Microsoft warns about Minecraft update leading to lost worlds for some players

The latest Minecraft update for Bedrock was released on March 12, and this 1.20.70/71 update is causing a game-breaking error that could cost you every world you’ve ever made. Because of this, Microsoft issued an official warning on March 15.

This issue is specifically for players who use the Xbox app on PC to play Minecraft, so if you’re on another platform, you don’t need to worry too much about this issue. It’s probably a good idea to save backups of your worlds or avoid playing for now just in case, though, as it’s always possible this issue could end up affecting other platforms too.

Microsoft’s statement about this issue is quite serious and warns to “not download the recent update for Minecraft through the Xbox app for PC. If you do, your worlds may be lost.”

There’s currently an ongoing investigation into the “world loss issue” being conducted. The update that caused this corruption is also being blocked from Windows to try and minimize the number of affected players, but Microsoft is still warning players to keep an eye out and ensure everything is backed up properly just in case.

If you think you might have already been affected by this issue or you want to ensure you prevent it, there’s a pop-up in the Minecraft Launcher on how to do so. The pop-up says to back up the local Minecraft folder and run the Gaming Services Repair Tool. All steps for this process are also listed in Microsoft’s official statement.

Even if you aren’t on the 1.20.70/71 version of Minecraft, you still might be indirectly affected by this issue as the statement about it says it may also end up impacting “some online services,” including those like cross-platform multiplayer, Realms, and Featured Servers. So if any additional issues do arise in the near future before this problem gets fixed, there’s a good chance they might be related.

As of now, this issue is still ongoing and being looked into. Because of this, you may want to be cautious about playing until everything officially gets fixed. Luckily for players, you have the newly launched Minecraft Marketplace Pass and the not-too-far-off 1.21 update with a new weapon and wolf variants to look forward to once everything is back to normal.