Have been successfully running MC on a USB drive, Windows 7 system. Loaded also on this USB are a couple of needed Forge installs to run mods compatible with JurassiCraft 2.0.5 (Forge1.10.2-12.18.3.2185) and the older Fossils and Archaeology Mod (Forge10.13.4.1614-1.7.10). Everything was set up in separate folders and ran successfully in separate launcher profiles for each. To initiate running this, I set up a two-line batch file with the following:
set APPDATA=%CD%\data
"%CD%\bin\Minecraft.exe"
Up until yesterday, I've had no problems whatsoever. Yesterday the new launcher automatically loaded and updated. Now I can't see anything except vanilla MC V 1.11.2.
Further, when I go in to set up new profiles inside the Launch Options, I can modify everything just as I did before until I go to change the Version. However, I can't see any of the Forge versions I had previously installed. So, I reinstalled those Forge mods back onto the flash driver under the .minecraft folder, reopened the launcher and they still are not showing up.
As per some suggestions from other comments, I also looked in the JSON files but didn't see anything that was inconsistent with the setups on my flash drive. Overall, I like the new launcher compared to the old one as long as I can keep the functionality of what I had previously. If someone with knowledge of my issue could respond, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks again in advance for any and all assistance.
Following up on something I discovered as I was looking at the nativelog file. These three lines jumped out at me specifically as if to indicate that the launcher isn't looking to the flash drive but rather my harddrive.
Application Data directory: C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Roaming/.minecraft
Start dir: C:/Users/XXXXX/AppData/Roaming/.minecraft
C:/Users/XXXXX/AppData/Roaming/.minecraft/launcher_profiles.json doesn't exist, new user?
As a test, what I also did was see if I could recreate the directory structure from scratch. When I went through and set up the files on my flash drive, I opened up the launcher, began playing and MC proceeded to install ALL of the files to the C:/User/XXXX/AppDara/Roaming/.minecraft directory - NOT my flash drive.
I'm not exactly sure what is going on and why I'm having an issue as such. Hopefully someone has a solution they can share. Thanks again.
I have the same problem -- I have 5 separate installs of MC modded with different ver. of custom NPC/other mods. I liked it this way because then I would not corrupt a file with the wrong ver or if there was a forge problem and I can run 2 ver at once.
I saw somewhere to do this:
went from
SET APPDATA=C:\MCnew10 C:\MCnew10\MinecraftLauncher.exe
I'd really like my launcher to pick up on my many different profiles I had configured for servers and singleplayer games. None of those profiles show up, and I've got my .minecraft where I think it belongs, in the Program folder. Used to work just fine, but... y'know.
Nothing as of yet. I'm essentially having to play either on machines that have the Forge versions I need for the mods I'm playing loaded already or install them on the PC directly. It almost appears that regardless of whether my batch file sets the data file to my USB, the MC launcher wants to redirect to the C:\user profile.
Not sure about the rest of the community, but I find myself travelling quite a bit. I can't really load MC program data on every computer I use just so I can enjoy my down time a little more. I hope a solution is in the works.
You basically add the part starting with "--workDir" and state the folder it's supposed to use instead of AppData.
Now, I'm still trying to figure this out, because after applying this method it finally picked up on those profiles I had before, but when trying to start it just quit on me. Starting the launcher again, and attempting to hit play, it now pops up a message about some version error stuff. Turns out it kinda decided to delete my pre-existing profiles forge files, and now can't find the file anymore when looking to download it or, whatever.
If I had to guess here, it attempts to look up that "forge v somethingsomething" for download, but can't find it in the vanilla repository [of course] and thus comes up empty. It deleted it for the same reason, because it found it was x.xx MB in size on my harddrive, when the thing it found online [still "nothing"] came up with being 0.00 MB in size. Thus, my version must have been corrupted and it decided to download it again. And crashed.
Just a very wild guess here. I'll be trying to reinstall forge now, and launch again - or launch vanilla and see where it decides to put stuff and what else might have changed if that doesn't work out. I'd be pretty stoked about not having to use BAT files to start MC anymore if it takes the launch parameter instead from now on, but ma forge's gotta work, man. You just don't take away a mans forge like that and get away with it.
I came here for the same issue. Since the launcher was updatedmy son cannot open the version we use, we wee running 1.7.2 Forge and all the mods are that version, it was working fine and he loves it. Now we can only open the newest version with no Forge, we can't add mods, I have tried running the old version, adding Forge for the newest version, taking out all the mods and just running Forge, I just get errors....it loads the 1.7.2 version with Forge for like a second, but after it opens the first jar file, it immediately gives me a crash error.
This is very frustrating, we were playing it a few night ago and my son loves the mods he has. We should at least have the option to use the old launcher in situations like this. Any help or advice hugely appreciated.
Huh. Would you look at that. It decided to work on me.
I've reinstalled forge, but probably didn't even have to, questionmark...?
I edited my existing profiles and selected the now listed forge install as version to be used.
The "trick" seems to be to use the "--workDir" parameter in the shortcut path. No more .BATs needed, or you could add the parameter in the .BAT when executing the launcher with it, if you feel particularly fancy. For USB installs, for example, to dynamically adapt to possibly changing drive letters.
The first box with a link, "Ziel" here, "Target" on english systems.
Using the workDir parameter, point it the the exact location the "old" game files are in, a folder called .minecraft, so in my example it would be something along these lines:
^ Here's whatever the shortcut already says, mine is this. After that comes the path of the formerly used ".minecraft" folder.
Starting up the launcher, click the menu button next to the Minecraft logo to reveal the row with further clickable categories.
In profiles, it should now list all the existing old profiles again, make sure it states the correct version [forge etc] in the corresponding field. Should be listed at the very bottom.
