Java account migration

The Java account migration^[1]^{[note 1]} was the process of moving Legacy Minecraft accounts and Mojang accounts to Microsoft accounts. It took place from June 2021 to December 18, 2023.

History of events

Announcement

The Java account migration was announced on October 21, 2020 with a YouTube video, a Minecraft.net article, and an official FAQ.^[1]^[2]^[3] The migration was described as a way to increase security through the addition of two-factor authentication, connect all Mojang games to the same account, improve parental controls, and add features such as chat and invitation blocking. It was stated to take place early 2021 and to be mandatory in order to continue being able to log in and play the game. Additionally, it was announced that players who completed the migration would receive a cape as a reward.

The official FAQ stated that the migration would roll out gradually, with each phase including only a limited number of eligible players that would be notified on their Minecraft.net profile pages as well as through the Minecraft Launcher.

Introduction of Microsoft accounts

On November 27, 2020, the launcher was updated to version 2.2.74, introducing support for Microsoft accounts.

On December 1, 2020, the creation of new Mojang accounts was discontinued, and all new copies of Java Edition from that date onward required a Microsoft account.^[4]

On February 28, 2021, the QNA was edited to confirm that third-party launchers can now support Microsoft accounts.^[5]

Pre-migration

On December 2020, the minecraft.net/mojang-account-move page and its redirect minecraft.net/move were created.^[6]

On February 19, 2021, a new YouTube video supposedly explaining the migration process was released. The video was initially unlisted and only included on Minecraft.net.^[7] The video was made public on November 24, 2021.^[8]

Migration

Starting June 24, 2021, players were able to migrate. Players eligible for migration received a notification on the Minecraft Launcher leading to their Minecraft.net profile page. Once on their Minecraft.net profile page, players had to:

Click on "Move my account"
Verify their email used by their Mojang account
Create or connect to a Microsoft account
Click on "Complete the move"

A pop-up notifying a user that they can migrate
A Minecraft.net profile page before migrating
The pop-up to verify the email
The window to enter the code
The window to confirm the migration
A Minecraft.net profile page after migrating

As initially announced, the migration was rolled out gradually, with each phase including only a limited number of eligible players. The following table lists all known phases.

All known migration phases
Date	Ref.	Note
Mojang accounts (closed migration)
April 2021	^[9]	This phase was an internal test.
May 2021	^[10]^[11]	This phase was an early migration test.
Mojang accounts
June 24, 2021	^[12]
June 29, 2021	^[13]
August 3, 2021	^[14]	This phase included about half a million accounts.
August 10, 2021	^[15]	This phase allegedly included about a million accounts.
August 17, 2021	^[16]
August 24, 2021	^[17]	This phase doubled the number of eligible accounts.
September 1, 2021	^[18]
September 2, 2021	^[19]
September 8, 2021	^[20]
October 12, 2021	^[21]
October 20, 2021	^[22]	This phase included all remaining Mojang accounts.
Legacy Minecraft accounts
November 23, 2021	^[23]	This phase only included "a small batch" of legacy Minecraft accounts.
November 24, 2021	^[24]	This phase included all remaining legacy Minecraft accounts.

Post-migration

On February 4, 2022, it was announced that players who do not migrate would be unable to play Java Edition starting March 10, 2022.^[25] Mojang accounts were blocked gradually, with only 1% of remaining Mojang accounts being restricted on March 10.^[26]

On May 8, 2023, it was announced that the migration deadline would be September 19, 2023. After this date, unmigrated accounts would no longer be able to sign in to Minecraft.net or the Minecraft Launcher, therefore making migration impossible. Additionally, it was stated that, beginning September 5, 2023, Mojang's support would no longer assist with migration-related issues.^[27]

On September 19, 2023, a post-migration period was opened, lasting until December 18, 2023. During this time, however, support was not provided, and players migrating in this time frame were not eligible to receive the migrator cape.^[28] The post-migration period ended on December 18, 2023, as announced.^[29]

On March 10, 2024, Mojang began deleting unmigrated accounts.^[30]

Community discoveries

Alternative migration timelines

On January 29, 2021, a file named accountMigration.json was discovered on Mojang's website. Its contents was speculated to be a detailed migration timeline:^[31]

{"version":1,"data":{"migrationStarts":"2021-04-12T00:00:00.000Z","forcedMigrationStarts":"2022-05-12T00:00:00.000Z","forcedMigrationEnds":"2022-07-05T00:00:00.000Z","id":"lucwxMX4cMboBEK4MWu9S"}}

According to the file, migration would begin on April 12, 2021, become mandatory for playing Minecraft starting May 12, 2022, and conclude on July 5, 2022

However, on February 1, 2021, the file was updated with placeholder dates:^[32]

{"version":1,"data":{"migrationStarts":"2099-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","forcedMigrationStarts":"2099-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","forcedMigrationEnds":"2099-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","id":"lucwxMX4cMboBEK4MWu9S"}}

Mojang did not comment on the discovery until April 12, 2022 to confirm that the migration would not begin that day.^[33] An internal migration however did happen on the week of April 12.^[9]

Somewhere between April and May, the migrationStarts value was changed to May 23, 2021.^[34] Then, somewhere between January and December, the forcedMigrationStarts value was changed to February 24, 2022.^[35]

{"version":1,"data":{"migrationStarts":"2021-05-23T00:00:00.000Z","forcedMigrationStarts":"2022-02-24T00:00:00.000Z","forcedMigrationEnds":"2099-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","id":"lucwxMX4cMboBEK4MWu9S"}}

None of these timelines matched the one that actually happened.

Veteran capes

The screenshot used in the "Migration Eligibility Email" help page.

On October 21, 2020, when the migration was first announced, the Minecraft.net article alluded to the possibility of multiple capes being given out:^[2]

And who knows? You might even have more than one outfit to show off – but we’ll tell you more about that later down the road.

[...] you'll get an opportunity to participate and receive your cape! Or is that capes? Hmm.

On December 2, 2020,^[36] after the launcher was updated to version 2.2.74, the following string was found in the API:^[37]

And... a special Veteran cape for each year you’ve played Java Edition!

On June 9, 2021, this text appeared in a screenshot used in the "Migration Eligibility Email" help page.^[38] The same text appeared on player's profile pages on Minecraft.net for a short time after being removed.

On September 2021, while streaming on Twitch, Dinnerbone was asked about veteran capes:^[39]^[40]

"Are veteran capes real?" As far as I know yes, I've seen a few of them.

On February 25, 2022, Ined, a former-Mojang employee working on Mojang accounts and their migration, aknowledged the discovery while stating that veteran capes were "a lie":^[41]

Fun fact Friday! The cake is a lie - so are veteran capes

On May 18, 2025, Marc Watson explained that veteran capes were scrapped due to Mojang being unable to make it "fair and accurate for every player across platforms".^[42]

Official page revisions

These tables show the different revisions of the official migration pages. Some revisions may be missing from these tables if they were not archived on the Wayback Machine.