Minecraft: Unable to join multiplayer game

Derek Keegan · Jan 28, 2023

Hello my name is Derek and I have a problem joining friends worlds on Minecraft. So I play on PS4 with a Microsoft account connected but whenever I try to join a friends world it loads for a little and says “Unable to join multiplayer game”. This problem didn’t start happening until maybe three weeks ago and that’s what confuses me. At first I tried seeing if there was an issue with my internet but I was able to join the public servers like Mineplex just fine with no issues so my internet was working just fine. Then I tried closing and opening the game nothing changed. Then I uninstalled Minecraft reinstalled it and that worked until recently. Now I uninstalled and reinstalled twice but nothing changed, I tried restarting my system, I tried logging out and into my Microsoft account, I tried loading a private world then loading my friends world, I tried uploading my Minecraft save data to the cloud then uninstalling that data from my system to reinstall it from the cloud and still nothing worked. I checked for updates and there’s nothing for ps4 or my Minecraft. I don’t have anything installing in the background so I’m genuinely confused on what the problem is. Help is very much appreciated.

:)

Ben4724

Hi! My name is Ben an Independent advisor and hope you are doing well.

With regards to your issue, have you somehow tried checking the settings of your account as well? I understand you are playing this on a PS4 environment or console but as for the settings it can be managed via the Xbox page.

Let me guide you how. Just go to this link and sign in the Microsoft account you are using for your Minecraft https://account.xbox.com/en-gb/Settings/Home

On the page, go to "Privacy & online safety" and under "Xbox one, Windows" and other devices please make sure to allow the settings to join multiplayer. If it is already allowed, try to disable and enable it. After doing so, relaunch your game to see if the error still persist.

Looking forward to hearing back from you so we can try to assist.

Kind regards,

Ben

Lucas Lauer

Thanks for taking the time to share the screenshot! Yes, that is for sure because of your Xbox profile privacy settings.

Unfortunately, since you have a child account, you cannot change your Xbox profile privacy settings.

You will need to ask your parents to add you to their family group again and then set your privacy settings to allow you to play multiplayer games:

https://support.xbox.com/help/family-online-saf...

And also, changing your Microsoft account birthdate will not allow you to change your Xbox profile privacy settings. The Xbox profile birthdate is set when you create your Xbox profile and never changes.

Changing the birthdate on your Microsoft account does not change it on Xbox. So there is no other way around it. I'm sorry about that.

impywimpy

Sorry for the wait! Something came up. From what you're saying and what I'm seeing, it does seem like a privacy setting issue. I admittedly don't know much about family groups and permissions, so I wasn't sure if I could change my own settings after I left my family group or not.

This is what comes up. It's not exactly an error message because the multiplayer button is unclickable, but this is the message that comes up when I put my cursor over it.

Thank you for your help so far!

impywimpy

Thank you for your help! I'll make sure to rejoin the family group and ask my parents.

Lucas Lauer

Hello, impywimpy. Thanks for reaching out! My name is Lucas, and I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft user just like you. I'll be happy to assist you today.

Would you please share the exact error message that you receive when trying to play Minecraft multiplayer?

If it is related to the privacy settings of your Xbox account, you will not be able to change it. Child accounts cannot change their privacy settings, doesn't matter if they are on a family group or not.

If it is indeed related to privacy settings, an adult account will need to add you to his family group and change your account privacy settings:

https://support.xbox.com/help/family-online-saf...

Waiting for your kind reply.

Minecraft: Unable to join multiplayer game