Troubleshooting Minecraft Education Technical Issues
Issues with Minecraft login, accessing the in-game Library or Multi-player sessions
Check that all versions of Minecraft are the same. This can be found in the lower right corner of the main application screen. As of this writing, 1.21.132 is the most recent version. If the versions between the student joining and the host system are even slightly different, they will not be able to join the hosted worlds. Now, how do you update your installation of Minecraft Education? Depending on how Minecraft Education has been deployed at your institution, you may also be able to manually update through various methods. At my district, users could manually update the application through the Google Play Store, Microsoft Store or one of our application portals. Some IT departments may also run a forced update of the application on all systems (as I did), so you may just need to be patient and leave the device on for a wee bit to give it a chance to receive it's updates. On that note, Minecraft Education generally updates itself automatically (unless deliberately disabled by your IT department). I find installation of Minecraft will update itself after being left on for a while and then rebooted. If there doesn't appear to be any updates forthcoming, contact your IT department. If you have administrative access to the problem device, you can always uninstall and reinstall the application. The most recent version of Minecraft Education can be downloaded, here.
Ensure that all login names are in the same domain. Minecraft Education is a walled garden, so players with different domains (eg. studentname@school.com, everything after the @ sign is the domain name) will not be able to join each other on a hosted world.
Restart the device. Many of us are not in the habit of turning off or restarting devices anymore and devices could be left running for months at a time. A simple restart often resolves the majority of problems. Ensure that the device is properly restarted from the OS (Operating System) menu. Closing the lid, or pressing or holding the power button, also known as a hard reset will not be effective.
Check the Wifi Channel the computer is connected to. Many schools have multiple wifi channels. If a computer joins a wifi connection with tighter restrictions that does not have the proper Minecraft Education URL exceptions (a Guest channel for example), students could have difficulty logging in, accessing the in-game Library, or connecting to multi-player. Make sure students are on the same Wifi channel.
Make sure the device’s OS is up to date with the most recent updates. While not as much of an issue with Windows based devices, Chrome OS, and iOS can cause issues with Minecraft Education running properly if they fall too far behind in their OS updates. Chromebooks for example will only update after a restart. Additionally, some devices, usually Chromebooks, iPads or Macs, may have fallen outside of their respective support cycles and are no longer being supported with updates. Applications on non-supported devices will not be able to receive updates and will likely eventually stop working. A good place to start checking if the device meets minimum requirements can be checked, here. As a wee note, Windows is still my favourite platform for running Minecraft Education. I have an old HP laptop I use for testing, running Windows 10 (now off of support), and it still runs Minecraft Education like a champ, despite being 18 years old!
Check to see if there are two installations of Minecraft Education installed on the device. Sometimes after a Minecraft Education update has been pushed out, the device may not uninstall the previous version. This will stop Minecraft from loading successfully. If there are two versions, uninstall the older version. This typically affects only Windows devices.
Does the device hosting a Minecraft world for multiplayer have enough system resources? If your computer only meets minimum requirements, it may not have enough horsepower to run a hosted session with a lot of students (Minecraft Education can host up to 40 students at a time in a hosted world). Low powered devices, such as chromebooks, may struggle with more than five. A good laptop with plenty of RAM and a decent processor, graphics card with a solid network connection is really important. If possible, LAN (local area connection, physically connected to a network with a cable) is a better solution when possible. A new server based system is now available for Minecraft multiplayer and may be something your district should look into if your schools run a lot of multiplayer sessions. You can learn more about the server here, but it will require significant IT department involvement.
Check to make sure your school’s Firewall is up to date with the latest URL exceptions for Minecraft Education. You’ll need to check with your IT department for this one. An up to date list can be found here.
Have someone from IT diagnose your Wifi traffic. Make sure you have enough bandwidth in your classroom to support Minecraft Education activities. If you have a limited connection, too many students, or the devices are trying to download too much at the same time (devices like chromebooks that can only be deployed on a per-user basis, or Windows devices that have been setup on a per-user basis on a management system like In-Tune, may try to update all the applications on the devices while students are trying to use them and overwhelm your network connection). One of the schools I used to look after was apparently built out of lead. Total and complete signal dead-zone as soon as you walked in the door; each room was it's own faraday cage. Classrooms that did not have a wifi access points in them, and were connected to an WAP even one room away frequently had almost no connection at best. The solution here was installing a wireless access point in each classroom. Probably not the solution you want to hear, but I mention it as one of the more unusual issues I've had to troubleshoot.
Re-install Minecraft Education or provide a freshly installed device with Minecraft Education. This obviously will require IT support, but sometimes, devices just become corrupted and no amount of tinkering will sort them out, other than a complete refresh. Typically this can be done via most device management consoles within a few minutes. A Chromebook powerwash typically takes about 5 minutes, while a full Windows refresh may take around 30 depending on your internet connection. If your IT department is still doing things the old-fashioned way, turn around may take a lot longer!
Contact Minecraft Education support. When all else fails, you’ve tried all of the above, and you are still having issues, Minecraft Education support has generally seen almost everything at this point and can typically point you in the right direction fairly quickly. In all my years connecting with different support centres, the MCE support team is quite literally the best! They're quick to respond, and are very knowledgeable, understanding, friendly and helpful... so don't be afraid to contact them! Support tickets can be placed here. Make sure you supply the following information:
Device Type
Device model
OS version and current version number
Device stats (processor, ram, video card etc.)
Error message and detailed description of problem (screen shots are invaluable here too).
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