Edit config files in the panel file manager

How to find a config file on your server, change it in the panel's built-in editor, and make the change actually stick after a restart.

6 min read · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team

Nearly everything you will ever want to change about a game server lives in a plain text config file: the world name, the player limit, the admin list, a plugin's settings. The Files tab in your control panel is a file browser with a text editor built in, so you can make those changes from your browser without installing anything. If you have not had the wider tour yet, the panel tour shows you where each tab lives.

Find the file you need

Sign in at customer.guavahost.com, open My servers, click Manage on your server, then open the Files tab. You land in your server's root folder. That is the top level, the same place the game itself starts from, and almost every config either sits there or one or two folders down.

Where to look, by game:

Click a folder name to go into it, and use the path shown above the list to climb back out.

Some games also have a friendlier page for the same settings. Minecraft Java servers get Server properties under Minecraft tools in the server menu, which shows the file as a form with a search box and writes to the same file. Use whichever you prefer; see editing server.properties for the settings themselves.

Keep a copy before you change anything

A config file is one typo away from a server that will not boot, so give yourself a way back:

• Open the Backups page and click Create backup. That covers every file at once and is the safest option before a big edit. Backups: creating, restoring and scheduling has the detail.
• For a quick single-file safety net, open the file in the editor, select everything and paste it into a text file on your computer before you touch it.
• If you have an SFTP app set up, drag the file from your server to your computer first. Uploading files with SFTP covers getting connected.

Backups are the one that saves you when the server will not start at all, because a restore puts the whole folder back. Just remember a restore overwrites your current files, so take a fresh backup at a point you are happy with.

Open the editor and save

1. Stop the server with the Stop button at the top of the page. Most games hold their config in memory while they run and rewrite it on shutdown, which quietly overwrites whatever you just saved.
2. On the Files tab, click the file name. It opens in the built-in editor.
3. Make your change. Keep the file's existing shape: the setting name, the separator (= or :) and then the value.
4. Press Save.
5. Press Start at the top of the page and watch the Console tab as it boots.

That last step is not optional. A config is read at startup, so until the server restarts, your change exists on disk and nowhere else. The exception is a handful of settings a game can reload with a command, such as a plugin's own reload command typed into the console command box.

If the server does not come back, read the last error in the log rather than pressing Start again. Why your server says Starting or is stuck offline walks through what the common messages mean.

Mistakes that break a config

Most failed edits are one of these:

• A tab character in a YAML file. YAML (the indented format Minecraft plugins use) forbids tabs. Use spaces, and keep the same indentation as the lines around it.
• Quotes where the game does not want them. In server.properties and most .ini files you write difficulty=hard, not difficulty="hard".
• A space around the separator. max-players = 20 is not the same as max-players=20 for some parsers. Match the file's existing style.
• The wrong true or false. Booleans are usually lowercase true and false. True can be ignored silently.
• A deleted line you meant to disable. Comment it out instead by putting # at the start, so you can put it back.

If the server starts but ignores your setting, you probably edited a copy rather than the live file, or the game rewrote it. Check the file again after a start: if your value is gone, something else owns that setting.

Settings GuavaHost sets for you

A few values are not yours to change in the file. Your server's port is the clearest example: GuavaHost writes it in every time the server starts, so editing server-port by hand does nothing. Change it on your Ports and network page instead. The same goes for memory flags and a game's version or server type, which belong in startup parameters.

Editing live versus uploading over SFTP

Both end up in the same place. Pick by the size of the job.

The browser editor wins for a quick change to one file. It is two clicks away, it needs nothing installed, and you can see the result in the Console straight after.

SFTP wins when you are working on several files, when a file is large, or when you want to edit in a proper text editor with syntax highlighting. It is also the reliable way to move a whole plugins or config folder in one go, since the browser uploader handles smaller files best.

One rule applies either way: do not have both open on the same file at the same time. Whichever saves last wins, and the other change disappears.

File permissions and ownership

Your server runs as its own user, in its own isolated space, and every file you create through the panel or over SFTP already belongs to that user. That is why there is no owner or permission column to manage: you cannot create a file your own server is unable to read.

So when something looks like a permissions problem, it almost never is. The usual real causes are a file in the wrong folder, a setting the game rewrites at startup, or a mod expecting a config the server has not generated yet. If a mod says it cannot write its config, start the server once and let it create the file itself, then edit the file it made.

Common questions

Do I have to stop the server to edit a file?

For anything the game reads only at startup, no, but you should. A running server can rewrite its config when it shuts down and wipe your edit. Stopping first, saving, then starting is the habit that avoids the confusion.

Why did my change disappear after a restart?

Either the server was running when you saved and overwrote the file on shutdown, or that setting is one GuavaHost writes for you at every start, such as the port. Check the file again right after a start to see which of the two it was.

Can I edit files while my friends are playing?

You can open and read them, but saving a change mid-session is a bad idea. The game may not pick it up, it may rewrite your edit later, and anything that needs a restart will boot your players anyway. Schedule it for a quiet moment instead.

What if I break the config and the server will not start?

Restore the backup you took, or put the broken line back the way it was. If you did not take a backup and cannot spot the mistake, copy the last few error lines from the Console and bring them to us, because the log usually names the exact file and line.

Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.

• panel
• files
• config
• editor
• sftp

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