How to change the MOTD of your Minecraft server

The Message Of The Day (MOTD) is a setting that you can customize for your Minecraft server. When a player adds your server to their server list, the MOTD is shown right below the server name. The MOTD can occupy up to two lines in the server list.

How to change the MOTD

You can change the MOTD by editing the server.properties file and changing the motd property. In the server.properties file you will find a line starting with motd=, followed by the currently configured MOTD, e.g. motd=A Minecraft Server. To change the MOTD, edit the part behind motd=.

Example:

motd=My awesome Minecraft server

Once you have performed the changes to the MOTD, you can save the server.properties file and restart your Minecraft server for the MOTD to take effect.

Formatting the MOTD

You may use color and formatting codes to format the MOTD, e.g. §6 for gold. You can use \n to break to the next line. The part before \n is show on the first line and the part after \n is shown on the second line.

Example:

motd=My §6awesome §rMinecraft server\nPowered by §bpowerupstack.com

Will be displayed as:

Color and formatting codes