Closing all apps down and defining the server worked fine. Once you setup the server connection in the list, it will show up the next time you open the game. The only thing that could break things is if your DHCP lease expires.
I've had the same problem all weekend with my kids and we managed to solve it by opening up a very old map created on an old version, everyone could connect on this old map. We played on that map for a few minutes successfully and then opened up our new map and it seemed to work just fine and been working fine for the last few hours.
Hope this helps someone.
fyi nothing else above worked; we tried defining server and that did not work.
My son and his friends have the same issue. We've tried putting in the IP address and adding a server by it didn't work. It has worked off and on for a few minutes on some days but mostly doesn't work. If anyone finds a fix for this, please update here. Hopefully Mojang will get an update with a fix soon.
Same thing here, iPhone and iPad on latest update and so is Minecraft. Kid does not feel like playing Minecraft anymore because he is so used to playing with a family/friend gamer
JonnyDarwood - wondering if your fix is continuing to work for you. I am tech-challenged but could maybe figure out how to follow your directions - but no point if, like SteveMCPE it is a short fix and then back to the same problem. My kids would rather go back to the old version if it means they can use their iPads to join each other's worlds -- is that an option, and if so, can someone spell out what we need to do to return to pre-update status? Thanks.
A simple fix I have found to work whenever this happens, double click the home button so you get all the opened apps on a kind of selection screen. Swipe up on the Minecraft one to close it completely on both devices. When you restart a game the other device should now see it.
PS just a last note, in the game settings, check the setting local multiplayer server is ON!
Although clunky and annoying to have to do this with such frequency, this fix is working for us and the kids are thrilled to be able to join worlds again. Thank you.
I've been having the same problem - 3 iPads updated to v0.12.1 of Minecraft and now we can't connect to each others's worlds when we are on the same wifi. I tried ShoutingShoe074's fix, but it still isn't working for me! Did either of you who have gotten this to work do JonnyDarwood's reinstall fix before you got ShoutingShoe's fix to work? If so, I'll try that.
In order to be able to connect again just double click home button and swipe up minecraft. In other worlds just kill the app on iOS. All players must do this including host
I have a fix, which works for me at least. This is for iOS Minecraft Pocket Edition version 0.12.3 alpha (called 0.12.3 in the App Store version). Perhaps these notes will help someone who is not familiar with local networks but is supporting disappointed younger players...
The essence of the problem, it seems, is that changes in iOS 9 or in the app itself broke the app's ability automatically to search the network for the other copy of itself which is sharing a world. Since the app can no longer find that copy automatically, the solution is explicitly to configure each copy of the app so that it knows the address of whatever other copy of the app is sharing the world. The way to do this is just to configure every copy of the app to add a server that it should try to connect to, where that server is just the other iOS device which is sharing the world.
This works, I presume, because the automatic sharing mode basically just causes one device to act as a server, with some kind of additional signalling so that the device can advertise itself. It's the self-advertising that's broken, not the world-sharing.
Anywhere, here's the steps.
1. Get the IP address of the iOS device that will be sharing its world with other devices. Let us call this the _hosting_ device. You can find the IP address in Settings / Wi-Fi / (i) / IP Address.
2. Ensure the app on the hosting device is configured to share its worlds. In the game, go Options / Broadcast to LAN / ON (the vertical line).
Although it should not be necessary, if you're having problems it might be wise to force quit the app (by double-clicking on the home button, and then swiping it off the screen), restart the app, and then toggle that control. You might also experiment with toggling that switch on both before and after you start playing the world you want to share. All this might help if there is a bug in the app so that does not correctly update the networking services under all circumstances.
3. On the hosting device, start playing the world that you want to share.
4. On the device that will join the shared world (the client device), configure the app to know the exact address of the hosting device. Go Play / New / +->, add any name you like to represent the hosting device, add the IP address you noted, and then tap "Add Server".
5. Now, on the client device, when you Play, you should see the shared world show up on the list of games. If the client device finds it, you'll see a green light next to it. If the client device cannot find it, it'll stay gray. If it's green, you're good to go!
This works for me, as they say.
The _problem_ with this approach is that your router is constantly assigning new IP addresses to devices. So it might arbitrarily change the IP address it assigns to the hosting device. So you'll need to keep updating the configurations of the client devices to make sure they stay up to date, and are looking in the right place. Or else, you can configure your router to always assign the same IP address to each device.This is usually done by setting up a router to always assign the same IP address to a device based on the device's MAC address, since a device's MAC address is constant.
I hope this helps someone!
p.s. Judging from Mojang's bug tracker, Mojang has not confirmed or prioritized the issue. There are a number of issues in their tracker that seem to describe this one, but perhaps the most relevant is MCPE-11189.
Hi algal, welcome, and thanks for the detailed work around. Can you tell us if the connectivity problems have disappeared in 0.13 (it was released a few days after your post)?
