Clients disconnect when window focus changes on remote host/server (Windows 10)

I'm not sure it's possible for Mojang to do what you're asking; I think minimizing is something Windows has to do when you're playing in fullscreen mode. But it's up to the developers to give the definitive answer.

As a workaround, have you considered running Minecraft in a maximized window? It only costs a little space for the title bar and taskbar, and because it's running in windowed mode Windows doesn't have to suspend it to open another app window. (It will still suspend it if you minimize the window, though, so don't do that, just open your other app on the top of the game.) It may not be an ideal solution, but it's one you can use right now.

Hi.

I've tried it in windowed mode (and full screen). I want to be able to minimize the window and not have other lan gamers disconnected due to the game pausing. Lots of people say it used to be possible (for example to switch to inventory or just task out and the game not pause) so this is a change in behaviour with no option to configure the choice.

I'm guessing its entirely not a priority because we're expected to pay for realms? This is not viable for small children who should not be expected to have ms xbox email accounts and access to online gaming. They just want to share a lan game world and not have it stop the second someone changes focus. Minecraft has a LOT of very young players who they are ignoring with the realms and xbox live accounts situation. It would atleast be doable if this autopause thing wasn't happening.

Thanks for the suggestion of max window but really we want to be able to use the Windows 10 PC and forget if minecraft is running for the kids to still be connected to the world.

What you're asking for in your last paragraph is easily accomplished with nothing more than a virtual desktop, already built into Windows 10. When you're finished accusing the company of being greedy while asking for and receiving free support, I suggest you head over to the MCPE Reddit or the Minecraft Discord for detailed advice on how to set it up.

Thanks for your help. I'm sorry but I think I have good reason to say what I said. Functionality which used to be there goes away and is replaced by something which took hours of my time to try to sort out when it's really a simple thing (local server for family without needing to use xbox accounts and family settings).

Trying to get family xbox accounts running on windows 10 actually broke my local admin account which took me time to fix. If realms are the way forward because they are profitable, but it is difficult and inappropriate for small kids and doesn't work in many ways e.g. unable to simply restrict a child to our realm only, then I reserve the right to be a bit peeved having spent a long time trying to follow instructions etc.

Lastly but not least, this issue has been raised a lot of times and this particular one has been open for a very long time with no meaningful response until yours just now.

Thank you for your report!
However, this issue has been closed as Invalid.

Just to be clear this functionality was not removed to make players move over to playing on realms.

To make it work so that the host can minimise the window and not disconnect any connected clients will require significant changes to implement, and is not as straightforward as it might appear. As such this ticket will be closed as a feature request.

As mentioned switching windows instead of minimising the game might be a better option for you.

If you would like to submit a feature request, please visit the Minecraft Feedback Site.

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Thanks for explaining that it isn't a simple fix Mega_Spud. That's a shame and will have ruined one the best parts of the game for families with small children.

Auldrick: Virtual desktop doesn't work as it also pauses the game when you switch to another screen. I've already been on reddit and only found other people with the exact same issue and no way around it from what I can see.

It's ridiculous that you treat this issue as invalid , because every single game works when minimized , including :

1. Minecraft Java Edition

2. Minecraft (Android)

3. Adobe Flash Minigames (yeah , even web minigames do as well)

But Minecraft on Windows 10 doesn't , why ?

• To make it work so that the host can minimise the window and not disconnect any connected clients will require significant changes to implement, and is not as straightforward as it might appear.

Just because of the difficulty of the fix doesn't mean this issue should be treated as invalid , if so why MS even have to fix the deletion of user file ? thinking of anything like this causes the downgrade of the game quality

Don't tell "UWP wouldn't stay active when minimized" cuz Halo and Forza are UWP and they don't suspend when minimized . 

• As mentioned switching windows instead of minimising the game might be a better option for you.

When in fullscreen , it's impossible to avoid minimizing the window because Windows doesn't allow you to focus on other applications while keeping fullscreen app opened . Virtual Desktop won't work either because all apps inside inactive desktop will be notified to suspend which is the same as minimizing it .

