Minecraft
Genre: Open-World-Survival
Studio: Mojang
Publisher: Mojang
Rent a Minecraft Server
Rent a server
Genre: Open-World-Survival
Studio: Mojang
Publisher: Mojang
Rent a Minecraft Server

Minecraft Snapshots

Minecraft has been around for many years now. An important factor in the game’s long-lasting success are  the regular free updates being released that introduce new features to the game, keeping the game fresh and interesting. Since those updates may take some time to develop, players might get bored in the meantime. While some use mods or texture packs to individualize their world and make it more exciting than Vanilla Minecraft, others wait patiently for the new update to be released. Minecraft snapshots are the solution that combines both: altering the original world of Minecraft and shortening the waiting time for the next update.

What Is a Minecraft Snapshot?

Minecraft snapshots are periodically released, unfinished versions of upcoming updates. Almost weekly, mostly on Wednesdays, the developers publish the current state of the update, which allows you to test new features at an early stage in the game’s developmental process. If you find bugs, you can report them directly to Mojang and by that support the development.

Playing Minecraft as a Beta Version: Minecraft Snapshots

Many developers release beta versions of their games to ensure compatibility with different systems and to track down and remove as many bugs as possible prior to release. Mojang goes a step further and provides Minecraft players with (almost) weekly updated insights into the current state of development of the upcoming update. When development is almost complete, they are replaced by pre-releases of the update, which are basically more finished snapshots.

Minecraft Snapshots: Names

Encountering a Minecraft snapshot, you will soon realize that they have specific names. We’ll explain how these names are created, using the last MC snapshot from the most recent complete update, Minecraft 1.21:

  • 24w46a

Basically, the name consists of 3 parts that are quite easy to understand. It starts with 24 to indicate the year in which it was released. Older Minecraft snapshots therefore start with 21, 22 or 23. The next information comes from w46. This means ‘week 46’ of the year 2024. Lastly, the a is an identifying letter. The first snapshot in a week has an ‘a’, any potential second one has a ‘b’ and so on. But most of the time, there is only one Minecraft snapshot per week. Therefore, snapshot 24w46a is the first one in the 46th week of 2024.

How to Install Minecraft Snapshots

Minecraft snapshots are only available in the Java Version of the game. With this version, you can start current snapshots directly from the launcher:

  1. Go to the ‘Installations’ tab.
  2. Select ‘Snapshots’ in the upper right corner. Now you should see several snapshots to choose from. Following the concepts of how Minecraft snapshots are named, it should be easy to find the current version.
  3. Install and launch the desired version.

Tip:At G-Portal, the installation of a snapshot on a Minecraft server works similarly easy. You can also check out our video tutorial on how to install Minecraft snapshots!

Attention!Due to the incompleteness of snapshots, unforeseen issues can quickly occur, so you should either back up your game world beforehand or simply use a test world. Otherwise, you might risk your save file.

How to Report Bugs for Minecraft Snapshots

For curious and impatient players, the MC snapshots come in handy to shorten the waiting time until the next update. However, another purpose behind this is to find and fix bugs early on. With this in mind, Mojang has set up an ‘Issue Tracker’ where you can report all bugs and glitches from: 

  • Minecraft snapshots
  • pre-releases
  • even finished versions

Thus, you can actively contribute to the development of the game. Make sure, however, to choose the right edition of the game and to report each found bug individually.

Conclusion: Minecraft Snapshots

Whether you want to satisfy your curiosity or contribute something, whether you want to relieve boredom or point your digital finger at bugs: There is a way in Minecraft. Snapshots will probably be released for a long time to come since they have proven themselves to be useful for both players and developers. You missed the latest Minecraft snapshot? Well, it is really easy to give it a try on a Minecraft server from G-Portal. We wish you a lot of fun with all the updates that may come!

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