This article will help you learn how to reduce lag and repair lag on your Minecraft server.
Reasons for lag:
- Too many players and not enough RAM.
- Too many mobs/items and not enough RAM.
- You are too far away from your server.
- Too many worlds running on your server without sufficient RAM.
- Errors are spamming in your console.
- Too many plugins running on your server and not enough RAM.
Console Errors
1. Check if you have any errors in your console. If you see any "SEVERE" errors this might be the cause of your lag.
2. Try and troubleshoot these errors. Our Live Chat and ticket support team are highly skilled in analyzing and repairing errors and server lag and our team will always be happy to help you!
If you see "End of Stream" with a "SEVERE" tag, do not be alarmed. Unless this is spamming in your console this it not an issue.
Lower Your Server View-Distance
View-distance determines how far, in chunks, you can see out into your server world.
This can greatly affect server performance if set to too high of a value.
View-distance can be changed in your server.properties file which can be found in the FTP File Access page of the control panel.
We recommend a view-distance around 5 or 6.
NOTE: If you use Paper, you can utilize its no-tick-view-distance. This renders chunks without loading entities inside them, letting you have the chunks but without the performance loss. This value is found in paper.yml. Read more about the Paper documentation on their site.
Latency Lag
If you want to check your latency with a server just log onto Minecraft and add the server you want to test to your list of servers.
When it's added there will be a small icon in the top right on the server field just above the number of slots the server holds.
If you hover the icon it will tell you the ping of the server.
Fast Ping: <100ms
Medium Ping: 100-250ms
Slow Ping: 250-500ms
Bad Ping: >500ms
Latency lag is when you are too far away from your server so the connection is slightly delayed.
Check your server's node location and see if you are the closest you can be to our servers. You can find all of the locations MCProHosting offers here. If you see that any of your servers are located closer to you than your current server's location, submit a ticket here and we can assist you with a location move - free of charge!
For Vanilla/Bukkit/Spigot Servers:
Try the Spigot or Paper Spigot Server Types
If you're using Vanilla or Bukkit, your server may greatly benefit by trying the Spigot or Paper Spigot server types.
Spigot/Paper Spigot are server types optimized to run better for servers. These server types also include optimization settings which can be changed in the spigot.yml file for Spigot servers which can also improve server performance.
Warning: Spigot does not cause any changes to data such as worlds, plugins, etc on your server, however, if you're using Vanilla Minecraft Spigot will split your overworld into three separate world folders (WORLDNAME, WORLDNAME_nether, and WORLDNAME_the_end).
ClearLag
ClearLag is a highly configurable entity management plugin, allowing you to have full control over entity limits on your server!
ClearLag can be found here. A guide on how to manually install plugins can be found here.
1. Once you have ClearLag installed you can run the command "lagg check" to see how many entities you have on your server
2. If you are running a small server anything over the value "500" may possibly be the reason for your lag.
3. If you do have a high number of entities, run the command "lagg clear" and "lagg killmobs". This will remove the lag causing entities from your server i.e. items on the ground and mobs
Remove Excess Plugins
The more players and plugins you have the more RAM you will need.
If you have lots of plugins and not a lot of RAM you will overload your server causing it to have lag spikes and/or crash.
The best thing to do is limit the number of plugins you require to run your server.
We often recommend around 10 plugins per 1 GB of RAM on your server.
Check out our recommend plugins guide here for suggestions on the plugins you should have for each server type.
If you still want the same plugins and you have tried our other suggestions consider upgrading.
For Forge Servers:
Ensure Your Server Has Enough RAM to Support Your Mods/Modpack
Modpacks often require a specific amount of RAM and this is also the case with mods.
Too many mods or too large of a modpack on a server can cause server lag and overloading.
If you're unsure of how much RAM your server would require, you can contact our Live Chat team or submit a ticket and we can help you!
If you find that your server is lagging with enough RAM, we recommend contacting our support team for assistance!
Upgrade/Purchase More RAM
Your server may have become too large, using more RAM than your server has. In cases like that, we would recommend upgrading your server plan. Upgrading your server plan increases the RAM on your server, allowing for your server to support more players, worlds, and plugins/mods. To upgrade or purchase additional RAM you can follow our guide here.
@MCProHosting