• Just to be clear this functionality was not removed to make players move over to playing on realms.

True but as long as this issue still present the only way to avoid this problem is to either purchase realms or setup our own dedicated server which requires some knowledge 

Reopened for review.

As reported in other linked and closed as duplicate tickets this also causes Windows 10 Fullscreen clients connected to a Bedrock Dedicated Server (BDS) to disconnect when Alt-Tabbing out to quickly check messages.  Very frustrating.

This issue is still present - added vote.

Concur; this is very frustrating on Windows 10. Still happens on v1.13.0.

Edit: This issue refers to only LAN games but I have this same issue when connecting to another friend's world which is on his Xbox. Added vote.

Adding my vote to this issue.

While I understand that the OP's specific circumstance (in regards to hosting off their device) may or may not be invalid, this bug also affects Windows 10 clients playing on a BDS (and I'm assuming realms as well given they're the same tech).

If you play in full screen and something causes the game to minimize, when opening it back up there's a very good chance you will get disconnected from the server. Surely that isn't expected behavior? My best guess is that, due to it being a UWP, when minimized the app is "paused", that paused state causes it to lose its connection to the server. When maximising it again it takes the client a few seconds to realize its disconnected.

Yes, windowed mode prevents it from happening but that absolutely seems like a bug/issue.

I'm chiming in on this to echo Adzule and agree with What What.  This is the first video game I've seen that will disconnect the user on loss of focus from Full Screen.  I understand the UWP limitations, but if it's a limitation; it should be explicitly called out in the Video Settings "You may experience server disconnections if Minecraft loses focus while in full screen mode.  To Prevent this, consider using a maximized game window instead."

I could understand closing this as a feature request if the windowed mode would also disconnect the client on loss of focus, but that is very much not the case and I find it almost unfathomable that it was purposefully requested to exempt the full screen population from similar functionality (there are ways around the UWP issue, as Mega_Spud implied).  Logically, to the end user, the only difference is how you interact with other windows (swipe/alt+tab versus clicking/tapping to change windows).    I would see this from the user standpoint feature as "my experience with the game is the same in full screen as in windowed mode", seems pretty basic and even implied by having an app at all.

Acknowledging the shortcomings of current UWP code in a Mojang/amusing fashion like suggested above would be nice...

Upvoting this issue as well. There is no reason this should be this way. Sometimes you have to tab out if you're building something you need to reference a picture, and disconnecting everyone that is online with you to do this isn't acceptable.

Upvoted as well. This also causes my client to disconnect from an official Realms server when I alt tab. Not as bad as disconnecting all players on a LAN server, but still very annoying. There are lots of other games in the Windows Store that don't have this issue. I'm not sure if those games are actually UWPs or just Win32 Store apps, but either way, there's no reason this should still be an issue for Minecraft.

Upvoting this issue too, just happened to me & a friend of mine both in fullscreen & windowed mode.

It disconnects us from the Realms server when we alt-tab, sometimes immediately and other times after a few minutes.

Odd that this issue hasn't been looked into yet, it seems like it's been a thing for years

It would be helpful to know if Mojang has any current feedback on this, or if there's any plan on how to resolve it. Actually, a good workaround would be really helpful too, if one exists. It's been just about 2.5 years since there's been any discussion. Can we kick this off again?

Upvote, when playing on realm, minimize and not reopen immediately will get disconnected from server. Really annoying. 

This happens on Realms as well. It's annoying since there's also a bug where I click on something on my other monitor, and Minecraft being in fullscreen on the 1st monitor minimizes even though it's got nothing to do with that monitor. Sometimes it does this, sometimes it doesn't.

Please do something about this. Its been too long and I just want to fully enjoy playing online in fullscreen.

This bug still happens up until this day with the current version, 1.16.02.....

Yeah, it is disheartening seeing how long this bug has been around for, especially given how disruptive it is when trying to play with friends

Sorry but can any of mod register a feedback to which i can upvote because i am not able to create a feedback

Same problem in a realm here.

