I reported this bug yesterday, and it was erroneous closed by someone who stated that I was using an older version of Minecraft and therefore was not entitled to support. This has now been proven to be untrue: I completely removed Minecraft from my laptop, redownloaded it, and reinstalled it. The error still persists, and it persists on all my computers, not just one.
There is a CURRENT feature of the 1.14 Launcher that allows a person to choose to run any previous version of Minecraft so they can play their old worlds (see attached image). For some reason, the 1.14 version of the launcher broke this functionality. Trying to launch older Minecraft versions causes a crash error "saves folder already exists". (See second attachment) This error is independent of whether the saves folder is actually there, or who created it. It also does not depend on the configuration file. I have tried all conceivable variations. As long as this feature is broken, I am stuck on 1.14 - I cannot back out. I currently only have one remaining computer cut off from the internet to avoid an update.
Please take this bug seriously. It's the first time in my many years of playing minecraft I've been unable to do this. (I've been using minecraft since 1.7, and it's by far my favorite game and my favorite pastime. Not all my computers are powerful enough to run modern minecraft versions following the flattening - in fact, none can run it perfectly.)
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To emphasize one detail, because it might help narrow this down: You do not have to actually PLAY 1.14 to put the Application Support directory in a state that causes previous versions to crash. Merely DOWNLOADING 1.14 from the launcher will instantly corrupt the Applications Support directory.
New even more useful information! (Still playing with things.) Interestingly, I found out that it's only 1.13 that actually crashes when trying to play as a launch configuration! You can STILL play 1.12.x and earlier with NO ERROR! .This is now really mysterious - there's something in the Application folder that crashes 1.13 version only! This may have been a bug introduced with 1.13, not 1.14, and I didn't notice it before. Even more useful info: 1.13 works when I've tricked minecraft into thinking 1.13 is the LATEST version! It only crashes when it runs 1.13 as a previous version. So something about launching 1.13 as an alternate version leads to this "error saves directory already exists" bug.
New information! I keep playing with combinations because I really want to be able to play Minecraft again! I tried deleting the entire 1.14 minecraft application folder, including the launcher, and replacing it with a copy of the old 1.13.2 application. IT STILL CRASHED. Then, I replaced the Application Support/minecraft directory with the one I saved from 1.13.2, and IT WORKED! . So the issue does not seem to be directly with the code itself, but that there is something that 1.14 creates in the Application Support folder that causes earlier version of minecraft to crash. This implies that to run both 1.13.2 and 1.14 you would need two different Application Folders. Is there a way to specify where Minecraft stores its auxiliary data? The issue is this is not currently fixable: if you run Minecraft with the internet on, it will download 1.14, and this IN ITSELF, WITHOUT RUNNING 1.14, makes the change to the Application Support folder that causes earlier versions of Minecraft to crash. I checked with Microsoft support, and they said there are no plans to discontinue this launch feature.