# Server Hibernation

> Hibernation puts your Minecraft (Java) server to sleep automatically when nobody is playing, and wakes it back up the moment someone tries to join. Your...

Source: https://fadehost.com/docs/hibernation/

Hibernation puts your **Minecraft (Java)** server to sleep automatically when nobody is playing, and wakes it back up the moment someone tries to join. Your world stays exactly as it was; the server just stops burning resources while it's empty.

Because hibernating servers count as **stopped**, they **don't use any of your RAM pool**. That means you can keep many worlds on your account and your pool only needs to cover the ones that are actually awake.

## Enabling it

1. Open your server in the control panel.
2. Go to **Settings → General**.
3. Turn on **Auto-Hibernate When Empty**.

The setting is per-server and off by default.

## How it works

- After **15 minutes with no players online**, your server saves its world and goes to sleep. Its status in the panel shows **Hibernating**.
- The server **stays visible in the Minecraft server list** while asleep. Instead of the normal MOTD, players see:

  > 💤 *Your Server* is hibernating. **Join to wake it up!**

- When someone tries to join, they briefly see:

  > ⏳ Waking *Your Server* up! It will be online in about a minute. Rejoin shortly.

  The server starts automatically in the background. Rejoining after ~30 to 60 seconds lands them in the world as normal.
- You can also wake a hibernating server yourself at any time with the normal **Start** button.

Hibernations and wake-ups are recorded in your server's **activity log**, so you can always see when and why the server stopped or started.

## Hibernation and your RAM pool

A hibernating server frees its RAM back to your pool. You can use that RAM to run another server in the meantime.

If a player then tries to wake the hibernating server while your pool is fully in use, the wake is refused: the player sees a message that the owner's RAM pool is full, and **you get a notification in the panel** so you can stop another server (or add RAM) to let it wake.

## Good to know

- **Minecraft Java Edition only** for now: the wake magic speaks the Java server-list protocol.
- The idle timer is based on players actually being connected. A server with even one player online never hibernates.
- Hibernation is a graceful stop: the world is **saved before sleeping**, same as a normal stop.
- The first join after waking takes about a minute (normal server start time). Everything after that is instant, as usual.
- Turning the setting off stops future auto-hibernation; a currently hibernating server can always be started manually.