Banning and Kicking Players on Your Minecraft Server
Remove disruptive players temporarily with kick or permanently with ban commands.
Kicking Players
All of this can also be done from the panel: Settings > Player Management holds Banned Players and Banned IPs lists, which write banned-players.json and banned-ips.json for you, alongside the Whitelist and the Admins list. There is no kick button - kicking only affects the live session, so it is a console action.
/kick [player] [reason] - disconnects the player from the server. They can rejoin immediately. The reason is optional but shown to the player.
Use kick for temporary removal: a player is being disruptive, you need to test something, or you're doing maintenance and want everyone off briefly.
Kick doesn't prevent the player from rejoining. If they keep coming back, use ban instead.
Banning Players
/ban [player] [reason] - Permanently bans the player by username. They cannot rejoin until you pardon them. The ban is saved in banned-players.json.
/ban-ip [IP|player] [reason] - Bans an IP address. You can either provide an IP directly or use an online player's name (the server bans their current IP). Saved in banned-ips.json.
IP bans are stronger than username bans - they prevent anyone connecting from that IP, even with a different account. Use IP bans for griefers who might create alt accounts.
The reason is optional and defaults to "Banned by an operator." It's shown to the player when they try to connect.
Unbanning Players
/pardon [player] - Removes a username ban. The player can rejoin immediately.
/pardon-ip [IP] - Removes an IP ban. You must provide the IP address, not a username.
/banlist [players|ips] - shows the current ban list. Use this to find the exact IP or name you need to pardon. The same lists are visible in Settings > Player Management, where each entry has a Remove button.
When to Use Kick vs Ban vs IP Ban
Kick: Player is AFK and you need the slot, or you're testing something and need an empty server. No lasting consequence.
Ban: Player is repeatedly breaking rules. They can't rejoin with the same account, but can potentially use an alt account.
IP ban: Player is griefing with alt accounts, or you want to block an entire network. Prevents any connection from that IP.
Note: IP bans can affect multiple players sharing the same IP (e.g., siblings, dorm networks, VPN users). Use IP bans carefully and only when a username ban isn't sufficient.