The fix on a duplicate (MCPE-31064) of this problem was: 'Play in windowed mode'. I'm sorry, I don't want borders and a windows- and title bar in my screen. This fix is like saying your Lamborghini has a flat tire and your mechanic says: "Well, can't be fixed anymore. You can trade it in for this Ford Fiesta." That's ridiculous. I just want to play this game on full screen (or even borderless fullscreen,if that would exist for minecraft), so I can alt-tab out of the game without being kicked out of the realm. Other games can, why can't minecraft?

I still see this issue in the most recent build as well.

Still an issue as of right now, it affects technical minecraft and a fix would be appreciated 😃

Please fix this. I can't play properly and it's so frustrating

A quick Google search on the problem suggests that it's relatively simple for Mojang to fix by using the ExtendedExecutionSession API in the method that is the UWP app's entry point.

ExtendedExecutionSession docs

Of course, things are rarely as simple as a quick Google search might suggest.

It also happens when connecting to someone else and alt-tabbing. This would be so simple to fix but all the bug reports on this same issue before have gone "oh just play windowed" but playing windowed is awful

4 years and it is still not resolved, and you tell people to move from Java...

Whilst we're waiting for a fix, note that you can quickly switch in and out of full screen mode by pressing SHIFT-WIN-ENTER.

Also, if you absentmindedly switch to another app from full screen mode, if you're quick you can ALT-TAB back into Minecraft without the server disconnecting you.

It's far from ideal, but better than running in windowed mode constantly.

Regarding a fix, I'm wondering if it would be possible for the devs to automatically switch to windowed mode when losing focus to prevent it from being suspended. Might be an easier workaround so long as a 'lost-focus' event fires before the task is suspended of course...

Affects 1.16.200.55 beta

@Dave Compton: In regards to UWP/ ExtendedExecutionSession it really is as easy as setting that bit at least from a code standpoint (perhaps Minecraft has additional code built in that would make it not trivial, but at it's core you put the line of code in that makes the request and then Windows either grants it or it doesn't based on resources, but it mostly does).  The only issue (which would not be an issue for Mojang) is I believe they have to request permission to set the bit from Microsoft as part of the app certification process.  The Windows Store is mostly a wasteland and Minecraft is one of the golden gooses it has, it would most certainly be approved without question I would think.

I had written a UWP app that I ended up abandoning because of various UWP restrictions, one of the annoyances for me was I had a TCP/IP connection open that Windows would terminate when the app suspended (which was a deal breaker for my app).  Basically the app suspending is meant to be a CPU/Memory/Battery saver, all UWP apps can be suspended by Windows and the app maker has to put an event in place that basically saves all of the state so it can restore where you're at when the app becomes unsuspended.  Traditional Windows app don't have this issue.

The problem is, although it's meant to save battery and resources the annoyance to users outweighs the benefit in many cases and this is one of them.  Many of us are playing Minecraft on a desktop or a laptop with power and not from a low end mobile device.  If anything we should have the choice on whether to allow it.

Also affects Android devices when accidently opening the recent apps tab, not clue about iOS

I have dedicated server on local network, and with the latest update (1.16.20102.0), the game connects to server, and after a few min it disconnects and cannot connect to server any longer (cannot connect to world error). Have to exit Minecraft, start again, or restart the system to connect back. This is not a server or network issue, and it was working fine before the update to this version yesterday. 

Something similar happens on amazon devices, when you accidentally hit the home button or recent apps (i think thats what its called), it also disconnects.... Very annoying because those buttons are next to the spacebar >w<

The issue reproduces for me on Windows version v1.16.201 if connected to Realms or to a LAN server.

Steps:

1. run the Windows version from Microsoft Store

2. connect to Realms or LAN server

3. minimize the game window

4. unminimize the game window (don't even need to wait before that)

Observed result: you get disconnected from the server

Expected result: you can continue playing
Repro rate: 10/10

Windows 10 paid edition here.  I get kicked when alt-tabbing as well.  I've only had the game for a few days and this is all I've known.

