Create your first Minecraft: Bedrock Edition server

This page covers hosting Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on your connected rig, from install to your friends joining. Bedrock is the lightest game we host. The download is under 100 MB, and a world with one player on it uses under half a gigabyte of memory.

Check which edition your friends play before you start:

• Bedrock Edition runs on phones, tablets, consoles, and the Microsoft Store version on Windows. This page is for Bedrock.
• Java Edition is the original PC version. It’s a separate game, and Java players can’t join a Bedrock server. It has its own page: Create your first Minecraft: Java Edition server.

In the dashboard, the server is the Bedrock install on your rig. A world is one save on that server, with its own name, seed, and settings, and a server can hold several worlds.

Step 1: Install Bedrock

1. Open your rig in the dashboard and click Add server.
2. Select Minecraft: Bedrock Edition as the game.
3. Click Create server.

The install is small enough to finish in a minute or two on most connections.

Step 2: Answer the wizard

Click Set up my first world, or Configure manually to skip the wizard and open the settings.

You can work through the wizard during the install. If you finish first, choose Start when install finishes, and the world starts once the files are in place.

The wizard shows seven questions, one per screen. Each has an answer already picked, so you can accept the defaults and still end up with a world your friends can join. Four are worth reading:

• Who should be able to join? Minecraft servers don’t have passwords. You choose Anyone with the address, which is the default, or Only people I add. With the second, only gamertags on your Whitelist in the Players panel get in. You can add a gamertag before that person has ever connected.
• How should the world play? This sets game mode and difficulty together: Relaxed survival, Standard survival, Tough survival, or Creative building.
• Allow commands like /gamemode and /give? Minecraft permanently turns off achievements in a world that allows commands. The default, No, keep achievements, leaves them on.
• How much can your rig handle? This sets how far players can see. A longer view distance uses more of your rig’s memory and processor.

The other three cover the expected player count, how often the world is backed up (every 6 hours by default), and a scheduled restart (daily at 4:00 AM by default, with warnings to anyone online).

Last, name your world. You may also enter a World seed, a code that decides how the world generates, so the same seed always makes the same world. Leave it blank for a random one. You can change the seed until the world’s first start, and after that it’s fixed.

Review my choices shows everything the wizard will set, and Create my server applies it.

Step 3: Start the world

Click Start on the world. Bedrock boots in a few seconds, and the dashboard shows when it’s online.

When Minecraft releases a new version, your friends’ games update on their own, and an older server turns them away. The dashboard shows Update available when a new server version is out. Click Update game, or Update & restart if the world is running, so your friends can keep joining.

Step 4: Get your friends in

The world’s card in the dashboard shows the address to share. On a PC or phone, your friends add it once:

1. Open Play, then the Servers tab.
2. Scroll down and choose Add Server.
3. Enter the address. The server name can be anything.

The world then stays in their Servers list. If someone plays on the same home network as your rig, switch the card from Anywhere to Same network to get the address that works for them.

Joining from the Friends tab is less reliable. A world on your home network can show up there, but joining through it often fails. Add Server connects straight to your world.

Consoles can’t add a server by address. Console players can only join through the Friends tab, on the same network as your rig, and only one world per rig shows up there.

If you chose Only people I add, add your friends’ gamertags to the Whitelist before they try to join. If a friend can’t connect, check that they used Add Server, that they entered the whole address including the numbers after the colon, and that their gamertag is spelled exactly right.

Step 5: Change world settings

Click Config on your world to change its settings. Game mode and difficulty are here, along with the World Rules: Keep Inventory on Death, Show Coordinates, Phantoms Spawn, Fire Spreads, TNT Explodes, Day and Night Cycle, and more. Player vs Player is in the same list, so you can turn PvP off.

Add-ons

Bedrock calls its mods add-ons. Click Add-ons on your world to manage them:

1. Type an add-on’s name to search CurseForge, or paste a link or project ID.
2. Click Add. Your rig downloads the add-on.
3. Restart the world to load it.

Some add-ons come in several versions, and a dropdown on the add-on’s row picks which one runs. When a newer version is published, an Update available button appears on the row.

A few kinds of content don’t install as add-ons:

• Skin packs go on your own Minecraft profile, not on the server. The dashboard refuses them and tells you so.
• Downloadable maps become new worlds. Use the From CurseForge tab when you create a world.
• Add-ons built on Beta APIs only run on a world with Beta APIs turned on, under World experiments. Turning it on is permanent for that world, so the dashboard asks you to confirm first.

If an add-on installs but can’t run, the dashboard tells you why. The usual reasons are that it needs Beta APIs or that it was made for a different Minecraft version.

Manage your players

The Players panel lists everyone who has joined, with who’s online first. Each row shows how long they’ve played and when they were last seen.

From the panel, you can send a message to everyone online, Kick a player, or Make admin for a player who’s online. Bedrock has no ban command, so the Whitelist is the only way to keep someone out for good.

Adding more worlds later

Click Create world to add a world to the same server. It gets its own name, seed, settings, and save. To start from a world you already like, pick it under Copy settings from, which copies its config and add-ons.

To play a downloadable adventure map, use the From CurseForge tab and paste the map’s link. The map becomes a new world.