How to Check if Minecraft Realms is Down: A Comprehensive Guide
Minecraft Realms down? This kind of problem can happen seemingly out of nowhere. It’s particularly frustrating when you’re paying for a subscription and you can’t access the service. While there are thousands of Minecraft servers that you can play on when you own the game, they can be chaotic, depending on who you’re playing with. Realms is a great solution to host your friends in your own private server, but when it goes down it can feel like you’re paying for nothing. We have several tips for you to see why Realms is down and what to do about it.
Troubleshooting Tips if Minecraft Realms is Down
Here is a list of possible fixes if you find Minecraft Realms down.
- First, restart Minecraft. This should be the first thing you try as it can fix a lot of glitches
- If you’re playing on PC, restart your computer
- If you’re playing on console, be sure that you have your Realms subscription active and set up properly with your gaming equipment
- Try closing and reopening the realm
- Check your wireless connection. Reboot your router or reset it if applicable
- Try configuring your router so that it uses open or moderate NAT (network address translation)
- If you’ve previously adjusted your console’s DNS settings, try resetting them to automatic and see if it resolves the problem
- Use an Ethernet cable to connect instead of Wi-Fi
- Try closing any running programs that may be hogging your internet bandwidth
- Be sure that any VPN, antivirus, or firewall you may be using isn’t making your connection sluggish, or blocking it outright. Make certain that ports 26000-28000 are open and that port 443 and 80 don’t have destructive proxies
How to Check if Minecraft Realms is Down
If you’re unable to connect to world Minecraft servers or your Realms account, there are sites that will indicate if the actual servers are down or having difficulties. If they do indicate there’s a problem, you can be pretty sure the issue isn’t on your end and your best course is to wait until they fix it or give official instructions on how to rectify the problem. Otherwise, if all looks normal on these sites, it may be a dilemma on your end. Here are your two best options to check for outages:
Check Down Detector
If Mojang hasn’t posted an update, or they’re not aware of a problem with Realms, you can try Down Detector. Down Detector works on user search trends. If lots of people, even those who do not play on the same realm as you, are searching to determine if Realms is down, it will show up on Down Detector.
If it does, it is safe to assume that there is a server-side problem. You can send a tweet to the Twitter Mojang support account to get their attention.
Check Mojang’s X/Twitter Account
One easy place to check is Mojang’s official X account. They regularly post status updates for all Mojang Studios games. They also specify if there are issues with servers, consoles, or authentication bugs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can’t I join my friend’s Realm in Minecraft?
If you’re asking, “Why can’t I join my friend’s Minecraft world?” you should first check Mojang’s X account or check Down Detector. If this is a widespread problem, you’ll know pretty fast. Depending on if everything checks out, have your friend go through the troubleshooting steps listed earlier and try the applicable ones yourself. It could be some bug or setting that needs to be adjusted. The first thing to try is to restart, as it can solve a lot of glitches.
Why is Minecraft Realms not working?
There are several possibilities for why you’d find Minecraft Realms down. Here are some common culprits:
- The actual official servers are down for problems on the developer’s end
- An update had an unknown glitch or bug that is causing issues
- Authentication servers are having problems
- Problems with your subscription service
- Internet connectivity issues
- The site is being blocked by apps, tools, software, etc.
- Your subscription has run out and your account is inactive
- Problems with your PC or bugs with the operating system
How do I fix Minecraft not connecting to the server?
The troubleshooting section will have the most in-depth things to try, but a handful of possible fixes include:
- Rebooting your PC or console
- Restarting Minecraft/Realms
- Checking to see if there is a server outage or authentication error
- Checking your internet connection
- Pay attention to whether a recent update caused the problem. It’s common for new updates to actually cause issues that require patching. This could be for Minecraft itself, or even your PC or console
Conclusion
Minecraft Realms are smaller servers but lots of people have their own Realm set up. A single realm may only cater to a handful of people but the service itself is massive. It’s pretty common for a service of this size to go down. That said, if everyone is able to connect to a realm but you aren’t, it’s unlikely that Realms is down. Check your connection, your antivirus definitions, and your firewall settings. They may have updated or reset and may be blocking the connection.
