Re: Xbox Minecraft Account
Carmel Kittell
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Somehow we have always been able to play. I would have thought we'd need to purchased versions (2 xbox profiles? I don't know) but it's never been a problem. Suddenly, neither of us can see each other's games. (we ONLY play on a LAN, NEVER multiplay over the internet)
If you are on Java Edition (only pc), then when you get into the world, you press [ESC] on your keyboard or go to the pause menu, press open to LAN (leave everything as is unless you want cheats on) then open to LAN. For your daughters laptop, you then go into multiplayer and she will see your world.
If you are on Bedrock Edition(All forms, PC, XBOX, PlayStation, Switch, Mobile), then you open up your world, go to pause menu > settings > multiplayer, and make sure everything is turned on. For your daughters laptop, go into play > friends, and see your world there.
2) Make sure you are both on the same version. If you are on bedrock, this is not an issue, as you can only play the latest version. However, for java, you want to make sure you are launching the same version, but you look like you have that covered.
3) The last thing you can do, is only if you are on Java Edition. Open your world and open it to LAN, and note down the 5 digit number the game tells you in the chat. Now press the [WINDOWS] key on your keyboard, search "cmd" and open command prompt. Then type in "ipconfig /all" (with the space). There will be lots of text and numbers, but do not be worried. Scroll to the top, and look for the category of "Ethernet adapter Ethernet:", and look down the list until you see IPv4 Address. The number shown should be 4 chunks of numbers spaced by periods. Note this number down (the "preferred" doesn't count if you see it.) Now on your daughters laptop, go to multiplayer > direct connection, and type in the IPv4 address you just saw, followed by a ":" and your port number (the 5 digit number from your Minecraft world). no spaces are needed, but do keep the periods in. This should do the trick. If this is the only way that works, you can continue doing it, but you may need to edit the direct connection address by changing the last 5 numbers. This is only if you re-open the world.
Agree with the above on the last part, try and see if "direct connect" works. I mostly know my way around PCs and Windows, but networking is a weaker spot of mine. I know just about the basics and maybe not even that. Through the years, I've had a few instances where a PC just wouldn't see another in Minecraft on the same network, though rarely. Thankfully, in all but one of those situations, direct connect worked. It's a slight nuisance as you need to type in the IP address (you can make this static, as I did) and port (the final five numbers after the colon symbol, which will always differ) to connect every time, but it's not a time consuming process at least.
One thing to try is seeing if she can host a world and you can see it. I realize this may not be an ideal solution as you may want the world hosted on your PC for either management or performance reasons, but it'd be a test to see where the issue lies. If you can see her worlds, I'd say something on your PC end is blocking her from seeing yours.
After re-reading OP's post, there's only one account? Yeah not sure how that was working up until now, but probably it got logged in and is now blocking because you are both playing on the same account, which usually won't work. You both need separate accounts.
Also check that a recent windows update on either machine hasn't changed something in the networks settings, they are notorious for doing that. Also note which IP address is being assigned by your router to each computer, this can also mess things up. You may want to make the desktop a static IP address, not sure if you can do that on a laptop on the wifi, I've never tried that. I know from setting up LAN games like this that for some reason, some computers simply refuse to connect to other computers on the network, but if that machine is running the game that's open to LAN, it will gladly accept connections from other computers to the game but will not connect or even "see" other computers on the network. There are several settings and options buried in Windows that can mess things like this up and getting to them is a pain. But if it was working at some point but is no longer working, my guess is windows update changed something.
Would you advise perhaps doing the PC game pass for 1$/month for the first month, just to see if that works? If it does, I have no problem buying a second copy. I'm just scared of buying a second copy and it still won't work.
I'm not sure how the game pass version works, is it bedrock or java? Both computers I think need to be using the same version, unless that's changed. Both have to be on bedrock or java as far as I know. I played on a server a while ago that had something installed that allowed both versions to play on the server at the same time, but I have no idea if that applies to the simple open to LAN option.
If both are separate accounts and both logged in with separate e-mail / password or Xbox account, and both running the same game type and version, then they should connect. After that it's all windows networking to deal with, and that can either just work or be a royal pain. But considering you had it working before, my guess is one of the computers wasn't online but connected to the LAN, and at some point, went online, phoned home and logged in and that's when the problem started of using one account on two computers.
For what it's worth, my 6 year old and I have just started having this same issue as of a couple days ago, I'm also battling all the frustrating tech issues and the broken heart of a 6 year old who has quite literally put 100's of hours into her world for us to play together.
In the 'friends' tab upon starting the game, I hadn't added my daughters' gamer tag as a friend. (I can't remember if I had to do that before, playing on LAN) Now I've added her gamertag as a friend, and I see her as a "Joinable Friend", when she's in-game. Kind of like how it worked before it "broke". BTW, I got myself a 1$/month trial Game Pass on my wife's Hotmail address, so my Minecraft launcher is logged into a DIFFERENT ID than my daughters', so there should be no problem there.
I'm going to chime in as well. As a family, we've been playing multiplayer over local LAN using just one account and it has been working perfectly until today. (haven't played the last few days, so not sure when it would've started.)
We are using my LIVE account and using ultimate gamepass. The world is on the XBOX, and I join in from my PC every now and then. Again, both are logged into my account. Yes, this works. We only recently got the xbox, and part of the research I did before purchasing was if we could play "coop" so to speak using the same account. I found official microsoft resources that stated this was allowed. We are only speaking about bedrock edition here.
The problem is so many variables. Is it the version of Minecraft? Java or Bedrock? Windows? Network settings on each computer? It is infuriating for sure. Unfortunately beyond what's already been said, there's not much more to contribute. The ultimate last resort is to rent an external server, there are several companies that specialize in game servers, and load the world onto that and both connect remotely to it. You could do it with your own computer, but setting up your own server is another whole kettle of fish.
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