Also, Mojang is very aware of this bug and it has been confirmed and prioritized see: https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCPE-10552. The bug tracker no longer assigns tickets to developers. Instead a QA team takes the reports and puts them into an internal system. Unfortunately, this makes it hard for the public to tell what has been prioritized. I know this info because I'm a moderator in the bug tracker
I just tried 0.13.0 on an iPhone 6s and an iPod Touch.
I got auto-discovery and multiplayer working, but it was still intermittent. I also ran into case where the client couldn't see the server (the sharing device) even though the client had the exact IP address and port correctly hard-coded. In that case, I confirmed using nmap that the server did indeed have the specified port open for UDP packets. Force quitting and restarting the client solved the issue, even without restarting the server. I suppose that suggests the issue is some kind of stale state in the client which prevents it from handshaking the server correctly even if it's got a valid IP address.
i am separately and also seeing cases where restarting the server is necessary but I haven't double checked if the port is open in those cases.
I am having a problem with this on Minecraft PE v0.13.0. One device is an iPod touch 5th gen. The other device is an iPhone 5S. We are both running v0.13.0, we are both on iOS 9.1, and we are both on the same wifi. I haven't tried an external server and ip yet. I hope that this problem is fixed soon.
Its not fixed. I am on 0.13.0, and I cant even create a server. I did find the ip address eventually and entered it but time and time again it is unable to load. My brother and I both have updated ios and PE, and have tried all these tricks but nothing.
Quick question, related: Why does PE suddenly need the ip address? That in itself is essentially a glitch/problem on devices that change addresses often, as you repeatedly have to reenter a long number just to stay connected. Overcomplicated and a pain relative to the old wifi/proximity method. Also this seems to have been the stem of this whole connection issue. I never had a problem connecting with the proximity one.
Update: I'm now getting the server is full message when I try to enter (I think someone earlier had the same problem)
I just got minecraft pe back on my phone yesterday. My brother, sister and I were all playing on the same world building and such. I went back on it today and it won't let anyone go on multiplayer. We all have the same version, all updated, wifi is fine, Apple products, we tried it with blue tooth on but nothing. I find this very strange. We tried me connecting to my sisters, nothing. And we tried her connecting to mine. Help!?
Closing all apps down and defining the server worked fine. Once you setup the server connection in the list, it will show up the next time you open the game. The only thing that could break things is if your DHCP lease expires.
Hi Guys,
I've had the same problem all weekend with my kids and we managed to solve it by opening up a very old map created on an old version, everyone could connect on this old map. We played on that map for a few minutes successfully and then opened up our new map and it seemed to work just fine and been working fine for the last few hours.
Hope this helps someone.
fyi nothing else above worked; we tried defining server and that did not work.
Does this have anything to do with the PC servers down.......or a only PE problem? My brothers and sisters have this problem too.
Join Rising Nations!
This server is a history-based server on the 1850s! Join Spain if you every try it out
Awesome Mods I support:
Millernaire Mod!
...
My son and his friends have the same issue. We've tried putting in the IP address and adding a server by it didn't work. It has worked off and on for a few minutes on some days but mostly doesn't work. If anyone finds a fix for this, please update here. Hopefully Mojang will get an update with a fix soon.
Having the exact same issue in our house...not cool. everyone is devastated...:wacko:
I thought of this and tried it. It did not work, it just creates a new world...
Same thing here, iPhone and iPad on latest update and so is Minecraft. Kid does not feel like playing Minecraft anymore because he is so used to playing with a family/friend gamer
JonnyDarwood - wondering if your fix is continuing to work for you. I am tech-challenged but could maybe figure out how to follow your directions - but no point if, like SteveMCPE it is a short fix and then back to the same problem. My kids would rather go back to the old version if it means they can use their iPads to join each other's worlds -- is that an option, and if so, can someone spell out what we need to do to return to pre-update status? Thanks.
And, come on, Mojang/Apple -- get this fixed.
Although clunky and annoying to have to do this with such frequency, this fix is working for us and the kids are thrilled to be able to join worlds again. Thank you.
I've been having the same problem - 3 iPads updated to v0.12.1 of Minecraft and now we can't connect to each others's worlds when we are on the same wifi. I tried ShoutingShoe074's fix, but it still isn't working for me! Did either of you who have gotten this to work do JonnyDarwood's reinstall fix before you got ShoutingShoe's fix to work? If so, I'll try that.
In order to be able to connect again just double click home button and swipe up minecraft. In other worlds just kill the app on iOS. All players must do this including host
Hello all!
I have a fix, which works for me at least. This is for iOS Minecraft Pocket Edition version 0.12.3 alpha (called 0.12.3 in the App Store version). Perhaps these notes will help someone who is not familiar with local networks but is supporting disappointed younger players...
