A whitelist is the list of players allowed onto your Minecraft server. While it is on, everyone else is turned away at the door with You are not white-listed on this server!, no matter how right they got the address. Switching it off takes one line in the console and does not need a restart.
What you need before you start
- Your Minecraft server in the game panel
- The server running, for the quick route below
The quick way: one console command
- Open the game panel and select your Minecraft server
- Go to the Console tab
- Type the line below and press Enter
whitelist off
The server answers Whitelist is now turned off and anyone can join from that moment. No restart, nobody currently online gets disturbed.
Note the missing slash. In the game's chat window commands start with /, but the server console is already talking to the server, so /whitelist off there will usually come back as an unknown command. Leave the slash out.
Making it stick in server.properties
The console command is enough for almost everyone. If you would rather set it in the configuration, or the server is stopped and you want it off before it boots:
- Go to the Files tab
- Open
server.propertiesin the root folder - Find these two lines and set both to
false:
white-list=false
enforce-whitelist=false
- Save, then restart the server
Edits to this file only take effect on a restart, which is the usual reason someone changes it and sees no difference.
One thing worth knowing about our panel: on every start it rewrites server-ip, server-port and query.port in this file so your server binds to the right address. Nothing else in server.properties is touched, so your whitelist setting stays exactly as you left it.
Your whitelist is not deleted
Turning the whitelist off does not empty it. The names live in whitelist.json next to server.properties, and that file is left alone. Turn the whitelist back on later and the same list is enforced again, so this is a safe thing to toggle while you work out what you want.
enforce-whitelist, the setting that catches people out
These two look like the same switch and are not:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
white-list |
Whether the whitelist is checked when someone tries to connect |
enforce-whitelist |
Whether players who are already online get kicked when the list is reloaded |
With enforce-whitelist=false, someone who joined before you turned the whitelist on stays on the server until they disconnect by themselves. With it set to true, they are removed the moment the list reloads. Neither matters while the whitelist is off, but it decides what happens the next time you switch it on.
Operators skip the whitelist anyway
Server operators can connect whether or not they are on the list. That makes ops a bad way to test your change: if you are opped, you would have got in either way. Test with an account that is neither opped nor whitelisted, or ask a friend. Our operator guide covers who has op.
Crossplay servers and Bedrock names
If your server runs crossplay, Bedrock players arrive through Floodgate, which puts a prefix on their name, a dot by default. A Bedrock player called Steve is .Steve to the server.
That is why a Bedrock player can still be refused on a whitelisted server after you added them: Steve went on the list, but the server saw .Steve. Turning the whitelist off removes the problem entirely. If you would rather keep the whitelist, add them with the prefix included.
Turning it back on later
whitelist on
whitelist add PlayerName
whitelist remove PlayerName
whitelist list
whitelist reload
whitelist reload re-reads whitelist.json after you have edited the file by hand, so you do not have to restart to pick up changes.
Troubleshooting
Players are still told they are not white-listed. The change did not reach the running server. If you edited server.properties, restart. If you used the console, check the console actually answered rather than reporting an unknown command.
The console says unknown command. Either there is a leading slash on it, or the server has not finished starting. Wait for Done in the console and try again.
I set it in the file, restarted, and it came back as true. Something rewrote the file. The usual culprit is editing server.properties while the server is running: the server holds its own copy in memory and writes it back out on shutdown, overwriting your edit. Stop the server first, then edit, then start.
Only some players are blocked. That is not the vanilla whitelist. Several plugins ship their own, and a permissions or login plugin can refuse players independently. Check your plugin list and their configs.
A Bedrock player is still blocked. The prefix, see above.
Nothing works and the server is behind a proxy. On a BungeeCord, Waterfall or Velocity setup the whitelist that matters is the proxy's, not the backend server's.
Frequently asked questions
Does turning off the whitelist unban anyone? No. Bans are a separate list. A banned player stays banned with the whitelist off.
Do I have to restart?
Not for the console command, it applies immediately. Yes for edits to server.properties.
Will my whitelist entries survive?
Yes, whitelist.json is untouched. Turning the whitelist back on restores the same list.
Is my server safe with the whitelist off? It is open to anyone who knows the address, which is the point. If you want it private without maintaining a list, keep the whitelist on and add people as they ask, or use a plugin that asks for a password on join.
Why is the property called white-list with a hyphen?
The property in server.properties is white-list, the console command is whitelist, and the file is whitelist.json. Minecraft has simply never made them match.
Still being turned away? Open a ticket from the support page with your server name and the exact message players see, and we will look at the console with you. Need somewhere to run it? See our Minecraft server hosting plans.