it such as its name, inventory, or time alive. Rarely, it is possible for this data to be corrupted. If the server is incapable of fixing the data, it will crash with the “Ticking Entity Error”.
Ticking Entities Errors can occur in Vanilla Minecraft, however, they are most common in larger modpacks.
If your server is immediately crashing upon you trying to join, this is most likely due to a corrupt Ticking Entity located in the same chunk your character is trying to load in at. Your server will try to read the information of the chunk surrounding that player and will then crash because the entity inside of it is corrupted.
Other players may be able to join if they are not in the same chunk, but the server will crash immediately upon any player entering the chunk with the corrupt entity.
When a corrupt Ticking Entity is created in your server, it will permanently affect your world data.
‘Ticking Block’ and ‘Ticking World’
There are two other variations of this type of crash. These are ‘Ticking Block’ and ‘Ticking World’ crashes. A Ticking Block Error is tied to a corrupted tile entity associated with a specific block. Ticking Block crashes are usually caused by things like modded crafting tables or machinery.
A Ticking World Error on the other hand is when an entity is corrupted. These are the most severe cases of this crash, as it is harder for your server to precisely locate the corrupted entity.
Methods for Resolving the Error
There are a few methods for resolving this error, please follow the method best suited for your situation.
Restoring a Backup
If you have a backup created of your server, you can simply restore your server to a previous state before the corrupt Ticking Entity appeared. This will resolve your server crashing and allow you to carry on as normal. You can learn how to restore Server Backups here.
Forge Config
Forge servers have a togglable config option, which when enabled automatically removes any problematic entities or blocks. Steps for locating this config will depend on which version of Forge you have installed, please follow the appropriate instructions based on your version of Forge.
- On your Server's Control Panel navigate to Files > FTP Access.
- Login to the FTP.
- Depending on your forge version, locate and edit the specified file:
- Forge 1.13 and newer: Open
<world>/serverconfig/forge-server.toml- Forge 1.12.2 and older: Open
config/forge.cfg - Once open, locate the lines
removeErroringEntitiesandremoveErroringTileEntities. Set both of these to true. - Save your changes and restart your server.
CoFH Core
A lot of popular modpacks will have CoFH Core installed, but if your server doesn’t it is a very simple mod to add and its commands are incredibly useful for dealing with corrupt Ticking Entities. If you need assistance with adding a mod to your Minecraft Forge server please use our guide here.
Please note: Your server must be able to start up and run without crashing in order for this method to work. However, you do not have to join the server as a player to run this command.
- Locate the corrupted mob in your Crash Report. You can do this by scrolling through your Ticking Entity Crash report and looking for the section labelled
-- Entity Being Ticked -- - In this area, look for the Entity’s name and copy it.
- In your console enter the command
cofh killall [entityname] - Alternatively, you can just use the command
cofh killallhowever please note this will delete all mobs from your server.
Vanilla Method
This method will only work if the corrupted Ticking Entity is considered a hostile mob. However, it is worth trying if you are unable to Backup your server or use mods.
- Go into your server settings and reduce your View Distance.
- Change the game difficulty to ‘Peaceful’.
- Save the changes and restart your server.
Once your server is started and you can successfully join without crashing, you can revert your View Distance and Difficulty back to normal and restart your server to resume normal gameplay.
World Editors
The final, most effective method for fixing Ticking Entity Errors errors is using software for Minecraft World editing to remove the chunk in which the corrupt Ticking Entity is stuck. Programs such as MCEdit or NBT Explorer can help you with this.
Before attempting this method, we highly recommend you make a backup of your world folder in case you make a mistake and need to undo your edits.
If you are interested in learning how to use NBT Explorer, we have a wonderful guide that can help you here.
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