The essence of the problem, it seems, is that changes in iOS 9 or in the app itself broke the app's ability automatically to search the network for the other copy of itself which is sharing a world. Since the app can no longer find that copy automatically, the solution is explicitly to configure each copy of the app so that it knows the address of whatever other copy of the app is sharing the world. The way to do this is just to configure every copy of the app to add a server that it should try to connect to, where that server is just the other iOS device which is sharing the world.
This works, I presume, because the automatic sharing mode basically just causes one device to act as a server, with some kind of additional signalling so that the device can advertise itself. It's the self-advertising that's broken, not the world-sharing.
Anywhere, here's the steps.
1. Get the IP address of the iOS device that will be sharing its world with other devices. Let us call this the _hosting_ device. You can find the IP address in Settings / Wi-Fi / (i) / IP Address.
2. Ensure the app on the hosting device is configured to share its worlds. In the game, go Options / Broadcast to LAN / ON (the vertical line).
Although it should not be necessary, if you're having problems it might be wise to force quit the app (by double-clicking on the home button, and then swiping it off the screen), restart the app, and then toggle that control. You might also experiment with toggling that switch on both before and after you start playing the world you want to share. All this might help if there is a bug in the app so that does not correctly update the networking services under all circumstances.
3. On the hosting device, start playing the world that you want to share.
4. On the device that will join the shared world (the client device), configure the app to know the exact address of the hosting device. Go Play / New / +->, add any name you like to represent the hosting device, add the IP address you noted, and then tap "Add Server".
5. Now, on the client device, when you Play, you should see the shared world show up on the list of games. If the client device finds it, you'll see a green light next to it. If the client device cannot find it, it'll stay gray. If it's green, you're good to go!
This works for me, as they say.
The _problem_ with this approach is that your router is constantly assigning new IP addresses to devices. So it might arbitrarily change the IP address it assigns to the hosting device. So you'll need to keep updating the configurations of the client devices to make sure they stay up to date, and are looking in the right place. Or else, you can configure your router to always assign the same IP address to each device.This is usually done by setting up a router to always assign the same IP address to a device based on the device's MAC address, since a device's MAC address is constant.
I hope this helps someone!
p.s. Judging from Mojang's bug tracker, Mojang has not confirmed or prioritized the issue. There are a number of issues in their tracker that seem to describe this one, but perhaps the most relevant is MCPE-11189.
Disabling Bluetooth on both devices fixed it for me (Minecraft version 0.13 on iOS).
Hi algal, welcome, and thanks for the detailed work around. Can you tell us if the connectivity problems have disappeared in 0.13 (it was released a few days after your post)?
Also, Mojang is very aware of this bug and it has been confirmed and prioritized see: https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCPE-10552. The bug tracker no longer assigns tickets to developers. Instead a QA team takes the reports and puts them into an internal system. Unfortunately, this makes it hard for the public to tell what has been prioritized. I know this info because I'm a moderator in the bug tracker
I just tried 0.13.0 on an iPhone 6s and an iPod Touch.
I got auto-discovery and multiplayer working, but it was still intermittent. I also ran into case where the client couldn't see the server (the sharing device) even though the client had the exact IP address and port correctly hard-coded. In that case, I confirmed using nmap that the server did indeed have the specified port open for UDP packets. Force quitting and restarting the client solved the issue, even without restarting the server. I suppose that suggests the issue is some kind of stale state in the client which prevents it from handshaking the server correctly even if it's got a valid IP address.
i am separately and also seeing cases where restarting the server is necessary but I haven't double checked if the port is open in those cases.
I am having a problem with this on Minecraft PE v0.13.0. One device is an iPod touch 5th gen. The other device is an iPhone 5S. We are both running v0.13.0, we are both on iOS 9.1, and we are both on the same wifi. I haven't tried an external server and ip yet. I hope that this problem is fixed soon.
Its not fixed. I am on 0.13.0, and I cant even create a server. I did find the ip address eventually and entered it but time and time again it is unable to load. My brother and I both have updated ios and PE, and have tried all these tricks but nothing.
Quick question, related: Why does PE suddenly need the ip address? That in itself is essentially a glitch/problem on devices that change addresses often, as you repeatedly have to reenter a long number just to stay connected. Overcomplicated and a pain relative to the old wifi/proximity method. Also this seems to have been the stem of this whole connection issue. I never had a problem connecting with the proximity one.
Update: I'm now getting the server is full message when I try to enter (I think someone earlier had the same problem)
Exactly! Same with me.
How do i get the ip of the other devises sever
I just got minecraft pe back on my phone yesterday. My brother, sister and I were all playing on the same world building and such. I went back on it today and it won't let anyone go on multiplayer. We all have the same version, all updated, wifi is fine, Apple products, we tried it with blue tooth on but nothing. I find this very strange. We tried me connecting to my sisters, nothing. And we tried her connecting to mine. Help!?