Player can't swim on Mobile Minecraft

Adding my comment from MCPE-170102

Yes, I can replicate this issue on 1.19.80 on Minecraft for iOS.

When in water pressing forward only movies you forward whilst sinking irrespective of looking up or down.

The new behaviour is a regression for particularly for those on Touch devices.

To be clear: the above is for when in water without double tap, using double tap to enter swim mode then let’s you look up to swim up.

Be sure to check the video attachment az_recorder_20230429_225631_edited.mp4 from MCPE-170102
https://bugs.mojang.com/secure/attachment/532870/az_recorder_20230429_225631_edited.mp4

I am using Samsung s22 with current Android OS. Swimming mechanics are broken. I can no longer swim along the surface and see where I am going as I quickly begin to sink. It's almost impossible to swim. This must be fixed immediately. Exploring underwater is almost impossible. 

Double tapping to swim quickly and pointing towards the surface will get me to the surface but unless I keep looking up, I immediately sink again. 

To clarify, it's not just swimming underwater that's affected.  Crossing water (as in walking on the surface of water) is also affected, and the player now sinks instead of staying on the surface.  1.19.81, iPadOS, iOS.

Sinking while crossing water is already logged in MCPE-162691 and is a works as intended issue unfortunately.

Just to be sure, and this is a question to the reporter - issue is about player sinking while moving underwater (and not swimming) on mobile devices?

edit yes, especially at the surface NOT merely while underwater, HOWEVER, swimming underwater is made much more difficult as well. 

Yes the rate of sinking increased greatly from before the last update. I makes it IMPOSSIBLE to see where you are going while swimming, especially at the surface. 

For those of us who use touch devices we cannot see where we are going!  This is huge issue for us. Exploring underwater is much more difficult.

It may be fine for those who use platforms with controllers, but not for us. 

If this is an intentional change, show me where to complain. 

@v-magwar this issue should remain separate to 162691 as this issue is directly related to a change in behaviour to moving forward whilst in water without double tap in 1.19.80 (and .81) from .7x and has made this action on a touch device almost impossible.
Check the behaviour in 1.19.7x whilst pressing forward underwater looking up, 1.19.8x behaviour is a regression and not mentioned in the changelogs.

The problem occurs when double tapping forward trying to swim. The player sinks unless he is facing the surface. This issue is more complex on touch devices due to low FOV and small screens. Underwater swimming mechanics are broken on mobile.

The other problem is when crossing one block water deep, in which the player apparently "walks".

Doing anything in the water has become impossible. It’s ridiculous. Minecraft v1.19.81, on iOS 16.4.1 (a).

Well, I just fell into a sea of lava, and I could not swim to the shore. I couldn't keep my head above the surface. It felt like the same issue 

Confirmed same behaviour in 1.19.83 as in .81 and .80

It is possible that my device is simply not affected, OR I still do not get what is the issue here. When double tapping to swim underwater, on 1.19.80 version, I do not sink, I am just swimming forward as expected, and only sink when swimming towards the bottom of body of water. 
Can you upload a video of the issue, highlighting where the unwanted behavior can be seen?

I still have this issue on Android, Samsung Galaxy Tab S7. I use the old touch controls.

Expected behaviour: entering the water, tap and hold the forward button to swim with the head above the water surface.

The up and down buttons would be used to dive down and go back to the water surface.

Actual behaviour: entering the water, tap and hold the forward button makes me move forward, but at the same time I sink towards the bottom. In order to stay and move at  the water surface, I also have to tap and hold the "up" button, which makes it impossible to change my direction or use a weapon because I have to hold two buttons at the same time, just to be able to swim without drowning.

It's really quite simple. On touch devices, we could swim on the surface without sinking and steer with our right thumbs. Now, to avoid sinking at the surface, I must hold the "up" button on the right side of the display with my right thumb. The result is that to change direction AT THE SURFACE you must take your thumb off the "up" swim button on the right to change direction and then you begin to sink. It's quite impossible to swim at the surface while steering. You literally must use 3 fingers: L thumb to swim forward, R thumb to press "up" and whatever 3rd finger you are dextrous enough to use to steer. 

Also to be sure, when swimming underwater the rate of sink seems much greater than before the last update. 

I'm using Samsung S22, with latest updates of Droid OS and Minecraft. 

Also, when in lava in the Nether there is no "up" or "down" controls on the right side anymore. Hence if I fall in lava, I'm dead. 

This is happening to me too on iPad Pro 11 with touch controls. Need to press forward with one hand and up with the other hand to swim without sinking, making it impossible to steer or fight.

Confirmed the same behaviour in iOS 1.20 as in 1.19.83, .81 and .80.

I think mojang should add this as part of the touch settings, for the mobile player to choose whether the character will climb while walking forward or not 

Another thing that happened at the same time this swimming problem started: I found that in water only 1 block deep, I could walk and run unencumbered. This was not the case previously. 

Now, maybe that was a change that developers conciously made, which I actually think is a good idea. But in the execution, they inadvertently made swimming at the surface much harder. 

