Installing Experimental Snapshots for Minecraft in TLauncher

Some versions of snapshots by Mojang are called experimental. They are not included in the launcher and have to be installed manually. They may contain numerous bugs and errors, and using them with your saves is not the best idea.

Note! This guide is devoted to installing experimental snapshots. There is a special guide on installing usual snapshots on our website.

As for a brief instruction on how to download and install an experimental snapshot, it is as follows:

0) Make sure you have a recent version of TLauncher installed: Windows, macOS/Linux.

1) On the official website Minecraft.net, find a description of the experimental snapshot you are interested in. In our example, it is A Very Scary Snapshot (link).

 Article on Minecaft.net

2) Scroll to the end of the description and find the Download this zip file link (direct link).

 Example of a download link from Minecraft.net

3) A .zip archive will be downloaded. In TLauncher, click the folder icon to open the game folder.

 Folder icon highlighted in TLauncher

4) Find the versions folder, open it, copy the downloaded archive there, and extract it in the current directory (we used WinRAR, but you may have a different menu).

Copy snapshot to Versions

5) The path to the snapshot's config file should look as follows: .minecraft\versions\1_19_deep_dark_experimental_snapshot-1\1_19_deep_dark_experimental_snapshot-1.json (you may have another snapshot file).

Example json snapshot config

6) Open TLauncher and find 1_19_deep_dark_experimental_snapshot-1 in the version list (the name will change depending on the snapshot installed).

TLauncher с эксперементальным снапшотом

7) Launch the selected version and play!

Minecraft running snapshot menu

Possible Issues and Their Solutions

- I have unzipped the archive in the versions directory, but it is not displayed in TLauncher's version list.

Solution. Most likely, you have not extracted the archive correctly. The path should look as follows:

.minecraft\versions\1_19_deep_dark_experimental_snapshot-1\1_19_deep_dark_experimental_snapshot-1.json

In contrast, if your path looks like this, it is INCORRECT:

.minecraft\versions\1_19_deep_dark_experimental_snapshot-1\1_19_deep_dark_experimental_snapshot-1\1_19_deep_dark_experimental_snapshot-1.json

That is, you have duplicated the folder and got the wrong path. Bring the path to the correct format.

- I launch an experimental snapshot, but the game crashes, and the developer console appears.

Solution. To resolve this issue, try updating video drivers and contact our technical support.


If you still have questions, feel free to contact the TLauncher team:

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