Installing a plugin is three steps and one habit. The habit — reading the console afterwards — is what separates «I installed it» from «it is working».
What to do
- Check the version before downloading
The plugin page lists which Minecraft versions it supports. A mismatch is the single most common reason a plugin fails to load.
- Put the jar in
pluginsEither through the panel's plugin installer, or by uploading the jar into the
pluginsfolder in the file manager. Do not unzip it — a plugin is a jar and stays a jar. - Restart the server
Not reload.
/reloadleaves many plugins in a half-initialised state and is a common source of strange behaviour that looks like a bug in the plugin. - Read the startup log
Look for the plugin's name being enabled. If it failed, the reason is right there — usually a missing dependency or a version mismatch.
plugins in the console lists it in green. Green is loaded, red is failed.
Add plugins one at a time when you can. Installing six at once and finding the server will not start means testing six things instead of knowing immediately which one it was.