How to manage your server files

Your world, configs, add-ons and logs are all files on your server. When no panel tab has a setting for the change you want, such as a plugin's config or a custom map, you work on the files directly in the File Manager tab.

Open the File Manager

1. Log in, go to Servers on your dashboard and click Open on your server.
2. Choose File Manager in the left rail, under Essentials. On a phone, pick it from the section menu.

Double-click a folder to go into it and use Up one level to come back. Click a file once to see its details and actions. On a phone, tap it.

Upload files

1. Open the folder the files belong in.
2. Click Upload and pick the files, or drag them onto the list.
3. If a file with that name already exists, choose Replace & overwrite, or Cancel to keep the old one. When only some of the files clash, Skip uploads just the new ones.

If the page reloads mid-upload, open the same folder in the same browser, click Resume and pick the same file again. Web scripts such as .php are refused; game files like .jar and .dll are fine.

Upload files over 100 MB

The browser upload stops at 100 MB a file. For anything bigger, such as a large world, use an SFTP client like FileZilla or WinSCP:

1. Click SFTP in the note under the file list. It opens the SFTP connection card in Settings with the Connect over SFTP walkthrough.
2. Copy the Host, Port, Username and Password into your client and connect.
3. Drag your files into the matching folder, then click Refresh in the File Manager to see them.

Only the server owner can see the SFTP password.

Edit a config file

If the file matters, take a backup first: How to create and restore backups.

1. Double-click a text file, or select it and click Edit.
2. Make your change. An amber dot by the file name means it isn't saved yet.
3. Click Save.
4. Restart the server from the Console tab, since most games only read config files at startup.

Binary files such as .jar show Can't open this file, so download them instead. The boot script (start.sh on Minecraft) doesn't appear in the File Manager at all, because a change there can stop the server booting.

Download, archive and extract

• Download saves a file to your computer. A folder is packed into a .zip first.
• Archive packs the items you've ticked into one .tar.gz in the current folder. Large folders can take several minutes, so keep the tab open.
• Extract here unpacks .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.xz and .tar.bz2 files into the folder they sit in. It can't open .rar or .7z, so repack those as .zip first.

Archiving, extracting and downloading a folder all need free disk space. If one fails with "Not enough free disk space", the Disk Analyser tab shows what's using it, and freeing up disk space covers what's safe to clear.

Rename, move and delete

Select an item for Rename, Move to… and Delete. The toolbar has New folder but no new-file button, so upload new files instead.

Before you delete or move a world folder, the top-level plugins, mods or config folder, or a player list such as whitelist.json, the panel asks you to type its name, or the word delete when you've ticked several items.

Start a new Minecraft world

To keep the old world on disk, open the Config Editor, change World folder to a new name such as world2, click Save changes and restart. To delete the old world instead:

1. Take a backup in the Backups tab.
2. Stop the server from the Console tab.
3. Delete the world folder (world unless you renamed it), plus world_nether and world_the_end if they exist.
4. Start the server. It's ready when the Console shows Done (…s)!.

For different terrain, change or clear World seed in the Config Editor before step 4.

Minecraft files worth knowing

Add-ons are covered in Install Minecraft plugins on Paper or Purpur and Install Fabric and Forge mods on your server, player lists in Minecraft whitelist: add players, set ops.

Change your server's MOTD

The MOTD is the line under your server in the multiplayer list. The Config Editor tab sets it as Server list message. To do it by hand:

1. In the File Manager, open server.properties.

2. Change the text after motd=:

   motd=Weekend survival, be nice!
   

3. Click Save, then Restart the server from the Console tab.

Most server.properties settings work the same way. The exceptions are server-ip and server-port, which the panel resets every time the server starts.