"Formatting was not a valid color: §m" 1.21.6 Paper

[Xefoti]

Stack trace

https://mclo.gs/JpWsHI0 crush_server.txt
https://mclo.gs/6YwqQEj latest.log

Plugin and Datapack List

Plug-ins: AuraSkills, AuthMe, ChatItem, Chunky, CoreProtect, Crystal-TPA, eco, EcoEnchants, Essentials, fast-leaf-decay, libreforge, PlayerKits2, ProtocolLib, PyroFishingPro, PyroLib, SkinsRestorer, TabListPing, Vault, WildRTP, WorldBorder

DataPacks: There are 3 data pack(s) enabled: [vanilla (built-in)], [file/bukkit (world)], [paper (built-in)]

Actions to reproduce (if known)

No response

Paper version

This server is running Paper version 1.21.6-48-main@4d854e6 (2025-06-30T09:48:37Z) (Implementing API version 1.21.6-R0.1-SNAPSHOT)

Other

rng crashes. stable server work for 24> hours and suddenly crashes out for no reason

[Nu11ified]

This stack trace shows that the crash originates from the Minecraft server's internal world saving mechanism (DimensionDataStorage.saveLevelData and MinecraftServer.tickServer). The error message Formatting was not a

valid color: §m; Formatting was not a valid color: §n; Formatting was not a valid color: §o; Formatting was not a valid color: §k; Formatting was not a valid color: §l

It tells us that when the server is trying to save some data, it encounters these specific formatting codes and treats them as invalid colors.

I will take a look to see where exactly in the code we can make it so it doesn't default to crashing.

[Nu11ified]

#12863

I made a pull request to fix this bug! @Xefoti

[lynxplay]

The server had a scoreboard team with an invalid colour code (none colours, like m for strikethrough)
There is nothing here we can do bar I guess magically stripping those codes. Or the server administrator removing them.
I am semi in the camp of "not much we should/could do" here, but I'll leave this open for more team opinions.

[Nu11ified]

The server had a scoreboard team with an invalid colour code (none colours, like m for strikethrough) There is nothing here we can do bar I guess magically stripping those codes. Or the server administrator removing them. I am semi in the camp of "not much we should/could do" here, but I'll leave this open for more team opinions.

Why not just sanitize it? It makes it easier for less experienced server admins who want to use these plugins and may not know how to diagnose these issues. It would be pretty easy to just put in a catch right?

[lynxplay]

I mean we could sneak a custom data converter into a follow up version (1.21.9/1.22) for this.
Runtime sanitation for people using legacy colour codes in 2025 just feels bad if that makes sense.
The system has been effectively deprecated since 1.7 and the introduction of chat components.

[Nu11ified]

@lynxplay

Ah that makes sense! Didn't realize it had been deprecated so long ago. That is solely on the plugin maker then.