Affects 1.20.10.23 and 1.20

Affects 1.20.10.24 and 1.20.1

Affects 1.20.20.20

Affects 1.20.10 hotfix

Affects 1.20.20.21 preview

Drowning while swimming on surface, breathe bubbles reduce and start drowning

@unknown: That issue is being tracked at MCPE-170969.

Drowning while swimming in the surface is the same issue. I described this earlier. You have to look straight up to swim at surface. Same issue. You can't swim with your head above water without keeping your right thumb on the 'up' button. And that means you can't steer yourself. Looking straight up alleviates this somewhat but you still slowly sink. That's when you start losing air bubbles. To swim at the surface and steer you have to constantly take your right thumb off the 'up' button to change direction. Once you do that, you immediately start to sink. 

Affects 1.20.12 hotfix and 1.20.20.22 preview

Affects 1.20.20.23 preview

Thank you for your report!
However, this issue has been temporarily closed as Awaiting Response

From the video it appears that this bug may be a duplicate of MCPE-162691, which describes that walking forwards in water will not make you "swim" to the surface. If that is not what this report is about, please update the repro steps to explain what the issue is.

This ticket will automatically reopen when you reply.

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From whom are you awaiting a response? 

I've very carefully detailed the issue already. 

I believe that these are likely the same issue but please tell me how I could be clearer in my description below. 

I do think this issue is a duplicate of MCPE-162691, and I do see that that issue was filed first. So, I understand wanting to move the discussion over to the bug that was filed first.

However,  MCPE-162691 was closed for not having a video, while this bug has a video. Is there some easy way to get the video from this bug on to that one, or does somebody need to record a new video?

I am still waiting for this to be fixed. I use one hand to press forward and the other hand to press up. Then when my head is above water, I use my thumb very awkwardly at the same time to look horizontally again and change directions. The changes to swimming might be ok for controller and keyboard users but not for touch players. I used to double tap and hold forward with my left hand to swim along the top of the water with my view above water and steer with my right hand. If I do that exact same thing now, I get air bubbles and start to drown.

Affects 1.20.30.22 preview and 1.20.15 hotfix

Affects 1.20.40.20 preview

Nefaeria and I have very clearly explained this issue. Nefaeria makes a good point that whatever changes were made in that update might work great for all other platforms but really jacked up how mobile users swimm. 

Will someone at Mojang please try to swim using a mobile device, such as my Samsung s22 to see what we mean? 

I think this is a good example of how, I believe, mobile device users are at the bottom rung of the ladder of importance. 

Agreed.

All it takes is one person at Mojang to try and swim using a mobile device to see how bad swimming is now. 

They can report back in here (ideally with a video showing their experience of swimming).

This bug has stopped me playing Minecraft until it has been fixed.

I really appreciate Mr.Pufferfish adding a check in each version.

My sister also stopped playing. Underwater exploration was her favorite and when this happened, she quit playing. 

I bought a 10 person server so that we could play as a family. 

First affected version was 1.19.80 which has not been added to the list as of yet (as far as I can see).

Still an issue in latest Android versions 1.20.5?

When using touch controls and moving forward in water you do not move in the direction of look. So we can't swim up without also holding the UP button. Which means two fingers on the screen so we can interact or change direction when swimming up. 

Please just try swimming on a mobile device with touch input.

Is anyone at mojang monitoring this issue anymore? It's still set at unresolved.

It is EXTREMELY frustrating to use 3 fingers on a touch device to swim with any efficiency.

If this issue is not going to be monitored or addressed, at least do us the courtesy of setting this to resolved with "works as expected" as the solution. 

Yes still an issue. Please just restore our swimming to the way it was beforehand. Doing anything in water now is just frustrating. Yesterday I decided to get in the water to build a conduit. I died multiple times trying to place blocks and fight drowned. The touch controls are stupid now and I shouldn’t need a controller on an ipad to swim. Please get a touch device and swim / fight / build in water to understand what we are all experiencing.

I would like to make sure everyone understands that swimming is a distinct mode of movement in Minecraft and swimming is not the same as moving up in water. You must double-tap the forward button to swim in water, just like you double-tap to sprint on land. When you swim this way it is not necessary to tap the jump button to move upward, and you can breathe while swimming at the surface.

The older video attached to this report shows a player walking forward in water. They do not try to swim. It is intended for the player to sink in that situation per MCPE-162691.

Some comments below describe a separate bug that made players not able to breathe when swimming at the surface. That was tracked at MCPE-170969 and is fixed.

I think that what Mojang is tracking on this report is the difficulty of fighting underwater. It is possible to aim and hit while swimming using 2 fingers (see

), however, you can only do this while swimming forward. If you stop moving forward you exit swim mode, and then you sink and it becomes difficult to aim and float at the same time.

Thank you for your report!
After consideration, the issue is being closed as Won't Fix.

Please note that this is not the same as Working as Intended, as this bug report correctly describes behavior in the game that might not be the intended or desirable behavior, but it will not be fixed right now. Sometimes, this is because the issue reported is minor and/or impossible to change without large architectural changes to the code base.

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