Remove troublemakers from your Minecraft server: kick, ban, unban and mute

Kick, ban or IP ban

Start with the mildest step that solves the problem. A kick throws a player off and they can rejoin a second later, which is enough for someone who needs a nudge. A ban ties the account to a list and keeps it out for good. An IP ban blocks an internet connection, whoever uses it.

All six need operator level 3, and not one of them takes a duration.

A ban by name is stored against the account's UUID, not the name. Renaming the account does not get anyone back in. Two things the ban does not do: it leaves the player on your operator list and whitelist, so take those away as well when you mean it.

Kicking and banning from the console

On the Console tab the commands go in without a slash. In the game you put a slash in front and need level 3, which the operator level guide explains. Everything after the name is the reason, spaces included.

kick RiverFox22 Stop spamming, last warning
ban RiverFox22 Took items from the spawn chests
banlist players
pardon RiverFox22

Write the reason for the player, not for yourself. A banned player who tries to join sees You are banned from this server. followed by your reason, and without one they read Banned by an operator. A kick without a reason says Kicked by an operator. A clear reason saves you a round of angry messages asking why.

You can ban a player who is offline. The server looks the name up among Java accounts, so check the spelling first: a typo either fails or, worse, bans a stranger who happens to own that name.

Banning from the Players tab

The Players tab in our panel does bans and unbans without a command. It has four lists: Recently seen, Operators, Whitelist and Bans. Recently seen holds up to 40 names of accounts that joined, which is handy when you cannot remember how a troublemaker spelled their name.

1. 1

   Find the player

   Open Recently seen, or type in the search box. On the Bans list the Ban player button also takes a name you type yourself.

2. 2

   Open the menu

   Click the three dots at the end of the row and choose Ban player.

3. 3

   Give a reason

   The panel asks to confirm and offers a field called Reason (optional). Keep it short: it takes 120 characters on one line.

4. 4

   Check the Bans list

   The player now carries a Banned label, with your reason under the name. Unban player in the same menu lets them back in.

With the server running, the panel types the ban or pardon command in the console for you, so the effect is the same as doing it by hand. With the server stopped, it checks the name with Mojang and writes the entry into banned-players.json, and the ban counts from the next start.

Inside banned-players.json and banned-ips.json

Both lists live as plain files in the main folder of the server, next to server.properties, and you can open them on the Files tab. Each ban is one entry:

[
  {
    "uuid": "5f1c1e3a-8d2b-4c7e-9a41-2b6f0d9e7c13",
    "name": "RiverFox22",
    "created": "2026-09-14 21:04:37 +0000",
    "source": "MossyOak",
    "expires": "forever",
    "reason": "Took items from the spawn chests"
  }
]

A running server keeps both lists in memory and writes the whole file again whenever a ban changes. An edit made while it runs is lost at the next ban or unban. Stop the server, edit, then start it again.

Does an end date in expires work?

On Paper and Purpur, yes. Replace forever with a date such as 2026-09-21 18:00:00 +0000, and the player sees Your ban will be removed on with that moment when they try to join. After it passes, they get in.

On a vanilla server, do not count on it. Mojang's bug tracker holds a report of vanilla removing the expired entry and then tripping over the ban it just removed, so the player's join fails with an error instead of letting them in. That report was never marked as fixed. On vanilla, leave expires on forever and run pardon when the time is up, which always works.

What an IP ban can and cannot stop

ban-ip takes either an address or the name of a player who is online right now; for someone offline, it answers Invalid IP address or unknown player. It kicks everyone on that address at once, and the console tells you who: This ban affects 2 player(s): followed by the names.

• It stops a player who keeps making new accounts from the same home connection.
• It does not stop anyone who switches to mobile data, uses a VPN, or gets a new address from their provider after a router restart.
• It also catches brothers, sisters and housemates, and whole schools or dormitories that share one connection.

ban-ip 203.0.113.7 Ban evasion with new accounts
banlist ips
pardon-ip 203.0.113.7

Timed bans and mutes need a plugin

Vanilla has no duration for a ban and no mute at all. The nearest thing to a mute is on the player's side: in Java Edition, the Social Interactions screen (P by default) has Hide in Chat for one player, but it only affects that viewer and resets when they join again. For a real three day ban or a one hour mute, a Paper or Purpur server needs a plugin.

On Java Edition 26.2, LibertyBans is the one to pick: it is in the plugin catalog on the Plugins tab, and a ban without a time is permanent. Its bans live in its own storage, so they do not show on the Bans list of the Players tab. To carry over the bans you already have, check its import.yml and run /libertybans import vanilla. EssentialsX writes timed bans into banned-players.json, where the Players tab does see them, but its newest release stops at 26.1.2.

/ban RiverFox22 3d Griefing at spawn
/mute MossyOak 1h Spamming chat
/unban RiverFox22

Moderators need permissions rather than operator rights: libertybans.commands for any command, then libertybans.ban.do.target.uuid to ban players and libertybans.ban.undo.target.uuid to unban them, with the same pattern under libertybans.mute. A permissions plugin such as LuckPerms hands those out. Install one ban plugin, not two, because both claim /ban and the server picks either one.

Banning Bedrock players on a Crossplay server

On a Crossplay plan, Bedrock players join through Floodgate with a dot in front of their name, and their UUID starts with 00000000-0000-0000. Mojang has no Java account for those names, which changes how bans work for them.

1. 1

   Ban them while they are online

   Type the name with the dot, as in ban .StoneWren Mining under other players' bases. An online player is found by name, so this works.

2. 2

   Expect pardon to fail later

   Once they are offline, pardon .StoneWren can answer That player does not exist, even though the entry sits in banned-players.json.

3. 3

   Unban through the file

   Stop the server, open banned-players.json on the Files tab, delete that player's entry including its braces and the comma between entries, save, and start the server.

The Players tab lists a banned Bedrock player on its Bans list, but it cannot unban a name with a dot, so the file is the way. For how Bedrock names and the whitelist fit together, see the Java and Bedrock guide.

A short routine before a ban

1. Find out what happened. When blocks or chests are involved, a block log shows who did it; the griefing guide sets one up.
2. Kick with a clear reason first, unless the damage is serious.
3. Ban the account with a reason the player will understand, and take away operator rights and whitelist entries.
4. Run banlist players to see that it landed.
5. Write down why, and for how long, so the next moderator knows when to lift it.

When the trouble is abusive chat rather than behaviour in the world, a mute may be fairer than a ban, and players can also report messages to Mojang. The chat reporting guide covers what that means for your server.

Sooner or later a banned player asks to be let back in. Minecraft ban appeal on astroworldmc.site has a form template for that request and steps for reviewing it fairly, so the answer does not depend on which moderator happens to read it.