This is pure, unadulterated, user-hostile bullshit. I paid for Minecraft, not to be dicked around with login systems just because Microsoft bought Mojang and doesn't feel like doing their job.
Apparently someone used my email address already (gmail, because they won't accept school alumni email addresses!) so I was shunted into an "account recovery" hell full of questions I can't answer because I wasn't the one who signed up for a Microsoft account using my email address! How did they let that happen? Have they no validation on email addresses, but want blood work to recover an account?
I am livid. This is an atrocious experience and a nice preview of the hellish future of automated society we're hurtling into. Welcome to John Scalzi's "Automated Customer Service."
Screw you, Microsoft. Thanks for reminding me why I don't purchase your shit products.
I really hate how Microsoft is leveraging everything they have to push us into Microsoft accounts. I don't want a Microsoft account. I had one to try out Microsoft Family (which is an unmitigated disaster; stay away). I have no desire at all to tie Minecraft to it. But I guess I have no choice.
My youngest son also wants his own Minecraft account; he doesn't have one yet exactly because it's impossible to get a Mojang account anymore, and I refuse to deal with Microsoft accounts because of my earlier experiences. I guess we have no choice now.
They also keep pushing my to link Windows 10 to a Microsoft account, no matter how often I keep refusing. I'd gotten a lot milder about Microsoft over the past decade, but this trying to put their crappy account system down our throats is reigniting all my hate from their worst anti-linux days.
This happened to me, someone somehow got my account and then they asked for the payment id of the Paypal transaction from over a decade ago for me to recover it. I don't even know if I can find that.
I ended up just buying it again. Pretty obnoxious.
Same here, except I did manage to find the original transaction ID, and they still wouldn't give me access to my account. They acknowledged (after several months' wait time) that the ID was correct, but they claim the account is associated with a different email address -- even though the PayPal receipt is still in my inbox! And until I can guess which incorrect address is in their records, they won't reset the password.
(This contradicts their written policy, which says that even if you lose access to the original email address, the transaction ID should be enough to recover the account. When I pointed this out to their support representative, they ignored me and closed the ticket.)
> I wasn't the one who signed up for a Microsoft account using my email address! How did they let that happen? Have they no validation on email addresses, but want blood work to recover an account?
Speaking as the owner of a popular-ish domain that people enter as a fake email, Microsoft is better than most. They have a footer link to remove the email address from the account. Most services have nothing of the sort
E.g.: If you don't recognize the Microsoft account ***@outlook.com, you can click here to remove your email address from that account.
A hearty 'hear, hear' from me. Curse Microsoft for putting me through all this bullshit to pay for a game I bought from someone else years and years ago.
Everybody knows that Minecraft Java edition will run on anything that can run Java, like a Raspberry Pi, for example. Well, you need a launcher to run Minecraft Java edition, and the Java launcher (which will run on anything) only supports Mojang accounts (see https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/download/alternative it still says "We got you covered!").
Contrary to what others said in this thread, I think that the communication has been quite poor for this use case, because the official communication insists on saying that the Java version will still be working, which is a lie: the Java launcher already stopped working for new customers (I met several people who bought Minecraft to use it on Raspberry Pi, and their money is lost, because their purchase doesn't allow them to create the necessary Mojang account), and it will also stop working for all existing accounts in a few weeks.
It was not so hard to decide to make is a FAQ and say "Sorry guys, we are dropping support for all the architectures which are not the top 3 ones, your game will stop working", instead of saying "Don’t worry – the only thing that’s changing is how you log in to the game! [...] Minecraft: Java Edition will stay exactly the same, and we’ll continue to update and support it in the future."
Luckily 3rd party launchers lile MultiMC work almost everywhere. MultiMc specifically is just so much better than the standard launcher. Really recommend checking it out
Think OP is saying that the Java launcher for MS accounts is not published for architectures such as ARM in the Raspberry Pi. So the only way to launch on such devices is to use the legacy Mojang launcher, which will cease working when Mojang accounts are no longer supported.
I've been running a Minecraft server for over 11 years. It's finally time to switch it to offline mode and roll my own in-game authentication via plugin. So please pirate the game and join the fun. :)
Will probably result in more griefing and rollbacks but oh well.
Could you please list which of the Java launchers from that download page is not working? I tried the Mac one just now, and it did work; it needed a right-click Open in order to launch, but after that it updated itself and launches with the normal double-click.
My only issue with this is that I can go to my password manager and I have like 10 different Microsoft accounts over the years, some of which seem to be merged, some of which are not, some are from Microsoft acquired entities like Skype and all of them confuse me.
I seem to be able to use some of them to login to the same merged account and others don't work anymore at all.
