How to Ban, Kick and Mute Players on Your Minecraft Server

How to Ban, Kick and Mute Players on Your Minecraft Server at MCServerHost

How to Ban, Kick and Mute Players on Your Minecraft Server at MCServerHost

Every Minecraft server runs into the same handful of troublemakers sooner or later: the griefer who wipes out your players' builds, the hacker flying around in creative mode, and the one who fills chat with advertisement after advertisement. The good news is that all of that can be handled with a few simple commands straight from your server console or in-game chat. In this guide, we'll walk you through how to kick, ban and IP ban players, how to mute someone in chat, and how to undo any of it if you make a mistake.

Kicking a Player

A kick removes a player from the server, but it does not stop them from coming back. Think of it as a temporary warning that gets them out of your world immediately. Kicks are perfect for cooldown breakers or players who are not following the rules yet that you want to stop right now without banning them permanently.

1. Log in to your MCServerHost dashboard and select your server.
2. Go to the Console tab.
3. In the command input field, type:

kick PlayerName Breaking the rules

1. Press Enter. The player is removed from the server instantly.

You can also add a reason after the player's name, exactly like in the example above. The reason is shown to the player on the disconnect screen. If you leave the reason out, the player will simply be told they were Kicked by an operator.

Banning a Player

A ban adds a player to your server's ban list, which stops them from connecting again.

1. In the same Console tab, type the following command:

ban PlayerName Using an unfair advantage

1. Press Enter. Minecraft confirms the ban in the console, and the player is turned away the next time they try to connect.

Much like a kick, the reason is optional and is displayed to the banned player, to all operators in chat, and in the server logs. Without a reason, Minecraft uses Banned by an operator.

Banning an IP Address

Ban lists in Minecraft are stored against player profiles, so banning a name does nothing if the person simply makes a new account. That is where IP bans come in. They block every connection coming from a specific IP address, including alt accounts on the same network.

To ban an IP address, use the ban-ip command:

ban-ip 192.168.1.25

To make it much easier, you can also use the username of a player who is currently online on your server, and Minecraft will ban the IP they are connected from:

ban-ip PlayerName Connecting from a banned account

Checking Your Ban Lists

If you are ever unsure about who is currently banned, you can pull up the full list straight from the console with the banlist command:

banlist

This returns every banned player and IP on the server. You can also check one of the two lists specifically:

banlist players

banlist ips

Unbanning Players and IP Addresses

Banning someone is not the end of the story. You can undo any ban in a couple of seconds. To remove a player from your ban list, use the pardon command with their username:

pardon PlayerName

To unban an IP address, use pardon-ip instead:

pardon-ip 192.168.1.25

Muting a Player in Chat

Minecraft has no built-in mute command. The vanilla game gives you full control over who can join your server, but once a player is inside, there is no way to stop them from typing in chat.

The easiest way is to use a plugin, such as EssentialsX, which is one of the most popular utility plugins on Minecraft servers. If you have not set it up yet, our guide on How to Set Up EssentialsX on Your Minecraft Server walks you through the whole process. Once it is running, you can mute a player from chat with:

/mute PlayerName 30m Spamming chat

The format is /mute <player> [duration] [reason], so the duration always comes directly after the player's name. You can use m for minutes, h for hours, and d for days, and leaving the duration out entirely mutes the player permanently until you lift it. To undo it, use /unmute PlayerName.

Where Bans Are Stored

Everything you ban is written to two JSON files in the root directory of your server.

• banned-players.json: the name, UUID, reason and date for every banned player
• banned-ips.json: the same details for every banned IP address

If you are having any type of issue or problem with your server at MCServerHost you can always get in touch with us by joining our Discord server or writing us at support@MCServerHost.com.

All community guides