How to whitelist players on your Minecraft server

A whitelist lets only the names you add join. It is the right tool for a friends server that stays in online mode.

Turn it on and add players

In the Console tab, type these commands (no slash is needed in the panel’s console, but it works with one too):

whitelist on
whitelist add Steve
whitelist add Alex

Players are added by their Minecraft name. A player who has never joined is looked up on Mojang’s servers, so the name must be spelled exactly.

whitelist remove Steve
whitelist list
whitelist off

See who is whitelisted

The Players panel (the dock on the right) lists everyone who has joined, with a Whitelisted filter. Opening a player shows their UUID, first and last seen and their skin.

Friends without a Microsoft login

A whitelist needs online mode, and online mode needs a paid Microsoft account on every client. If some friends use other launchers, do not turn online mode off: turn on Login protection in Settings, Server instead. Players without a Microsoft login set a password at the door; everyone else joins as usual. See Login protection.

Good to know

• The whitelist file is whitelist.json in the server folder; the console commands edit it for you.
• Operators bypass the whitelist only if enforce-whitelist is off, which is the default.
• Save the commands you run often under Commands and they become one-click buttons.