Microsoft's entire auth ecosystem since Live has been a confusing mess for me especially when they acquire someone and start bringing them into the fold.
I tend to just avoid it, I'm not deep into the Microsoft ecosystem and rather not have the headache at this point.
When I was a kid mid 2008, I modded Halo 3 maps with 3rd party software on Xbox Live. This went on for a while and of course my account was permanently banned. As a result, I cannot access the Xbox Live service from my account anymore, even the various Xbox branded apps on Windows will fail to load with mysterious error codes, but the account still works for all other reasons and retains licenses I paid for, so I continue using it. This is also nice because the Xbox Live bloat on Windows 10 can't load even if it wanted to, but alas.
The account migration here interops with Xbox Live, and as a result all api calls fail during the migration resulting in various error codes or pages not loading. It sounds like my only options here are to make a new account with I assume violates a Xbox Live TOS somewhere or lose my account which seems bad. Hopefully support can arrange a refund.
I would hope that support would consider reversing the ban, considering that A) you have stuff you paid for you can't use and B) the "abuse" was nearly 15 years ago.
For some reason these days I just expect "support" for large tech companies to mean a page of FAQs or maybe a chatbot. Maybe it's just all the bad press about bad support experiences.
It's a bit silly, but it is what it is; I believe they closed the ban support forums >5 years ago. It rubs me a bit wrong that a purchase I made on another platform is inevitably going to become unusable because of an acquisition.
I set up a Microsoft account because it was required to purchase Minecraft in late 2021. Somehow I forgot the password or the account was locked because I didn't supply a phone number. I tried to recover using my recovery email address and Microsoft would not grant me access unless I gave a record of who I'd corresponded with and some email headings. I literally only have a receipt for Minecraft in the inbox. A recovery attempt failed after 10 days. I don't see how initiating another would solve the problem and I find it mindbending that the won't let me recover using my recovery email address. So here I am telling my kid that we can't access all the worlds we made over the holidays, and contemplating making another purchase because my time isn't worth this annoyance. But I'm incredibly annoyed that they will happily take my money again for something I just purchased!
Microsoft doesn't shy away from outright lying to pry phone numbers from people.
I made a couple of Xbox accounts for my kids to use for some PC game. Used unique emails on my own domain and hosted on my own private mail server. Declined requests to provide any extras. Not a week in MS sends an email to both that literally said "Your _email_ account was hacked. Your Xbox account is suspended. Secure it with a phone number or it will be deleted."
The new and improved, people-friendly Microsoft. Just a fresh coat of paint over the same old core.
This is really bad. This should be considered outright computer fraud. It's a lie to extort information from you. Although it's probably way too small and trivial for that, I'd really like to see this slapped down hard by a court.
Fear not, you didn't lose any of your progress (unless you plaid on a realm), all the worlds are saved ~/.minecraft/saves.
If you don't want to buy another account you could use one of the many launchers that allow you to play without an account (tlauncher, shiginima...) but your mileage may vary.
You could also use multimc but, since it requires an account to download the assets, you'd need to copy around the files in the .minecraft folder used by the official launcher which can be challenging and annoying to do.
Edit: I have a similar thing going on with Microsoft too, to migrate the account I need access to the email which I no longer have. I've been opening a ticket every ~3 months for the past ~2 years and they still refuse to switch my email address.
Luckily I can still play the game (not for long) since I still have access to the account
I'm really sad to read that. It's too late for you to avoid that horrible situation, but maybe in order to avoid repeating it, and for anyone else who is reading this, consider playing Minetest instead of Minecraft. It's free software, so you're structurally protected against this kind of abuse.
Anyone knows how to set a Microsoft account so they don't require a verification code sent to another email? I want this to be the place where other accounts send their verification codes. The last thing I need is to go on a spree of chained verifications when on a hurry and/or on the go with my tiny smartphone.
What's worse with all these verification systems is that what happens if you make the human mistake of setting them to the other email, so each one sends their verificacion to the other one. I just want to use my very secure passwords and maybe a OTP key, not depending on third party emails :-(
Microsoft does this all the time where they will lock you out of an account and make it near impossible for you to recover even when you still have access to the email address and password.
This happened to me with LinkedIn (during a job search!) when my phone that had 2FA on it stopped booting entirely (Pixel 3a). Support had no reason they wouldn't simply contact me via the contact methods on my profile to reset 2FA, so I'm in limbo right now.
To be fair, they want me to email pictures of my driver's license to recover the account, which they pinky-promise they'll delete afterwards. I'm not willing to do that, given I didn't have to provide any ID to sign up in the first place. So now I'm looking into having this form they sent to me notorized so I can get access back. What a mess.
