How to fix a .yml file

This article will describe how to troubleshoot and fix errors with a .yml or .yaml file on your Minecraft server.

Checking the syntax

To check the syntax there are multiple websites you can use, for example https://yamlchecker.com/ is one of these.

1. Open the file via your server's FTP File Access
2. Go to https://yamlchecker.com/ and paste the file in
3. Below the text box, you will see a summary of errors:

4. In the error, it shows which line has the problem, and this is highlighted in red - it may not show the exact line of the error however the error is generally nearby. Look for anything that's out of place, and looks different to everything else. In this example, the problem with the file is that the - another.permission line does not have the correct indentation, this is more to the left than the other permissions, therefore that is the issue.

Some example permissions files

Here's an example permissions.yml file for the plugin PermissionsEx:

groups:
  Default:
    options:
      default: true
    permissions:
    - modifyworld.*
  Admin:
    options:
      prefix: '&0(&4Admin&0)&7 '
    permissions:
    - permissions.*
    - essentials.*
    inheritance:
    - Default
users:
  YourPlayerName:
    group:
    - Admin
    permissions:
    - permissions.*

You can see how each section begins with permissions: then contains a list of permissions, each starting with a - and having the same indentation.

Updated on: 26/11/2020