Minecraft server icon: 64x64 PNG spec, placement, and troubleshooting

The Minecraft server icon is the small image players see next to your server name in the multiplayer list. The vanilla server has very strict expectations for it: one specific filename, one specific size, and one specific location. Miss any of those and the slot stays blank, with no warning in the log.

The exact specification

Convert any image with ImageMagick

ImageMagick handles every common source format and produces a clean 64x64 PNG in one command.

$convert input.jpg -resize 64x64^ -gravity center \
$  -extent 64x64 -strip server-icon.png

The -resize 64x64^ form fills the box (no letterboxing),-gravity center and -extent crop to a perfect square, and -strip removes EXIF and color profiles that can confuse the server.

Without a terminal

1. Open the source image in any editor that exports PNG (Photopea, GIMP, Photoshop, Pixlr).
2. Resize the canvas to 64 by 64 pixels. Crop, do not stretch.
3. Export as PNG with the filename server-icon.png.
4. Upload to the server root via SFTP, your panel's file manager, or place it next to server.properties on a local host.
5. Restart the server. The icon is only read at startup.

Where the file goes

The file sits in the same directory as server.propertiesand the world/ folder. A typical PaperMC layout looks like this:

$paper-1.21.4-server.jar
$server.properties
$server-icon.png
$world/
$plugins/

Troubleshooting

• Icon slot stays blank. Re-check the filename (lowercase) and dimensions (exactly 64x64). Run file server-icon.pngand confirm it reports PNG image data, 64 x 64.
• Icon shows a Steve head instead. That is the default placeholder for servers behind a proxy that strips the favicon field. Confirm Velocity, Waterfall, or BungeeCord is set to pass favicon through.
• Icon updates do not appear. The client caches icons. Quit and reopen Minecraft, or use/server-icon refresh if your panel exposes it.