Fix "Kicked by an operator" on Minecraft

A player is thrown out of the server with Kicked by an operator, and nobody on your team remembers doing it. The message sounds like a person was involved, but it is only the default wording Minecraft uses when something kicks a player without giving a reason. A command, a plugin or a scheduled task can all produce it. Work out what did it first, then stop it happening again.

Checked against Minecraft 26.3 and the Paper plugin API, October 2026.

What produces this message

• The kick command with no reason. minecraft.wiki lists the command as kick <targets> [<reason>] and says the reason defaults to "Kicked by an operator" when you leave it out.
• The Kick button in the Players tab. Our panel sends kick <name> when the reason box is empty, so the player sees the default text. Type a reason and they see that instead.
• A plugin. Paper's Player.kick() method uses the same default message, so a plugin that kicks without writing its own text (an anti-cheat or an away-from-keyboard plugin, for example) shows the same words to the player.
• A scheduled task. A task in the Schedules tab whose action is Send a command can run kick on a timer.

A kick is not a ban. The player can rejoin straight away unless something kicks them again.

Find what kicked them

1. Open the Console tab, or press Download Log and choose Last hour. Search for the player's name.
2. The server logs the disconnect as <name> lost connection: Kicked by an operator. Also search for Kicked <name>, because the game's feedback text for a successful kick command is Kicked <name>: <reason>. Do not treat a missing line as proof that nobody ran the command. Read the lines above the disconnect too, in case something else was logged around the same time.
3. Open the Players tab and look at the Operators list. Operators at the default permission level can run kick in game, so ask them whether they did.
4. Open the Schedules tab and check for a task that sends a command containing kick.
5. Open the Mods tab (Plugins on Paper, Purpur and Folia) and switch to Installed. Look for anti-cheat, anti-AFK or moderation add-ons.

Stop it happening

• An operator kicked by accident. Press Remove operator next to their name in the Operators list if they should not have the power. Minecraft whitelist: add players, set ops covers the list.
• A scheduled task. Open the task in Schedules and edit or delete it.
• A plugin. Press Disable next to it in the Installed list, restart the server from the Console tab, and test. Check the plugin's own page for the rule that triggered the kick before you leave it on.

Kick someone yourself, with a reason

1. Open the Players tab and click the player's row to open their profile. They must be online.
2. Press Kick, type a reason in Reason (optional) and press Kick again in the confirmation.

Or run kick <player> <reason> in the Console. A reason such as "AFK too long" tells the player more than the default does.

Other kick messages

These look alike but have different causes: