Sleeping and waking

To keep costs low, a server that nobody is on goes to sleep. It wakes up when someone joins. It still shows in the server list the whole time.

When does it sleep

A server sleeps a set time after the last player leaves:

The same timer runs when you press Start in the panel and nobody joins. Before it sleeps, the server stops cleanly and saves the world. We also make a backup each time it goes to sleep. See Backups and restores.

The Activity list in the panel shows every wake and sleep, with the reason, for example "Went to sleep after 5 minutes with nobody online".

An always-on option is not available for now.

What players see

In the server list. A sleeping server still shows your real MOTD and icon, and it shows 0 players, because there are 0 players. We never fake a player count. In the hub's server list it says "sleeping, wakes in about 20s".

When they join. A player who joins a sleeping server sees a plain screen that says "Starting yourserver... about 15s". The time is a real estimate, from how long your server took to start the last few times, and it counts down. Under it there is one short tip, such as "Type /hub to browse other servers". The screen shows only your server's name: never our name or any advert. Players do not need to press anything. When the server is ready, they are moved in. Everyone who joins while it wakes waits on the same start. The same happens while your server restarts: players who join then wait on that screen and go in when it is back up.

A player who picks your server from the hub waits right where they are, with the same words on their screen, and moves straight across when it is ready.

A wake takes about 10 to 20 seconds. If it takes longer than usual, the screen says so honestly.

If it takes longer. The screen says so honestly: "Taking longer than usual". After 60 seconds the player can choose to keep waiting or go to the hub. Nobody is disconnected for waiting. If it is still not ready 5 minutes after the first player started waiting, everyone still waiting is taken to the hub with a short note, including players who chose to keep waiting.

A new server is created asleep and wakes on its first join. You can also press Start in the panel, for example to install plugins or edit a world. It sleeps again when idle as usual.

If it cannot start. The player sees a plain reason and a choice, for example "This server couldn't start, the owner has been told" or "Busy right now, you're #3 in line". They can try again, wait in line or go to the hub. You get an alert, too: see Alerts.

Parties. A party that joins a sleeping server waits together and goes in together. If your server is full, the party waits in line as one group.

When a region is busy

If every machine in a region is full, waiting players join a queue and see their place, for example "Busy right now, you're #3 in line". Paid servers go ahead of free ones in the line. As soon as another server goes to sleep and frees room, the first server in line that fits starts. A player who gives up and goes to the hub leaves the line.

Regions

Each server has a usual region (NA or EU). It always starts there when players join.

• Pin to region. In Settings, you can pin a server to its region. A pinned server is never started anywhere else.
• Quick start in any region. When you press Start in the panel you can choose to start in whichever region has room, instead of waiting for your own. This needs worlds kept in shared storage, which we switch on once we run more than one machine. Until then every server starts in its own region, and the panel tells you so.

If all our free space is full, a new free server joins a waitlist. Free servers that already exist keep working, and paid servers never wait.

Which region. By default a server starts wherever there is room, which is the fastest. If you pin a server to one region, it only ever starts there, and it waits in the queue for that region if it is busy. A pinned server is never started in another region.

AFK rules

AFK means "away from keyboard". Some players leave a farm running.

• Free servers: if every player online has done nothing for 25 minutes, they all get a warning that the server will sleep in 5 minutes. If someone looks around or presses a key, everyone reads "Welcome back" and the server stays awake. If nobody does, it sleeps at 30 minutes and the players land in the hub with a note saying why. "Doing nothing" means no real input: no looking around and no key presses, clicks or chat. Moving because of a water stream does not count as doing something, and neither does sitting still in a boat or minecart (rowing or steering does). This rule runs on our side, so no plugin can switch it off.
• Paid plans: AFK players keep the server awake. AFK farms are one reason to upgrade.

The line in the tab list

Free servers show one small line at the bottom of the tab list (the player list you open with Tab): "hosted free on Server Host". Your own tab list header and footer still show above it. Paid plans can remove the line.

Before the first start: the EULA

A server cannot start until its owner has ticked the Minecraft EULA box, when making the server or later in the panel. A co-owner can tick it too; admins and other team members cannot accept it for the owner. Players who join before that see a message that the owner needs to accept it.

When a start fails

If a server does not start within a minute, we stop it and tell the players who were waiting, and the owner sees it on the server's activity. It no longer holds a place on the machine, so other servers can start. After a while it shows as asleep again, and the next join tries again.

Long unused servers

A free server that nobody has used for 30 days is archived. Nothing is deleted. The world moves to storage, and the next start takes longer: the player sees "Bringing yourserver back from storage" and the server then starts as usual. You can also bring it back from the panel with Bring back. Paid servers are not archived (a default, for review). This is the same whether the world was on its machine or already kept in shared storage.

When a paid plan ends

If a paid plan ends and is not renewed, the server moves to the free limits. Nothing is deleted. If it uses more than the free 5 GB of disk, it cannot start until you free some space or renew. See Credits and plans.

A world is only deleted when you delete it yourself.

Crashes

If a server crashes it restarts by itself. If it crashes three times in 10 minutes, it stops, we alert you, and the panel offers a diagnosis and a restore. You can start it again from the panel. See Troubleshooting.

Updates on wake

A new build of your server's version (a bug or security fix) is applied automatically at the next wake, after a backup. See Versions and software.