Mojang is requiring everyone to migrate their current Mojang account, the one associated with Minecraft: Java Edition, to a Microsoft account. It is a "slow rollout," meaning they are doing it in batches. You should have seen a message in your Minecraft launcher over the last several weeks about this migration. When it is your turn to migrate, you will get a new message in your launcher, stating you are eligible for migration. It will look like this: To avoid problems, before clicking on anything, I would recommend that you make absolutely sure you familiarize yourself with Microsoft's accounts. By this, I mean that: You might already have a Microsoft account through your work or school You might already have a Microsoft account if you play Minecraft: Bedrock Edition You might already have a Microsoft account if you play Minecraft: Dungeons You might already have a Microsoft account if you have an Xbox You might have multiple Microsoft accounts I cannot stress how important it is that you know whether or not you have a Microsoft account before starting this migration process. You can only do this migration once, and you cannot change the Microsoft account you migrate your Minecraft account to after the fact. I would encourage you to go to https://account.microsoft.com/ and see if you have any saved login information for that website in your browser. Check your email for anything from Microsoft. Check on your Xbox if you have one. Just make absolutely sure that if you have a Microsoft account, you know what the email address and password are. If you don't remember, try using the "Forgot Password" feature to reset your password, if necessary. Also make sure you do not use a work account or school account for the migration. If you already have Minecraft: Bedrock Edition and/or Minecraft: Dungeons, I'd highly recommend you use the same Microsoft account for migration! These games can all co-exist on the same account and it will make your life easier if they are all together! Once you are confident that either--1. You know for a fact you do not already have a Microsoft account or 2. You know what Microsoft account you want to migrate your Minecraft license to, and you know the email and password for the account--it is time to proceed with the migration. Click the Get Started button in your launcher. This will take you to the following page: Fill out this form with your Mojang login info (NOT Microsoft!). This is the same info you currently use to login to the Minecraft launcher. After logging in with your Mojang account, you will see this page: Verify that your email address at the top of the page matches the email address associated with your current Mojang/Minecraft account, as well as your Profile Name at the bottom matches your current in-game Minecraft name. Once you have verified your information, click the big, green Move My Account button. This will take you to a new page which will ask you to verify your email address: This page is for your own safety, to make sure you are the original account holder of your Minecraft account. Once you click the Get Code button, you will receive an email. It will be delivered to the email address on file with your Mojang account. The email will look like this: Copy this code in the center of the email, and paste it into the Confirmation Code box: Once you click Submit and Start Migration, you will be taken to this page: This step will require you to either login to your Microsoft account (the one I told you to make sure you knew about before getting to this step!), or to create a new Microsoft account. If you already have a Microsoft account you want to migrate Minecraft to, login now. If you need to create one, click the No account? Create one! link. If you are under 13 years old, your parent must do this for you. You might be prompted to add additional security to your account: I would highly encourage you to do this to make your account more secure and prevent hackers from gaining access to it. You can either add a second email address, or a mobile phone number. I would recommend doing this step now, rather than skip it. Once you fill in your alternate email address or phone number, you will get another code, but this time it will be from Microsoft, not Mojang. It is typically a 4 digit code. Once you receive it, enter it into the Code box: After successfully entering the code, it will ask if you want to stay logged in. You can click Yes. It will ask if you want to "Break free from your passwords." This step is outside the scope of this tutorial, but essentially you can install an app from Microsoft on your phone to add biometric security to your account. For now, you can just click No thanks. The next step will require you to create an Xbox Gamertag: Select the profile icon you like the best (it will show next to your name in the Minecraft launcher after you migrate). Then enter your desired Gamertag. Please note that this Gamertag will NOT be used for Minecraft: Java Edition! Your Minecraft: Java Edition name will NOT change, and has nothing to do with this Xbox Gamertag. This is merely a required step you must do as part of the Migration. If you plan to play Minecraft: Bedrock Edition or Minecraft: Dungeons in the future, this Gamertag will be used for those games. Once you have chosen a Gamertag, click the Let's Go button at the bottom. The next screen will show your chosen Gamertag to you, and inform you that your skin and capes will be migrated to your Microsoft account: Click Complete Move once you have verified that your Gamertag is correct from the last step. That's it! You should see a screen that looks like this: Additionally, you should receive an email that says your account was successfully migrated: The only thing left to do now is to login to the Minecraft launcher with your new Microsoft account. Open the Minecraft launcher and click Settings in the lower left, then click the Accounts menu at the top. Click the Add Microsoft account button and login with your Microsoft account credentials: Sometimes you might get logged out of the launcher without being able to go to the Settings page. If this happens, make sure that you login on the Microsoft account page, NOT the Mojang account page. You might have to click < Go back and then select Microsoft Login. Once you have successfully logged in to the Minecraft launcher with your Microsoft account, you should see your profile icon in the top left corner, along with your Gamertag (again, this is not used for Minecraft: Java Edition). At this point, you can remove/log out of your Mojang account, since that account will no longer be needed. To do this, click the 3 dots to the right of your old Mojang account on the Accounts page, and then click Remove account. If you want to wear the Migrator cape, you can click Minecraft: Java Edition on the left, then click the Skins menu at the top. You'll have to either Edit your current skin, or make a new one. While editing, select your cape at the bottom, and then click Save & Use. I hope this guide was helpful, and I hope you have a smooth migration to your Microsoft account!