Please see MCPE-109879 for disconnecting without needing to wait

If I am kicked by the bug,  relogging to the server will show everything but torches in perfect dark. This is with 1.16.210.06 and ray-tracing on (likely the cause).

Example here

Now it means alt-tabbing out of the game, even for just 1 sec, I will have to restart the game.

@unknown: Sarcasm is not helpful and is not allowed. It has been removed from your comment.

@unknown: You're correct, I/we are not working on this bug, BECAUSE THE STAFF HERE ARE NOT MOJANG EMPLOYEES. We're community volunteers who freely give our time to help community members prepare bug reports, which we forward to Mojang. We don't have access to the code or the internal bug tracking process. So the people you're being rude to are not responsible for your rage and are helpless to do anything for you. Take your complaints to Mojang's Community Managers.

I am again removing your unhelpful comment.

Edit: One more thing: If you think ray tracing is "likely the cause" as you said earlier, it's obviously not the same bug that this ticket reported 4 years ago, so why did you choose to follow this ticket? Look for one with a similar problem that actually matches your experience, or create a new report if there isn't one. And please read the guidelines.

Sometimes when I minimize/alt-tab away from Minecraft and then go back into it while in the menus the server captions will endlessly load it and it won't let me join them, saying "Unable to connect to world". For some reason if I then attempt to join a random Realm that doesn't exist by clicking the "Join Realm" button in the friends tab, typing some random letters into the text box and then hitting enter, it will then allow me to join the servers again.

When I'm playing on a multiplayer world and I want to go to a different window I'll just exit full-screen via Win-Shift-Enter and then alt-tab away.

I can't play this game anymore. Every time the white loading screen appears the game kicks you out of server. This is even on Android. I remember this bug wasn't there before. I remember playing on my phone and switching apps and then re entering the game I was back in the server but now it instantly kicks you when you switch apps

It happens to me when I'm on a friend's server with the latest version (1.16.22101.0)

I also noticed this couple days ago after a long absence.  When minimising especially, it wil disconnect you from realms - that has always been consistent but now when tabbing I had that this week.

I just got reminded about it by a java player that won't play bedrock because they are so annoyed by this bug.

This is still an issue on v1.17.10. While you can prevent this by playing on maximized windowed mode, playing on windowed affects my display and makes the inventory/overall GUI way smaller compared to its size on fullsecreen mode, making it difficult to recognise and view the inventory, etc.

The display resolution of the affected computer: 1920 pixels X 1080 pixels (1080p).

In my own experience, 1.17.10 has caused this problem to go away. I believe that there were at least 3 known ways that this bug was activated, so the most likely explanation for us having different experiences is that one or two of the causes have been fixed but at least one still remain.

@Auldrick

Mind providing details of your system and maybe setting for minecraft bedrock?
In my case, it makes no difference and the disconnection is almost instant, like any minecraft version before.

I have a relatively modest 5 year old desktop PC, Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-6100 CPU @ 3.70GHz with 8 GB RAM, running Windows 10 64-bit. Graphics are provided by an integrated Intel HD Graphics 530 chipset sharing 4 GB. I run Minecraft in a framed window that fills the screen, not in fullscreen mode, because I prefer to have my taskbar visible. I tested Experimental Caves & Cliffs at render distance 16, simulation distance 10, anti-aliasing 4, and all the video options like Render Clouds and Smooth Lighting enabled. There was noticeable rendering delay (the game can't keep up with flying in creative mode), but there always has been on this PC, and the delay is noticeably longer for chunks being generated/loaded for the first time, but that has been true since terrain generation was made much more elaborate in the Update Aquatic.

Up until 1.16, Minecraft mostly ran pretty snappily (allowing time for the devs to do some time tuning after major updates). I was always able to change windows or minimize the game and return without a problem. However, performance of any other app while the MC window was still open sucked pretty bad, so I usually minimized MC. Then starting in 1.16 (not sure which minor release), I found that if I minimized the screen with a world loaded, after I restored the window it ran through part of the loading percentage bar before resuming. This got worse in 1.16.200 or 1.16.220, when if I minimized at all it would crash when I tried to restore. So I had to put up with very slow apps in overlapping windows for that time. This persisted into 1.17.2 Hotfix.

