Short mouse button clicks are frequently ignored on Windows since 26.3 Snapshot 4

The game frequently fails to register short mouse button presses while playing.

This affects actions bound to mouse buttons, especially "Use Item / Place Block". For example, when right-clicking a wooden door normally, the interaction usually does not occur. Sometimes the interaction sound can be heard, but the door remains closed.

If the mouse button is held down instead of clicked briefly, the action is detected and the door repeatedly opens and closes.

The same "Use Item / Place Block" action works reliably when bound to a keyboard key.

This issue is reproducible in completely vanilla Minecraft, in a newly created Creative singleplayer world, with no mods or resource packs.

REGRESSION

Last tested working version:
26.3 Snapshot 3

First tested affected version:
26.3 Snapshot 4

Also reproduced in:

• 26.3 Snapshot 5

• 26.3 Snapshot 7

• 26.3 Snapshot 10

• Minecraft Java Edition 26.3 release and above

26.3 Snapshot 2 and Snapshot 3 work correctly on the same computer.

This regression therefore begins between 26.3 Snapshot 3 and 26.3 Snapshot 4.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

1. Start Minecraft Java Edition 26.3 on Windows.

2. Create a new singleplayer Creative world.

3. Place a wooden door.

4. Empty the player's hand.

5. Perform normal short right-clicks on the door, fully pressing and releasing the mouse button each time.

6. Repeat approximately 10-20 times.

7. Then hold the right mouse button down instead of clicking briefly.

8. Optionally bind "Use Item / Place Block" to a keyboard key such as R and repeat the test.

OBSERVED RESULT

Normal short mouse clicks are very frequently ignored.

In my tests, 10 consecutive normal clicks can all fail. The door may only respond randomly after approximately 15-16 attempts.

Holding the mouse button down does work: the door continuously opens and closes while the button is held.

When "Use Item / Place Block" is bound to a keyboard key, every press works correctly.

Changing the action from the right mouse button to another physical mouse button does not solve the problem.

EXPECTED RESULT

Every normal mouse click should trigger one "Use Item / Place Block" action, just as the same action does when bound to a keyboard key.

ADDITIONAL TESTING

The problem has been reproduced with three different physical mice.

One of the tested mice is a Logitech G502 HERO.

All tested mice work normally in other applications and games.

The issue occurs with:

• Official Minecraft Launcher

• Prism Launcher

• Vanilla Minecraft

• A newly created world

• Default resource pack only

• Windowed mode

• Fullscreen mode

The issue does NOT occur in:

• Minecraft 26.2

• 26.3 Snapshot 2

• 26.3 Snapshot 3

Rebinding "Use Item / Place Block" to a keyboard key works reliably.

The mouse wheel also behaves differently in affected versions: with Scroll Sensitivity set to 1.00, one physical wheel notch moves two hotbar slots instead of one. For example:

1 -> 3 -> 5 -> 7 -> 9 -> 2 -> 4 -> 6 -> 8

Reducing Scroll Sensitivity to approximately 0.50 compensates for the hotbar scrolling, but does not fix mouse button interactions.

NOTES

26.3 Snapshot 4 is also the snapshot in which Minecraft changed its windowing/input backend from GLFW to SDL3.

I am not claiming that SDL3 itself is necessarily the cause, but the regression begins exactly at the first snapshot using the new input backend.