How to Change the Seed of Your Minecraft Server

Choosing the perfect Minecraft seed can shape the entire experience of your server. The seed determines the generation of the world, influencing landscapes, resources, and potential spawn points. If you're looking to spice up your gameplay or explore new terrains, you may want to change the seed of your Minecraft server. 

This article will guide you through changing your server's seed using the SGH Panel, so you can start exploring new worlds today. 

Changing Your Minecraft Server's Seed

Step 1: Log In to the SGH Panel

The first step in changing your server's seed is to log in to your server's control panel. 

Open a new tab in your browser and navigate to: panel.simplegamehosting.com.

Enter your login information in the fields shown. Click "Login" to access your server's panel. 

💎 Note: You should have received a signup email after you purchased your server so that you could set up an account for the Panel. If you didn't, contact one of our LiveChat Agents on our website. 

After you log in, you will be taken to the dashboard. Here, you can select the server you want to manage (if you have multiple). 

If you don't see any servers listed here, be sure to toggle "Showing Others Servers" in the top right corner of the page. 

Now, click "Manage Server" to access the Console. 

Step 2: Stopping Your Server

Next up, you will need to shut down your server safely. You can do this by clicking "Stop" in the bottom right corner of the terminal/console window. This will properly shut down your server so that you can work on the properties file without issues. 

Before moving forward, ensure your server has fully stopped. You will typically see a message in the console saying, "Server marked as offline..." once it's shut down.

Step 3: Locate the File Manager

In the menu bar, locate the "File Manager" tab and click to open it. Once you're there, you will see a window where you can manage all of your server's files. 

⚡️Advanced Users: You can access your SGH Server files using SFTP. Check out our guide here for more.

Now you will need to ensure you're in your server's root folder. You should see "/home/container/" displayed in the top left section - next to the "Create Directory" button.

Step 4: Renaming Folders

Locate the "world" folder. Click the three dots "•••" on the far right side, and hit Rename. 

✋ For now, we'll rename our old world. You can delete this later once everything is done. We recommend waiting until you've finished the new world to delete the old.

Rename the "world" folder to "world-old." Hit the "RENAME" button.

Why This Matters 👉 We want our server to generate an entirely new world with the seed we're about to enter. Changing the seed without generating a new world folder can cause issues down the line, such as broken chunks, empty villages, and mob spawning issues. It's best practice to generate a new world folder when switching seeds. 

Step 5: Entering a New Seed

In the File Manager, locate the "server.properties" file. This is located in the root folder "/home/container/" mentioned above. 

Once you locate the file, click to open it with the built-in editor. Find the line for "level-seed=" in the editor. This is usually around line 5 for Vanilla servers, but it's possible it's somewhere else. 

From here, you can remove the string of numbers after the "=" to change your seed.

⚡️ Don't see the numbers? Don't worry if you don't currently have any numbers after the "=" because this means the seed was randomly generated on the first launch. 

You can now enter a new seed here. If you want this to be random, enter any string of numbers/letters. Otherwise, you can find great collections of seeds online and random seed generators!

Step 6: Save Changes & Restart Your Server

Once you've entered a new seed, be sure to hit the "Save Content" button in the editor to confirm your changes. 

Now, click on "Console" in the menu bar. Once you're on the Console page, locate the "Start" button in the terminal/console window itself. Click it to restart your server. 

Open Minecraft, and join your server in-game. The new seed should be working, and your world should begin generating an entirely new adventure for you! 

Step 7: Remove Old-World Folder -- Optional ⭐

Keeping your server directory clean is a great way of making it easy to manage your server. Once you've loaded up your new world, you can head back into the panel to remove your "world-old" folder (if you're ready to delete it fully).

On the Console, stop your server once again. When it's done shutting down, head over to your File Manager.

Locate the "world-old" folder from here, and click the "•••" on the right. Hit "Delete" to remove the folder.