How to Fix a Ticking Entity in Minecraft

While playing on your Minecraft server, issues can occasionally arise that trigger a crash. This would immediately kick out every player that’s connected, along with possibly an endless restart cycle. One of the most common crashes, especially for modded servers, is a ticking entity. Whether it’s a mob, block, or even the world – without any solution, the server will continue to crash.

With this in mind, we’ve created this Nitrado guide to help you fix a ticking entity in Minecraft!

Ticks in Minecraft

Before we dive into anything, it’s important to understand how ticks work in-game. Minecraft operates at 20 ticks per second, with 1 tick being 0.05 seconds. This controls the day-night cycle, farming, mob movements, redstone machines, and practically everything else. If an issue were to occur with ticks and the server attempts to correct it, an entire crash could happen. A similar event may also appear for singleplayer worlds with mods.

Ticking Crash Reports

There are three types of crashes that can happen: ticking entity, ticking block, and ticking world. The first only affects mobs or NPCs, while the second is block-related. The final crash is the worst one, as it causes the entire world to be corrupted. Finding out which one you have involves locating the crash report, then looking for keywords to determine the type of issue. In most cases, the description line of the report is how you can know what caused the crash.

You can find them in the crash-reports directory from the file browser on your Nitrado Webinterface. Here is an example of a ticking entity crash:

 
If you’re having trouble finding your Minecraft server crash report or determining what type of crash it is, then contact our Support Team for extra assistance.

How to Fix a Ticking Entity

There are a handful of ways to fix a ticking entity in Minecraft, along with the other types of crashes too. Keep in mind that some of these methods might not work, as each server is unique. Fortunately, there’s always a universal solution to get everything working again! Regardless, each way is worth a shot if you’re experiencing ticking crashes. When you’re ready, review the following methods to see which one works best for you.
 

 

1. Restore From Backup

One of the quickest ways to resolve a ticking entity, block, or world crash in Minecraft is by restoring from a backup. Nitrado has a built-in tool for that, which you can learn more about here. Essentially, the server has copies of your world and its files just in-case. Restoring to one of them means you’re going back in time before the issue happened. The only downside is that some in-game progress may be lost. This is considered to be the universal method for fixing ticking entity, block, and world crashes in Minecraft.

2. Teleport to Kill

In some cases, players may be able to startup the Minecraft server and join – despite there being a ticking entity. Only after a few seconds will a crash happen, meaning there is a possibility for you to teleport to the entity’s location and kill it. If you manage to do that, then it should resolve the issue! You can find the exact in-game coordinates from the crash report or server log, but sometimes that can be tricky.

3. Remove Problematic Mod

If you’ve recently installed mods to the server and the crash occurred, then consider removing the mod(s). In the crash report, you can sometimes determine the problematic mod. Otherwise, you may have to do some guess work to find out. For instance, if an entity is specifically named – then you can determine which mod it comes from so you can delete it. Once you do find out, remove the mod file and reboot the Minecraft server to see if that fixes the crash.

We strongly recommend trying this out only if nothing else seems to work, as deleting mods can remove other features you want.

4. CoFH Core Command

Most modpacks and modded servers may have CoFH Core, which has many features to improve gameplay. One of them is a “killall” command for entities, which can resolve any ticking crash type if the server comes online. If your server doesn’t have this mod installed, see if it’s compatible, then install it. After a restart, navigate to the Live Server Console from your Nitrado Webinterface, then execute /cofh killall [type] to see if that helps.

5. Forge Mod Loader

Any ticking entity crash happening on a Minecraft Forge server can be fixed by temporarily changing the forge.cfg file. This can be found in the config directory from the File Browser on your Webinterface. Once inside of the file, locate the removeErrorEntities option and set that to “true”. Make sure that the removeErroringTileEntities option is set to “false”, then save the changes and reboot the server. Once everything is loaded, stop the server immediately and change the first option back to “false”. Restart once again, then see if that resolved the ticking entity.

Warning: Using this method can have lasting effects on your Minecraft Forge server. Only try this if nothing else works and make sure the mentioned options are both set to “false” afterwards. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions or concerns.

Ticking Entities in Minecraft

Encountering a ticking entity or other type of crash in Minecraft can be troublesome, as it means no one can enjoy the server. Fixing it involves various methods, which some may work while others won’t. It all boils down to your specific situation, as each type of crash is unique. Fortunately, restoring from a backup will almost guarantee that the server will come online again – unless previous instances of the world also have the same issue.

Regardless, we hope that this guide will help you resolve ticking entities in Minecraft. Whether it’s a mob, block, or the entire world, the methods above will surely assist you. Remember, if you have any questions or concerns, reaching out to our Support Team is an option for extra help.

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