In 1.17.10, I first noticed a general improvement in rendering new chunks. I was actually expecting very bad performance upon activating Caves & Cliffs Experimental because of all the extra terrain it generates for mountains and deep caves, but was delighted to find out that while it's still sluggish, it's back like it was before 1.16. Then when I tried minimizing the MC window, it not only went through the loading bar faster than it used to, it didn't crash any more. So I'm pretty happy with this release.

Note: I almost always play in single player mode. When you play in MP mode the client and server have to talk to each other frequently so the server can detect it if the client disconnects. When you minimize a window, the game can't use the network, so the communication stops and it looks to the server like you've disconnected. So you can't safely minimize MC in an MP setting.

Edit: I forgot to add that if I minimize the window for long enough, even in single player mode, sometimes the game will save and quit with no message. I'm not sure if that counts as a crash.

Also, I have seen hints that heavy contention for server and/or network resources while starting the game sometimes seems to leave the local client in a sort of fragile state where it may be more likely to crash. I can tell when it's going to be fragile because it takes a relatively long time to get through the loading percentage bar. When it's like that, I'm more likely to crash after minimizing. It may be that in general, people's locations in the world and their habits around what time of day they play contribute to their game running in a degraded, less robust mode. I'm only speculating here, but it might be worth watching for a correlation between time spent in the loading bar and subsequent tendency to crash after minimizing.

Just to clarify this issue was never about a rendering/crash issue.  It was the client disconnecting itself (and any connected LAN players) more or less immediately upon minimizing.  Microsoft itself offers strategies to deal with this (sometimes desirable in a not LAN capable game) behavior at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/launch-resume/run-minimized-with-extended-execution.

Note: I almost always play in single player mode. When you play in MP mode the client and server have to talk to each other frequently so the server can detect it if the client disconnects.

That is it. It appears to me as a design flaw inherited from making it work cross platform where minimizing the app tends to put thing in pause and server disconnect the client.
Clearly this should not have been the case when connecting from a PC client, and the Java version never had this issue. And I don't understand how the game can't use the network if it is minimized; other Windows app did not show the same behaviour.

Alt-tabbing is a very routine part of even gaming on a PC, like replying to a message, the server is basically cutting off connecting in a second or 2. Maybe a solution is to make the drop takes longer to happen?

adzule: Yes, that does need to be remembered, thank you. I got a little sidetracked in my earlier comment.

@unknown: Alt-tab is not the same as minimizing a window, and in my experience is not and never has been a problem. But even if you meant "minimizing", the bug tracker is not an appropriate place for expressing this opinion. As stated in the guidelines, comments should be limited to providing additional information that might help the developers find and solve the problem. Discussion and criticism are not acceptable here.

Seeing MCPE-147296  this issues is reproduced in education edition (1.17.35). Here's repro steps. It's reproduced 100% chances. Would you check it please? @Auldrick

Repro steps

You need two PCs connected to same network. 

envrionment: windows10, MCEE 1.17.35

1. Run MCEE and start hosting in PC1

2. Run MCEE and connect to host in PC2

3. In PC1, minimize MCEE window

expected

keep connection from PC2 to PC1(host)

actual

Connection lost.

I do not have Education Edition so I cannot test it specifically. However, EE uses the exact same source code as BE for all game mechanics that they have in common (they're both copied from the Bedrock codebase), so when it's fixed for BE it will also be fixed in the corresponding release of EE. This is always the case for EE bugs that affect logic shared with BE, and it's why we don't have a separate bug tracker project for EE.

Incidentally, the 100% occurrence is also observed in Bedrock Edition, though it's not truly 100%. The disconnect happens after a fairly short timeout. If you minimize the window and very quickly restore it, it won't disconnect.

This occurs on Minecraft for Windows when you tab-out onto a window on the same monitor. However, it sometimes disconnects while interacting with the taskbar and other file-explorer features.