How To Set Up A Whitelist on Your Minecraft Server

Last modified on Sep 17, 2024 in control panel

By Nathan Young

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Overview – Minecraft Whitelist

Connecting to your Minecraft server to play with friends can provide everyone with a wonderful gameplay experience. Whether you’re building castles or playing around with plugins, there’s plenty of activities to try out. However, random players may join occasionally if they have access to the server’s address. There’s a few reasons for this to happen, with previous owners keeping their old IP being the most common. Regardless of this, it can be frustrating to have these players join your server since they can grief the world. If you’re wanting to prevent this from occurring, then consider making a private Minecraft server. This requires you to use a whitelist or allowlist, depending on your edition of the game. The process to do this is straightforward and easily done on our panel, as we have a user-friendly system. With this in mind, we’ll show you how to set up a private server for Minecraft in this guide.

Private Minecraft Servers

As mentioned above, server owners wanting to make a private Minecraft server must use the whitelist or allowlist system. The first is for Java, while the second is for Bedrock due to the differences of these editions. Once enabled, you can manually add accounts to the list so the server only accepts their connections. Anyone else that isn’t on it cannot join at all, meaning you’ve successfully created a private world. This comes in handy when wanting to enjoy Minecraft with friends and family, especially if you’re wanting to avoid griefers. Although, if you have an offline server, then whitelisting players won’t work as intended. Besides this, the subsections below will show you how to set this up for both Java and Bedrock.

Java Edition

Whether you’re hosting a Spigot, Paper, Forge, or Fabric server, this whitelist feature is always available. All it requires is using a few commands to enable and add players to the list. Make sure to have operator privileges beforehand, as this is only for owners and administrators. The whitelist feature remains active even after restarting the server, meaning you’ll need to manually disable it if you want it removed. Follow the steps below to learn more about this process to get started with a private Minecraft experience.

1. Join your Minecraft Java Server, then open the in-game chat.
2. Proceed to type /whitelist on and press Enter on your keyboard.
   
3. Afterward, run /whitelist add [player] for yourself and anyone else.
   

   Note: Do not include the brackets for this command, only the username.

Bedrock Edition

Due to Minecraft Bedrock Edition’s design, there’s more steps to enable the allowlist feature. Once you’ve toggled it, the process is similar to the above instructions since you’ll be using commands. However, these are supposed to be run through the console of your panel instead of in-game. Keeping this in mind, follow along below to get started with your private Bedrock server.

1. Head towards your Apex server panel, then click Config Files at the top left corner.
   
2. Continue to press the Bedrock Server Settings option, revealing its contents.
   
3. Afterward, set the Whitelisting setting to Enabled by clicking the dropdown menu.
   
4. Scroll down and press Save, then confirm these changes by clicking Restart Now.
   
5. Return to the main panel and navigate to the Console area from the top left.
6. Once you’re there, run the allowlist add [player] command.
   
7. Join the server after doing this to see if everything works as expected.

Minecraft Whitelist with Crossplay

In some cases, server owners may have a Minecraft crossplay server. This allows you to have Java and Bedrock players at the same time, regardless of their devices used for the connection. For example, Xbox users can join Java worlds without needing an official PC account. As for setting up a whitelist on these kinds of servers, the Bedrock player must join beforehand. This allows the server to record their character’s name, so the command will work. After they’ve connected, simply run whitelist add .[player] in the console area. It’s important to have the prefix period before their username, as the plugins for crossplay have this by default to distinguish between Bedrock and Java players.

Whitelist Commands

As for all the different commands for whitelist and allowlist, you can find them down below. If you’re going to use them in the console, make sure to remove the slash (/) prefix before execution. Otherwise, keep this for the command and run it in-game. Remember, crossplay servers need to include the period before the username when adding or removing them from the list. Besides this, review the command list below to learn more about whitelisting in Minecraft.

Common Issues – Minecraft Whitelist

If you cannot execute any whitelist commands for your Java server, then make sure you have operator permissions. This is required to grant your account access to admin commands, such as whitelisting. Alternatively, removing their slash prefix and running them in the console is another option. If this situation is happening for crossplay servers, then consider only using the panel to add players to the whitelist. As for standalone Bedrock servers, only use the allowlist commands in the console so everything works as intended.

In most cases, this situation happens mainly for crossplay servers. Remember, you have to include the period prefix for Bedrock players wanting to join the private Minecraft server. Additionally, they have to connect before you enable the whitelist feature. As for dedicated Bedrock servers, make sure you’ve enabled Whitelisting in the Server Settings from Config Files in the panel. Afterward, you should be able to add players to the list. If you’re having this problem on Java, then double check you’re running the commands correctly.

Bedrock servers may have an error that claims the allowlist system isn’t implemented. This happens when you don’t enable whitelisting in the settings, but may still appear afterward. If you’ve ensured the configuration is correct, then disregard this error and proceed to add players to the list. Testing this out may be required, but it should work as intended for you. If you’re still having trouble, then consider reaching out to our Support team so they can work with you to resolve the issue.

Useful Links

How to Become a Minecraft Server Operator
How to Enable Cheats in Minecraft
Setting Up a Crossplay Server for Minecraft
Vanilla Minecraft Server Commands