How to Add a Server-Side Resource Pack to Your Minecraft Server

A server-side resource pack is a resource pack that your Minecraft Java Edition server automatically offers to players when they join. Instead of asking every player to manually install the pack, the server sends a prompt on login: "This server recommends a resource pack. Would you like to download it?"

Server admins can also set require-resource-pack=true in server.properties to make the pack mandatory — players who decline are kicked. The pack is downloaded directly from the URL in server.properties and cached locally so it only downloads once per pack version.

Server-side resource packs work on all Java Edition server platforms: Vanilla, Paper, Spigot, Purpur, Fabric, Forge, and proxy setups using Velocity or BungeeCord.

Your resource pack must be a .zip file with pack.mcmeta at the root level (not inside a subfolder). The required structure is:

• pack.mcmeta — required. Contains the pack format version and description.
• pack.png — optional. 64×64 PNG icon shown in the pack selector.
• assets/minecraft/textures/ — texture overrides (optional)
• assets/minecraft/sounds/ — sound overrides (optional)
• assets/minecraft/models/ — model overrides (optional)

Common mistake: right-clicking a folder and choosing Compress creates a ZIP with a subfolder inside. pack.mcmeta ends up one level too deep and Minecraft cannot read it. Instead, open the folder, select all files and folders inside it, and create the ZIP from that selection.

A minimal pack.mcmeta for modern Minecraft (1.21+) looks like this:

{"pack":{"pack_format":34,"description":"My Server Pack"}}

Minecraft's server.properties requires a direct download URL — a link that returns the raw ZIP bytes, not an HTML share page. You also need the exact SHA1 hash of the ZIP and a UUID to identify the pack version.

MinecraftPack handles all three automatically:

1. Go to minecraftpack.net and drag your ZIP onto the upload zone.
2. The SHA1 hash is computed in your browser while the file uploads to Google Drive.
3. A fresh UUID is generated for resource-pack-id.
4. The complete ready-to-paste server.properties block appears — copy it.

The output looks like this:

resource-pack=https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=XXXXXXX
resource-pack-sha1=a1b2c3d4e5f6...
resource-pack-id=550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

Open your server's server.properties file in a text editor. It lives in the root directory of your Minecraft server. Find (or add) these fields and paste the values from MinecraftPack:

Set require-resource-pack=false if you want the pack to be optional (players can decline without being kicked). Set it to true for servers where the pack is essential — PvP servers, adventure maps, fully themed servers.

Save server.properties and restart the Minecraft server. The change takes effect on the next restart — a reload is not sufficient.

When you join, you should see the resource pack prompt appear. To test correctly:

• Join as a player with a fresh client (or delete the cached pack from .minecraft/server-resource-packs/).
• The prompt should appear immediately after connecting.
• Accept the pack — textures, sounds, and models should load within a few seconds.

If the pack does not appear: check that resource-pack is a direct download URL (it should start with https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download when using MinecraftPack), confirm resource-pack-sha1 is exactly 40 hex characters, and verify the server restarted (not just reloaded).

• Players see the old pack after an update — The resource-pack-id UUID did not change. Upload the new pack version to MinecraftPack to get a fresh UUID, then update server.properties and restart.
• SHA1 mismatch error in console — The SHA1 in server.properties does not match the file at the URL. Re-upload on MinecraftPack; the SHA1 is computed from the exact file that gets hosted.
• Non-direct URL — If the URL is a Google Drive share link (ending in /view) rather than an export link, Minecraft downloads an HTML page instead of the ZIP. MinecraftPack always generates the correct ?export=download URL.
• Pack prompt not appearing — Confirm resource-pack is set in server.properties and the server was fully restarted. Some hosting panels have a separate "server.properties" editor that may cache the old values.
• Players kicked for declining — require-resource-pack=true is set. Change to false if the pack should be optional.