When I try to load my character it won't load. It just says failed to load character 1.

(I have found this problem while playing on Bedrock on a Playstation 5)

Yes! This is a huge problem. I created my skin through their Character Creator and I've had to go in and recreate it 4 times already (throughout many years of having it). This is ridiculous! I know that people on the support side deal with a lot of frustrated people, but I am infuriated. Instead of having the skin that I should have, I have to go back in and remake it, taking up the little time I SHOULD be spending playing the game I paid for, otherwise, I'm stuck with a dumb default skin (which, might I add, is always defaulted to the same racially motivated one, but that's a whole other thing to unwrap). Normally, I brush it off with annoyance, but like I said, this is the FOURTH time this has happened. I honestly would have probably ignored it this time too if it weren't for another problem that has arisen. The things I used to create my character are no longer available. I've grown quite fond of my skin but now he's ruined. The eyes that I used to match up with the goggles on his head no longer exist, and neither does his mouth. These aren't Marketplace items that are disappearing, they are Mojang-provided ones! Now I actually have to rework my entire skin's face, because otherwise, he looks dumb! This is not just a rare problem either, all of my friends who created their own skins have had theirs disappear. It's just, unlike them, I've decided to actually bring it up to Mojang. Words cannot describe how much this makes me angry, so much so that I went through and took one WHOLE HOUR to figure out how to use this poorly designed bug-reporting website (only making me more frustrated on my way here). So, Mojang, I understand that you want to remove stuff from skin customization, but next time THINK about how it affects other people. If you want to remove items, how about you tell the community about it first? And instead of having it COMPLETELY WIPE MY ENTIRE SKIN, how about you just replace the removed item with something else? That way, the hard work I put in isn't gone! I was going to play Minecraft today, but I've wasted my time having to file this report. Do better Mojang.

(I have found this problem while playing on Bedrock on a Playstation 5)

Yes! This is a huge problem. I created my skin through their Character Creator and I've had to go in and recreate it 4 times already (throughout many years of having it). This is ridiculous! I know that people on the support side deal with a lot of frustrated people, but I am infuriated. Instead of having the skin that I should have, I have to go back in and remake it, taking up the little time I SHOULD be spending playing the game I paid for, otherwise, I'm stuck with a dumb default skin (which, might I add, is always defaulted to the same racially motivated one, but that's a whole other thing to unwrap). Normally, I brush it off with annoyance, but like I said, this is the FOURTH time this has happened. I honestly would have probably ignored it this time too if it weren't for another problem that has arisen. The things I used to create my character are no longer available. I've grown quite fond of my skin but now he's ruined. The eyes that I used to match up with the goggles on his head no longer exist, and neither does his mouth. These aren't Marketplace items that are disappearing, they are Mojang-provided ones! Now I actually have to rework my entire skin's face, because otherwise, he looks dumb! This is not just a rare problem either, all of my friends who created their own skins have had theirs disappear. It's just, unlike them, I've decided to actually bring it up to Mojang. Words cannot describe how much this makes me angry, so much so that I went through and took one WHOLE HOUR to figure out how to use this poorly designed bug-reporting website (only making me more frustrated on my way here). So, Mojang, I understand that you want to remove stuff from skin customization, but next time THINK about how it affects other people. If you want to remove items, how about you tell the community about it first? And instead of having it COMPLETELY WIPE MY ENTIRE SKIN, how about you just replace the removed item with something else? That way, the hard work I put in isn't gone! I was going to play Minecraft today, but I've wasted my time having to file this report. Do better Mojang.

Yeah, this has been quite frustrating to deal with. Mojang added all these default skins to make more people feel included, but we get our unique ones that we actually put effort into to make them more like us get ruined repeatedly. I have lost 5 skins to this glitch. :'(

Yeah, this has been quite frustrating to deal with. Mojang added all these default skins to make more people feel included, but we get our unique ones that we actually put effort into to make them more like us get ruined repeatedly. I have lost 5 skins to this glitch. :'(

This happens with both already existed skins and newly created, after creating character/uploading classic skin in the Dressing Room and after that close/re-open the game as a result you will get a message at the top that says “Failed to reload character 1. You can reload it from your profile” but when you try to reload the character it will just keeps saying endlessly Failed to reload character 1. You can reload it from your profile.

The only way to temporarily fix this issue is to delete and create the character/upload classic skin again, but upon restart you still will get the same bug.

Especially this bug occurs really frequently when you’re using multiple devices with the same Microsoft account. Even if this multiple devices similar like iPhone and iPad

Experienced the same issue on PC multiple times as well.

Same thing happening to me. Skins don't load or get replaced by default ones.

Can confirm, affects 1.21.60.21. Unfortunately, there is no real way to reproduce this (from what I've observed) other than launching and restarting the game until it occurs.
Additionally, this doesn't solely affect character slot number 1, as for me, it will routinely happen with character slots 3 and 5 too.

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

Please add to your report Steps to Reproduce, Observed Results, and Expected Behavior in the Description, as shown here:

Steps to Reproduce:
1. (list every step carefully, so someone else can reproduce the issue, and try following your list to make sure you can still reproduce the issue yourself)
2.
3.
Observed Results:
(Briefly describe what happens)
Expected Results:
(Briefly describe what should happen)
Please also make sure to include an attachment that showcases the issue. A video would be the best option in this case.

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The steps below are how I reproduce the issue in the 1.21.51 Hotfix.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open Minecraft 1.21.51 Hotfix

2. Click on the "Dressing Room" button to the right.

3. Create a new Character by clicking "Create Character".

4. Select "Classic Skin" and Click "Create Classic Skin" again.

5. Click "Choose New Skin" and import a skin texture file from your file manager.

6. Choose any model type for your skin (I use the wide model).

7. Return to the title screen (optional).

8. Close the game and then relaunch.

Expected Results:

The user's chosen skin persists even after they are automatically signed in. Their skin is not authenticated or checked through Xbox/Microsoft online services as they are signed in.

Observed Results:

The game takes a long time for the skin to appear. They receive the message "failed to load character #". Reloading the skin does not work and it needs to be manually deleted and re-added.

Notes: I'm trying to reproduce the issue and get it on video as of today, but like mentioned by KR, it is not very consistent or easy to reproduce. I have observed though that it happens if the user has not opened the game for some time. I'm no programmer, but the most realistic fix would be storing skins 100% locally. There should be no reason why skins should be checked or authenticated online through Microsoft servers as they appear to be doing now.