What Is the “Timed Out” Error?
If you’re hosting a Minecraft server on FreeMinecraftHost or similar platforms, you might have encountered a frustrating crash where the server freezes and throws the message:
This issue is often triggered by heavy tick loads, usually caused by mods or plugins that force chunk loading. Let’s break down what causes this, why it happens, and how to fix it properly.
How Does It Happen?
Many plugins and mods — especially those involving teleportation or automation — will force chunks to load, even if no player is nearby.
A common example:
- RTP (Random Teleport) plugins often pre-load chunks across the map, so that when a player teleports, everything is already generated and seamless.
However, when too many chunks are loaded at once, the server becomes overloaded.
Why Does It Crash?
Minecraft has a built-in safety mechanism called the ServerHangWatchdog.
By default, it allows 50 ticks (approximately 2.5 seconds) for operations like tile entity updates and entity processing. If these operations exceed that time, the watchdog assumes the server has stalled and forcibly crashes it with the “Timed Out” error.
❗ Default Watchdog Threshold:
max-tick-time:
tile: 50
entity: 50
How to Fix It
There are two main ways to prevent this issue:
1. Optimize or Replace Problematic Plugins
If you're using plugins or mods that force-load chunks, consider:
- Replacing them with lighter alternatives that use async chunk generation.
- Disabling their chunk loading if possible in their config.
- Avoiding unnecessary pre-generation, especially on low-performance servers.
2. Increase the Server Watchdog Timeout
If optimization isn’t enough, you can increase the time limit the watchdog allows before crashing the server.
How to do it:
If you’re using Paper, Purpur, Velocity, Spigot, Arclight, Magma, or any software that includes a spigot.yml file:
- Go to your server directory.
- Open the
spigot.yml file.
- Find the section:
max-tick-time:
tile: 50
entity: 50
- Change both
tile and entity to higher values, for example:
max-tick-time:
tile: 100
entity: 100
This change tells Minecraft to wait longer before assuming the server is frozen, which helps prevent crashes when tick usage spikes.