thanks for the info c0w! another thing i saw people and myself having problems on - after migrating, i couldn't play multiplayer or realms because of my 'microsoft account settings' i researched this and i found out that this happens if you are a child on a microsoft family plan. to fix this, get your guardian to go to the xbox website and log in with their microsoft account. on the right, there should be some sort of privacy settings or something similar. click there, then click on your minecraft/xbox account, and change all of the settings to allow. (i believe that the specific settings is: turn on 'be able to play multiplayer games' for multiplayer (servers) and 'be able to join and make clubs' for realms) sorry if i break any rules, (if i do, mods can delete post) but i'm just trying to help with a common problem i saw. ~nir
I've got to say, the cape you get is pretty nice. Thanks for this guide @c0wg0d it is very informative!
Thank you so much, c0w! I’ve been procrastinating because I didn’t know how difficult migrating was. Now I can brave the process and get it done, lol
Remember, you can stop and start over any time, even days later, right up until you press the Complete Move button. If you realize that you instead want this Minecraft account to go with a different Microsoft account, this is the last chance you have to change your mind. And it's completely ok if you do. If you have multiple Microsoft accounts and multiple Minecraft accounts, you should definitely be certain which will go with which (Yes, c0w said that already). Also, personally, I would like to strongly encourage everybody to set up two-step authentication anywhere you can. Microsoft has an article, "How to use two-step verification with your Microsoft account". You can search for exactly that, and it will help you (or whoever is helping you) set it up. This is your best defense against having your Minecraft account "hacked" and taken away by someone who was able to guess your password. If you DO set up two-step verification, make sure you save your recovery codes in a safe place, where you won't lose them. It's an important backup to have in case you lose your phone or email or whatever your second step is.
Thanks for the guide. Mine doesn't work in the actual migration step, says to contact support. Yay. I can see this is going to be a pain to migrate the family's accounts. Gah.
Handy tip: I was unable to use my normal web browser (Brave). I had to switch to a mainstream browser to complete the move, in this case I used Chrome. This was not an easy process, from my perspective.
hey c0w can you please attempt to put this as some sort of site? (not like the regular sandlot site) i want to send this to my mom and dad to help them move my acc
You can give them the direct link to the thread, here: https://www.sandlotminecraft.com/threads/how-to-migrate-your-account-from-mojang-to-microsoft.36706/ They do not need to be logged in to the Sandlot, or have a forums account to read it.
This is very informative (and long : o) and very very important for players that have not migrated yet. I didn't have any problems but, this is amazing information for the players with problems and the players that have not migrated yet. Thank you for the very important post, c0wg0d. : )
After I migrated, I had this weird issue when I tried to play offline where it told me I needed to buy the game and gave me a "Play Demo" button. If you are offline, despite what it says, you can hit the Play Demo button and your normal game will load just fine. My understanding is that they are aware of this and will get it fixed eventually.
Ik this was a while ago, but very nice post c0w!! It's extremely helpful... for people who haven't migrated. I wish this was here before I migrated, haha! Thanks for posting this c0w!!