They've been publicizing this migration for at least a few years - I think I migrated my migration after a communication in 2020). Not sure what the actual implications are for who controls my data, but I can say: as a very casual Minecraft user, this change was pretty well publicized and rolled out.
P.S. Anyone else who has mostly stopped playing Minecraft but continues to watch Let's Plays on YouTube? I play Minecraft probably once every 3 months, but watch Minecraft content at least once a week...
MultiMC Linux support for Microsoft logins is... weird, which has been my reason for putting off the migration.
The MultiMC dev has since been hired as the official Minecraft launcher dev, and I guess that means they don't want to just be publishing their Microsoft SDK key for the Minecraft logins. But it means they've been on a bit of a war on linux distros packagng MultiMC or Linux users using anything other than his published binaries.
I've recently switched to GDLauncher, so will have to see how their MS account support story is, though it's got more of a "modern"/flat/big pictures UI feel to it and is clunkier to use
The thing with multimc is the dev doesnt wanna support platforms that he doesnt or cant use. You are free to fork it and go ahead under a different name. Tbh I can understand it, he is the only main contributor behind the project, I wouldnt act differently.
I loaded up minecraft for the first time since pre covid a couple weeks back. Was surprised to see it telling me my mojang account was on life support vOv
re:PS, same -- the game itself takes too much time investment to want to play regularly, but the stuff people manage to do in it is really impressive. There's a new programming paradigm waiting to be discovered inside Minecraft...
Several people I know play and mod Minetest (https://www.minetest.net/). It seems to be the most complete replacement available, as well as enabling extensive modding.
Thanks, I think I am done with both Microsoft and Minecraft unless they reverse the requirement to switch over to a Microsoft account. I'm simply not going to do that. Hopefully some lawyers get involved, as I really wonder if this is legal. I paid for a Minecraft account not a Microsoft one, and they are not equivalent.
Which is the most minecrafty experience? I had the same problem with the Spring RTS engine. People kept recommending it but last I know it was just a bunch of half-completed mods.
MineClone2, probably, but you miss out on what makes Minetest better if you use it. It's not compatible with all the other mods, it has a more restrictive height limit to mimic Minecraft, etc.
I guess if you play MineClone2 and have fun, you can always play minetest_game with mods of your choosing later on.
Microsoft made their bedrock version so they could get users to buy the same game twice on PC. They had a very short window where you could get bedrock on PC if you had java, and then removed it. Support refuses to acknowledge this and gives the run around.
I fully support pirating it instead. I'm not going to buy this game for friends and family when Microsoft has proven they're going to milk it and toss it. I want one Minecraft version. Not two separate $30 ones.
They're also deprecating their Java launcher and forcing users over to the Microsoft store launcher, which does not even work on my windows machine. I have to use 3rd party launchers that Microsoft won't fund. FTC should be suing but this isn't the 90's anymore.
Remember, when a company is bought that's money the parent company is going to squeeze out of it. Mojang never should have sold, but greed is a force ever hostile to good things.
No, Microsoft made the bedrock version so you can cross-play the same game across the Android, iOS, Xbox, Playstation and Switch versions. Why should PC players get left out especially considering its the easiest platform to port to? There was no way they were getting the Java version running on all those targets, so they gave you a choice between cross play or the modding community. That said I agree that it shouldn't have been a limited time deal and you should get Bedrock on PC automatically on purchasing the Java edition and vice-versa
Java runs on anything. Thats sort of the whole point of the JVM. Xbox one and PS4 were perfectly capable of vanilla Java Minecraft. There's no need for seperation, they just want two games for more money.
Long term profit would be higher than 2.5 billion. MS is not going to buy a game if they don't expect that profit somewhere. Again, short term profit vs long term gain. Notch took the money and put life on creative mode. Sounds fun, gets boring quickly, and as we can see they turned into a lonely hermit. They ruined not only Minecraft but themselves.
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Apparently someone used my email address already (gmail, because they won't accept school alumni email addresses!) so I was shunted into an "account recovery" hell full of questions I can't answer because I wasn't the one who signed up for a Microsoft account using my email address! How did they let that happen? Have they no validation on email addresses, but want blood work to recover an account?
I am livid. This is an atrocious experience and a nice preview of the hellish future of automated society we're hurtling into. Welcome to John Scalzi's "Automated Customer Service."
Screw you, Microsoft. Thanks for reminding me why I don't purchase your shit products.
My youngest son also wants his own Minecraft account; he doesn't have one yet exactly because it's impossible to get a Mojang account anymore, and I refuse to deal with Microsoft accounts because of my earlier experiences. I guess we have no choice now.
They also keep pushing my to link Windows 10 to a Microsoft account, no matter how often I keep refusing. I'd gotten a lot milder about Microsoft over the past decade, but this trying to put their crappy account system down our throats is reigniting all my hate from their worst anti-linux days.
