How to Setup and Manage Whitelisting

Whitelisting is a feature that allows you to limit the players who can access your Minecraft server. When enabled, only whitelisted players can join your server. This is a good way to prevent unwanted players from joining and making changes to your server. This functionality is built into every Minecraft server out of the box.

Important Reminders:
  • You need to be an operator (OP) to be able to use these commands. You can set yourself as an operation by following this tutorial: Giving Operator (OP) to a Player
  • All operators / OP players bypass the whitelist. These players do not need to be added to the whitelist to join the server.

ENABLING AND DISABLING WHITELIST

Enabling and disabling whitelist on your Minecraft server can be done through commands alone.

COMMAND DESCRIPTION
/whitelist on This command enables whitelisting. Once enabled, only players on your whitelist can join.
/whitelist off This command disables whitelist. All players can join the server like normal. 

You may do these commands both in-game or through your server console by removing the "/" symbol before the command. 

Alternatively, you may enable or disable whitelisting through your server.properties file. Multicraft's Config Files page, which can be accessed by navigating to Files > Config Files on your panel, allows you to manage this without directly editing the the file itself. You may follow our tutorial on configuring your server.properties file: How to Configure You Minecraft Server (server.properties)

Once you have access to your Server Settings (server.properties), locate the Whitelisting option and select Enabled or Disabled from the dropdown list on its right to turn whitelisting on or off, respectively. 

Whitelisting - via server.properties

ADDING AND REMOVING PLAYERS FROM THE WHITELIST

Once you've enabled whitelisting on you server, you need to add players which will allow them to join your server.

COMMAND DESCRIPTION
/whitelist add <username>

Example: /whitelist add Steve
This command adds a player to the whitelist. 
/whitelist remove <username>

Example: /whitelist remove Steve
This command removes a player from the whitelist. This will prevent them from joining your server when whitelist is enabled.

You may do these commands both in-game or through your server console by removing the "/" symbol before the command. 

You may also and and remove players from your whitelist by directly edit your whitelist.json (Minecraft 1.7.6 up to the most recent versions) or white-list.txt (Minecraft 1.7.5 or earlier) files. However, doing this is not recommended as it's easy to make syntax errors which will lead to errors for your whitelist or server.

ADDITIONAL COMMANDS TO MANAGE WHITELIST

COMMAND DESCRIPTION
/whitelist list This command lists all whitelisted players. 
/whitelist reload This command reloads the whitelist.json or white-list.txt file from your server directory.

You may do these commands both in-game or through your server console by removing the "/" symbol before the command. 

If you require any further assistance, please contact our support at: https://shockbyte.com/billing/submitticket.php

Mitchell Smith

Managing Director @ Shockbyte

  • whitelist, blacklist, private server, Minecraft server
  • 85 Users Found This Useful
Was this answer helpful?

Related Articles

How to Configure Autosaving of Your Minecraft World

Minecraft servers have the ability to automatically save world data periodically. By default,...

How to Disable Player Advancement Announcements

Advancement is a feature available exclusively on Minecraft Java Edition wherein players can...

How to Download Your Minecraft Server World

We have a video tutorial on downloading your Minecraft server world: If you want to use your...

How to Modify Spigot Configuration (spigot.yml)

The Spigot Config file has many options and settings that can be modified to change the behavior...

How to Reset The Nether on Your Minecraft Server

With the drastic change to the nether in the latest 1.16 update, many players may want to reset...