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Server icon, MOTD and looking good in the server list

The 64×64 icon, colours and line breaks in the MOTD, and what the server list shows about you.

1 min readUpdated 2026-09-14Diese Anleitung auf Deutsch lesen →

Icon

Upload a 64×64 pixel PNG named server-icon.png into the server root. Restart. Anything else (wrong size, JPG, transparent edges) is silently ignored; open the PNG in any image editor and resize it to exactly 64×64.

MOTD

The two lines under your server name in the list come from motd in server.properties.

  • Colours: § followed by a code (a green, b aqua, c red, e yellow, l bold, r reset). Example: §bPengu SMP §7- §aSeason 3.
  • Line break: \n.
  • Longer text and hover graphics: plugins like MiniMOTD or ServerListPlus let you write it in plain colour tags and rotate messages.

What else players see

  • Player count and names on hover (Paper: hide-online-players in server.properties hides names).
  • Ping bars: depends on their distance to Frankfurt, nothing to tune.
  • Version compatibility: a red "Incompatible" means their client version differs. ViaVersion (a plugin) lets newer clients join an older server.