Common PojavLauncher Errors and Their Fixes

PojavLauncher failures are usually easier to narrow down than the crash screen makes them look. Black screens often point to the renderer, class-version messages to Java, and silent closes to memory pressure. This guide starts with those clues so you can test one likely cause at a time.

Black screen after launching a world

The launcher starts, the game window appears, and nothing renders. This is almost always the graphics translation layer failing to initialise on your GPU.

Switch the renderer

Open launcher settings and select a different graphics option, then relaunch. Vendor differences between Adreno, Mali and Apple GPUs mean no single option works everywhere.

Drop the game version

Newer releases lean on graphics features the bridge handles poorly. Testing with 1.12.2 tells you quickly whether the problem is the version or the device.

Remove shader packs

Desktop shader packs frequently produce exactly this symptom. Delete them from the shaderpacks folder rather than just disabling them in-game.

Crash immediately on launch

The game closes within a second or two, often with a log entry rather than a visible error. The Java runtime is the usual culprit.

Unsupported class version

This exact message means the Java version is wrong for the game version. Switch runtimes: Java 8 for 1.8 to 1.16, Java 17 for 1.17 to 1.20.4, Java 21 for 1.20.5 and newer.

Corrupted downloads

An interrupted asset download leaves partial files that fail verification. Delete that version from the launcher and re-download it on a stable connection.

Mixed mod loaders

A Forge jar in a Fabric mods folder crashes on load every time. Keep one loader per profile, as the mod guide explains.

The app closes silently during play

No crash screen, no log entry, just a return to the home screen. This is the operating system reclaiming memory, not a launcher crash.

Lower the allocation

Counter-intuitive but correct: reduce allocated RAM so the system has room to breathe. Half of total device memory is a safe ceiling.

Reduce render distance

Each additional chunk multiplies memory use. Dropping from twelve to six chunks often ends silent closures outright.

Login and account problems

Authentication issues are frustrating because they block everything, but the causes are narrow.

The sign-in window loops

Clear the launcher cache and retry on a different network. Captive portals and aggressive DNS filtering break the Microsoft redirect.

Account has no game entitlement

If sign-in succeeds but no versions are downloadable, the account does not own Java Edition. The launcher cannot grant it — the purchase has to happen on the Minecraft site.

Session expired mid-play

Tokens expire. Sign out and back in; this is normal behaviour rather than a fault.

Mods and worlds not appearing

File visibility issues account for a surprising share of support requests.

Wrong folder

Mods belong in .minecraft/mods, worlds in .minecraft/saves. Files dropped into the launcher's root directory are ignored.

Storage permission denied

If permission was refused at first launch, imports fail without warning. Re-grant it in Android app settings and restart the launcher.

Compressed files

A mod downloaded as a zip archive containing a jar has to be extracted first. World downloads are the opposite: extract the folder, do not leave the zip in saves.

When nothing works

If the same failure survives every fix above, reset cleanly. Back up the saves folder, clear app data, reinstall the archived official build from the project repository and set up one version with no mods. A clean baseline tells you whether the problem is configuration or hardware, and it takes ten minutes rather than an evening of speculation.

Reading a crash log without being a developer

Logs look worse than they are. Three habits turn an intimidating wall of text into a usable diagnosis, and they apply to almost every failure described above.

Search for the first exception, not the last

Later errors are usually consequences of the first one. Scroll to the earliest exception in the file and read the two lines above it, which normally name the component that failed.

Look for a mod id or jar filename

If a mod name appears anywhere near the failure, remove that mod and relaunch before changing anything else. This resolves the majority of modded crashes on the first try.

Note whether the game reached the window

A failure before the game window appears points at Java, the loader or a corrupt download. A failure after it appears points at graphics or memory. That single observation halves the search space.

A fifteen-minute reset that fixes most stubborn cases

When individual fixes stop helping, a structured reset is faster than continuing to guess. Follow it in order rather than skipping to the end.

Back up first

Copy the saves folder, any control layouts you have exported and your mods folder to somewhere outside the launcher directory. Everything else can be re-downloaded.

Clear data rather than uninstalling

Clearing app data resets runtimes, profiles and cached assets while leaving the app in place. It resolves corrupted downloads, broken profiles and stale login tokens in one step.

Rebuild one layer at a time

Set up a single vanilla version with no mods and confirm it launches. Add the mod loader and launch again. Only then add mods, in small batches. If a layer fails, you have found the cause instead of inheriting it.

When the answer is the hardware

If a clean vanilla 1.12.2 profile still fails on a device with adequate RAM, the GPU or Android version is likely outside what the renderer bridge supports. That is a limit rather than a bug, and no configuration will move it.