Jeff Diamond

New even more useful information!  (Still playing with things.)  Interestingly, I found out that it's only 1.13 that actually crashes when trying to play as a launch configuration!  You can STILL play 1.12.x and earlier with NO ERROR! .This is now really mysterious - there's something in the Application folder that crashes 1.13 version only!  This may have been a bug introduced with 1.13, not 1.14, and I didn't notice it before.  Even more useful info:  1.13 works when I've tricked minecraft into thinking 1.13 is the LATEST version!  It only crashes when it runs 1.13 as a previous version.  So something about launching 1.13 as an alternate version leads to this "error saves directory already exists" bug.

To emphasize one detail, because it might help narrow this down:  You do not have to actually PLAY 1.14 to put the Application Support directory in a state that causes previous versions to crash.  Merely DOWNLOADING 1.14 from the launcher will instantly corrupt the Applications Support directory.

New information!  I keep playing with combinations because I really want to be able to play Minecraft again!  I tried deleting the entire 1.14 minecraft application folder, including the launcher, and replacing it with a copy of the old 1.13.2 application.  IT STILL CRASHED.  Then, I replaced the Application Support/minecraft directory with the one I saved from 1.13.2, and IT WORKED! . So the issue does not seem to be directly with the code itself, but that there is something that 1.14 creates in the Application Support folder that causes earlier version of minecraft to crash.  This implies that to run both 1.13.2 and 1.14 you would need two different Application Folders.  Is there a way to specify where Minecraft stores its auxiliary data?  The issue is this is not currently fixable: if you run Minecraft with the internet on, it will download 1.14, and this IN ITSELF, WITHOUT RUNNING 1.14, makes the change to the Application Support folder that causes earlier versions of Minecraft to crash.  I checked with Microsoft support, and they said there are no plans to discontinue this launch feature.

Again, to clarify, 1.14 is the first version of Minecraft I have ever used in which there is a bug preventing the Launcher from launching earlier versions of the minecraft VM for use with earlier worlds.  So something about the 1.14 update broke this launcher feature.  Please clarify your answer or reopen this ticket.

The ability to play a world with a previous version of Minecraft using the Launcher option is a CURRENT feature of Minecraft, and therefore it should function.  If all you are saying is there is some component of my Minecraft set up that is out of date, please clearly state which it is, since Minecraft always auto-updates itself.

Just to be clear, this issue exists on EVERY computer I own, with EVERY version of Minecraft I am using, including all of the latest ones.

Based on your vague response, I do not consider this issue resolved.  I still cannot play Minecraft.  If you do not clarify your answer or reopen it, I will try to issue a new version of this issue.  Thank you.

Please clarify your answer.  Obviously, this bug had no impact before 1.14 was released, and there were no mass instructions saying that for people to actually use 1.14 without bugs, they had to reinstall Minecraft from scratch.

Please be more clear:

1) Are you saying I have an older version of the LAUNCHER with this bug?

2) Are you saying that the only way to update the LAUNCHER is to reinstall minecraft from scratch?

Thank You.  In the many years I've been using Minecraft, this is the first time ever that an update has caused me a dead stop on all my computers.

Are you saying I need to download a fresh copy of minecraft from scratch?  (That it's an issue with my launcher being outdated?)

At the moment, I have one computer left with the old 1.13.2 version of minecraft and launcher, and I've cut it completely off from the internet, because it's my last chance to play the old version.

Just to make clear, I've been experimenting, and it gets this error (saves directory already exists), whether (1) there's a saves directory that 1.14 created, (2) there's a saves directory that 1.13 created, (3) there's a saved directory that I created, or (4) there is no saves directory at all.

Thank you so much for the info - I thought the new version was broken, too. It's not often that "updated" make fundamental elements of the game go away. Does this also mean I can no longer cook food in an ordinary furnace?

On a related note, ignoring the shift stick issue, is this an intended feature that if you hit SHIFT + X everything in your inventory and armor disappears? Seems an extremely dangerous feature. If you could option this off, then the stuck shift key wouldn't be so dangerous.

Thanks, FVbico. 🙂

Given that it seems that LWJGL has had this bug for almost the entire history of Minecraft, it seems there's little hope for a fix, eh?

• Jeff

Confirmed that shift key is not stuck anywhere else in the system during this scenario. The issue seems limited to the inventory window. Will try to reproduce on different computers to prove it is not a hardware problem.

BTW, I wouldn't bring this up if it weren't such a serious issue - I now will not risk using the inventory X at all in minecraft until it is fixed.

And, since it ONLY occurs in the inventory window, it doesn't sound like a hardware problem - else I'd be having shift key issues all over the place.

While I agree with the superficial assessment (the mechanism), you are ignoring the details:

-> I never pressed the shift key in these circumstances
-> Effects of a shift key being pressed didn't persist outside of the inventory...

So perhaps we should rephrase this bug as "shift key / modifier keys get into inappropriate states while in inventory and create dangerous situations."

And is it not a bug that you can't even log out but have to quit and relaunch minecraft just to fix the issue?

Finally, this is NEW behavior - I've been an intensive user of minecraft since 1.7 and have never experienced this before.

Not completely reproducible. I can sometimes safely drop something on the X, sometimes not.

Seems like other modifier keys may be stuck in an odd state, as when I try to type in line commands, weird things happen and I cannot complete them. But hitting my own modifier keys to try to reset the state doesn't work. I have to quit Minecraft and launch it again.

OK, in this case, I confirmed the SHIFT key was stuck, because when I tried to use the command line, hitting "V" did a paste.
I cannot imagine what would lead to the SHIFT being down in this case, because in the context, I had not pressed shift at all. I was just moving around and looking at my inventory.

So the bug at the root cause seems to be that clicking on the inventory X seem to trigger SHIFT always on mode.

It just happened again! On Realms. Seems very reproducable. In creative mode, get something new, then click on the X, and you lose EVERYTHING!