How to schedule automatic restarts for a Minecraft server
Set up a daily automatic restart for your Minecraft server on Schokr with a schedule that warns players, saves the world and restarts.
Updated · 2 min read
Use your server's Schedules to restart Minecraft automatically, for example every night at 4 AM. A good schedule warns players in chat, saves the world, and then restarts the server.
Why restart regularly?
Minecraft servers do not have to be restarted, and Schokr servers do not sleep or shut down when idle. A daily restart is still common because it:
- clears memory that slowly builds up from plugins and long sessions,
- applies config and plugin changes you made during the day,
- gives you a predictable moment for backups.
For a small friends server, once a day or even less is plenty.
Create the schedule
- Open your server in the Schokr console and go to Schedules.
- Create a new schedule, name it something like
Daily restart, and set when it runs using cron-style fields (minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week). For every day at 04:00:
| Minute | Hour | Day of month | Month | Day of week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 4 | * | * | * |
Schedules run on the server's clock, which may not be your time zone. Check the next run time shown for the schedule and adjust the hour if needed.
- Add tasks to the schedule in this order. Each task can have a time offset in seconds, which is a delay after the previous task:
| Order | Task type | Payload | Offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Send command | say Server restarting in 5 minutes | 0 |
| 2 | Send command | say Server restarting in 1 minute | 240 |
| 3 | Send command | save-all | 50 |
| 4 | Power action | Restart | 10 |
Commands sent from a schedule are typed into the console, so do not include a leading slash.
- Make sure the schedule is enabled and save it.
Restart only when nobody is online
Pick a time when your players are usually offline. Many schedule systems also have an option to only run when the server is online, which avoids starting a server you stopped on purpose. Enable it if you see it.
Add a backup or snapshot
You can put a backup task in the same schedule, right after save-all and before the restart. Keep in mind backups per server are limited, so older ones need to be rotated out. See back up your Minecraft world.
Paper alternatives
On Paper, restart plugins can show countdown titles and boss bars, but the console schedule is more reliable because it works even if the server has frozen. Use one or the other, not both, to avoid double restarts.
Schedule did not run?
- Check the cron fields and time zone.
- Make sure the schedule is active.
- Look at the Activity log and the console around the scheduled time for errors.
- If the server was stopped at that time, a restart task may not start it.