I ended up just buying it again. Pretty obnoxious.
(This contradicts their written policy, which says that even if you lose access to the original email address, the transaction ID should be enough to recover the account. When I pointed this out to their support representative, they ignored me and closed the ticket.)
Speaking as the owner of a popular-ish domain that people enter as a fake email, Microsoft is better than most. They have a footer link to remove the email address from the account. Most services have nothing of the sort
E.g.: If you don't recognize the Microsoft account ***@outlook.com, you can click here to remove your email address from that account.
Contrary to what others said in this thread, I think that the communication has been quite poor for this use case, because the official communication insists on saying that the Java version will still be working, which is a lie: the Java launcher already stopped working for new customers (I met several people who bought Minecraft to use it on Raspberry Pi, and their money is lost, because their purchase doesn't allow them to create the necessary Mojang account), and it will also stop working for all existing accounts in a few weeks.
It was not so hard to decide to make is a FAQ and say "Sorry guys, we are dropping support for all the architectures which are not the top 3 ones, your game will stop working", instead of saying "Don’t worry – the only thing that’s changing is how you log in to the game! [...] Minecraft: Java Edition will stay exactly the same, and we’ll continue to update and support it in the future."
We've since moved to MultiMC as others have mentioned.
Will probably result in more griefing and rollbacks but oh well.
Deleted Comment
I seem to be able to use some of them to login to the same merged account and others don't work anymore at all.
Microsoft's entire auth ecosystem since Live has been a confusing mess for me especially when they acquire someone and start bringing them into the fold.
I tend to just avoid it, I'm not deep into the Microsoft ecosystem and rather not have the headache at this point.
The account migration here interops with Xbox Live, and as a result all api calls fail during the migration resulting in various error codes or pages not loading. It sounds like my only options here are to make a new account with I assume violates a Xbox Live TOS somewhere or lose my account which seems bad. Hopefully support can arrange a refund.
I made a couple of Xbox accounts for my kids to use for some PC game. Used unique emails on my own domain and hosted on my own private mail server. Declined requests to provide any extras. Not a week in MS sends an email to both that literally said "Your _email_ account was hacked. Your Xbox account is suspended. Secure it with a phone number or it will be deleted."
The new and improved, people-friendly Microsoft. Just a fresh coat of paint over the same old core.
If you don't want to buy another account you could use one of the many launchers that allow you to play without an account (tlauncher, shiginima...) but your mileage may vary. You could also use multimc but, since it requires an account to download the assets, you'd need to copy around the files in the .minecraft folder used by the official launcher which can be challenging and annoying to do.
Edit: I have a similar thing going on with Microsoft too, to migrate the account I need access to the email which I no longer have. I've been opening a ticket every ~3 months for the past ~2 years and they still refuse to switch my email address. Luckily I can still play the game (not for long) since I still have access to the account
https://www.minetest.net/
What's worse with all these verification systems is that what happens if you make the human mistake of setting them to the other email, so each one sends their verificacion to the other one. I just want to use my very secure passwords and maybe a OTP key, not depending on third party emails :-(
If you own your own domain and pay for web hosting, many hosts also provide e-mail as a free add-on.
So disappointing since it was my only point of contact with lots of old friends.
To be fair, they want me to email pictures of my driver's license to recover the account, which they pinky-promise they'll delete afterwards. I'm not willing to do that, given I didn't have to provide any ID to sign up in the first place. So now I'm looking into having this form they sent to me notorized so I can get access back. What a mess.
P.S. Anyone else who has mostly stopped playing Minecraft but continues to watch Let's Plays on YouTube? I play Minecraft probably once every 3 months, but watch Minecraft content at least once a week...
The MultiMC dev has since been hired as the official Minecraft launcher dev, and I guess that means they don't want to just be publishing their Microsoft SDK key for the Minecraft logins. But it means they've been on a bit of a war on linux distros packagng MultiMC or Linux users using anything other than his published binaries.
I've recently switched to GDLauncher, so will have to see how their MS account support story is, though it's got more of a "modern"/flat/big pictures UI feel to it and is clunkier to use
I guess if you play MineClone2 and have fun, you can always play minetest_game with mods of your choosing later on.
They're also deprecating their Java launcher and forcing users over to the Microsoft store launcher, which does not even work on my windows machine. I have to use 3rd party launchers that Microsoft won't fund. FTC should be suing but this isn't the 90's anymore.
Remember, when a company is bought that's money the parent company is going to squeeze out of it. Mojang never should have sold, but greed is a force ever hostile to good things.
Yes, yes, sure.
But then I also don't know a single person who would've refused 2.5 fucking billion $ just to keep their good thing going.