Hello,
Hope your day is going well. I have explored all other pathways at this link for the issue, yet none of it has unfortunately solved the problem: https://help.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/360035130871-Java-Edition-Realms-connection-issues-
I also reinstalled minecraft and ensured my antivirus was allowing access- which it is 100%.
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What I expected to happen was...: for me to join my friend's realm.
I have logged tons of hours into it, my friend who hosts the server can't find an issue. Been kicked/reinvited in hopes to make a difference but no luck on that front.
What actually happened was...:
I see "connecting to the realm..." with the moving bars- no progress after that.
Steps to Reproduce:
**N/A
Logged onto my account via friend's comp, it worked on there ;/ (EDIT)
Unknown where I go to follow up with this but my email that is associated with this account I check frequently.
Best,
A saddened minecraft user
Linked issues
duplicates 1
Comments 2

This appears to be a duplicate of REALMS-3075, which hasn't yet been resolved. If you have any additional information to provide regarding this issue, feel free to comment on the parent ticket. If you feel that this issue is affecting you, feel free to vote for the duplicated ticket, to give Mojang a basic idea of how many people are impacted by the problem. Just to further inform you, this will not determine how quickly the bug gets handled or fixed.
I have also had this issue on Java edition. The screen will sit on "connecting to the realm..." indefinitely. Contacted minecraft help and followed all of their suggestions. Logged out and back in, checked, restarted and reset my network. Checked the firewall. Couldn't identify the problem. Nothing obvious has changed on my end and I was spending heaps of time on the realm, so I don't know why the issue all of a sudden.