How to Pause the Day-Night Cycle in a Survival World Using Preferred Gamerules

Find the Time Gamerule

In vanilla, the day-night cycle can only be frozen by disabling the advance-time gamerule before you create the world. With Preferred Gamerules, you can do this in an existing survival world. Open Mod Menu, select Preferred Gamerules, and open its config. Look for the gamerule that controls whether time advances, usually labeled around the day-night cycle.

Disable It and Confirm

Turn that gamerule off and apply the config. The world's time should stop advancing, so the sun or moon stays where it is. This is useful for building, farming schedules, or keeping a permanent night for mob-related projects. To resume normal time, reopen the config and turn the gamerule back on.

Why This Works Without Cheats

Normally you would need the command for gamerules and cheats enabled to change this after world creation. Preferred Gamerules writes the value through its config instead, so it works even in worlds where cheats are off. Keep in mind that pausing time also pauses related natural processes tied to the day cycle, so re-enable it when you want normal progression back.