Setting Up a Custom MOTD and Server Icon

Setting Up a Custom MOTD and Server Icon

Before anyone joins, they see the server list entry — the MOTD and icon are doing all the first-impression work at that point.

The MOTD (message of the day) and server icon are what show up in a player's multiplayer server list before they even connect — a generic default MOTD and a missing icon is one of the easiest, lowest-effort things to fix on an otherwise polished server.

Setting a Basic MOTD

In server.properties:

motd=A Survival Server With Something Different

Vanilla MOTD supports basic color codes using & followed by a code (&a for green, &c for red, and so on) and \n for a second line.

Using MiniMessage Formatting (Paper)

Modern Paper versions support MiniMessage-formatted MOTDs for gradients and more advanced styling, typically configured via a small plugin or Paper's own config rather than the plain server.properties field, since the raw properties file only supports legacy color codes:

<gradient:blue:aqua>Welcome to the Network</gradient>
<gray>A fresh take on survival Minecraft</gray>

The exact setup depends on whether a MOTD plugin is used or Paper's native per-version MOTD config supports MiniMessage directly — worth checking current Paper documentation for the server's specific version.

Adding a Server Icon

Minecraft expects a server-icon.png file, exactly 64×64 pixels, placed in the server's root folder (next to server.properties). It's picked up automatically — no config entry needed, just the correctly-named and correctly-sized file in the right place.

Common Icon Mistakes

• Wrong dimensions. Anything other than exactly 64×64 either gets rejected or displayed incorrectly — resizing a logo without checking exact pixel dimensions is the most common cause of an icon not showing up.
• Wrong file name or format. It must be named exactly server-icon.png — not icon.png, not .jpg, and not with a different case.
• Caching. Minecraft clients cache server icons per IP — after changing it, a client may need to remove and re-add the server (or wait for the cache to refresh) to see the updated version.

Per-Player or Dynamic MOTDs

Some setups show a different MOTD depending on server status (maintenance mode, whitelist-only, player count thresholds) — this usually comes from a dedicated MOTD plugin reacting to server state, rather than a single static line in server.properties. If presentation-level polish across MOTD, TAB, and scoreboard is the goal, ZCraft Studios' catalog has several ready-made configs covering exactly that kind of first-impression detail.

Testing Without Restarting Repeatedly

Most MOTD changes via server.properties require a restart to take effect, though some MOTD plugins support live reload — worth checking a specific plugin's documentation before assuming a restart is required every time.