If it isn't selectable, you most likely gave the wrong folder in the --workDir parameter, or might have to simply re-install the forge version to the correct folder [the same you specified in the --workDir parameter]. If done correctly, it should show up without needing a reinstall, though. I think. Didn't check before, but I only reinstalled one of my versions and all of them were listed when looking into that list after the fact.
Also, in "settings" there's a clicker to disable Mojang data collection. Just sayin'.
Huh. Would you look at that. It decided to work on me.
I've reinstalled forge, but probably didn't even have to, questionmark...?
I edited my existing profiles and selected the now listed forge install as version to be used.
The "trick" seems to be to use the "--workDir" parameter in the shortcut path. No more .BATs needed, or you could add the parameter in the .BAT when executing the launcher with it, if you feel particularly fancy. For USB installs, for example, to dynamically adapt to possibly changing drive letters.
The first box with a link, "Ziel" here, "Target" on english systems.
Using the workDir parameter, point it the the exact location the "old" game files are in, a folder called .minecraft, so in my example it would be something along these lines:
^ Here's whatever the shortcut already says, mine is this. After that comes the path of the formerly used ".minecraft" folder.
Starting up the launcher, click the menu button next to the Minecraft logo to reveal the row with further clickable categories.
In profiles, it should now list all the existing old profiles again, make sure it states the correct version [forge etc] in the corresponding field. Should be listed at the very bottom.
If it isn't selectable, you most likely gave the wrong folder in the --workDir parameter, or might have to simply re-install the forge version to the correct folder [the same you specified in the --workDir parameter]. If done correctly, it should show up without needing a reinstall, though. I think. Didn't check before, but I only reinstalled one of my versions and all of them were listed when looking into that list after the fact.
Also, in "settings" there's a clicker to disable Mojang data collection. Just sayin'.
END OF LINE;
_________________
Full and complete props to you Black Sun!!
I followed all of your instructions and everything worked perfectly!! No longer using the batch file but rather the newly created shortcut and I have all the profiles back on my flash drive and it doesn't want to look at my harddisk user profile anymore and unnecessarily install the programs.
What I still can't understand though is why the command line batch file didn't do the proper redirects. I'm not going to dwell on it though.
What I still can't understand though is why the command line batch file didn't do the proper redirects. I'm not going to dwell on it though.
Seems to me as if the launcher's handling directory variables from the system differently, at least.
Also, I've noticed some flakey bahavior...
If the lancher misbehaves, it helps to open taskmanager and check if it's still running in the background, I've had it close when launching Minecraft and nothing happened. I waited, as it does take some time, but nothing accessed the hard drive anymore. Killing the processes of the launcher [there were 2] finally "unlocked" the activity of the Minecraft-Java process and it continued to load properly.
I think it has to do with the "close when launching" setting. If active, it closes the window, but hangs the process and needs to be terminated manually. If the setting's inactive, the launcher still closes, but doesn't hang in the process and Minecraft loads up fine.
Just my experiences here, happened at least 3 times.
All in all, I like the easier way to interface with the launcher. No more .BATs, just the correct shortcut, with a parameter. Communication could have been better though. Many people had quite a lot of frustration thanks to this update.
Thanks in advance for any and all help.
Have been successfully running MC on a USB drive, Windows 7 system. Loaded also on this USB are a couple of needed Forge installs to run mods compatible with JurassiCraft 2.0.5 (Forge1.10.2-12.18.3.2185) and the older Fossils and Archaeology Mod (Forge10.13.4.1614-1.7.10). Everything was set up in separate folders and ran successfully in separate launcher profiles for each. To initiate running this, I set up a two-line batch file with the following:
set APPDATA=%CD%\data
"%CD%\bin\Minecraft.exe"
Up until yesterday, I've had no problems whatsoever. Yesterday the new launcher automatically loaded and updated. Now I can't see anything except vanilla MC V 1.11.2.
Further, when I go in to set up new profiles inside the Launch Options, I can modify everything just as I did before until I go to change the Version. However, I can't see any of the Forge versions I had previously installed. So, I reinstalled those Forge mods back onto the flash driver under the .minecraft folder, reopened the launcher and they still are not showing up.
As per some suggestions from other comments, I also looked in the JSON files but didn't see anything that was inconsistent with the setups on my flash drive. Overall, I like the new launcher compared to the old one as long as I can keep the functionality of what I had previously. If someone with knowledge of my issue could respond, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks again in advance for any and all assistance.
Following up on something I discovered as I was looking at the nativelog file. These three lines jumped out at me specifically as if to indicate that the launcher isn't looking to the flash drive but rather my harddrive.
Application Data directory: C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Roaming/.minecraft
Start dir: C:/Users/XXXXX/AppData/Roaming/.minecraft
C:/Users/XXXXX/AppData/Roaming/.minecraft/launcher_profiles.json doesn't exist, new user?
As a test, what I also did was see if I could recreate the directory structure from scratch. When I went through and set up the files on my flash drive, I opened up the launcher, began playing and MC proceeded to install ALL of the files to the C:/User/XXXX/AppDara/Roaming/.minecraft directory - NOT my flash drive.
I'm not exactly sure what is going on and why I'm having an issue as such. Hopefully someone has a solution they can share. Thanks again.
I have the same problem -- I have 5 separate installs of MC modded with different ver. of custom NPC/other mods. I liked it this way because then I would not corrupt a file with the wrong ver or if there was a forge problem and I can run 2 ver at once.
I saw somewhere to do this:
went from
SET APPDATA=C:\MCnew10
C:\MCnew10\MinecraftLauncher.exe
to
C:\MCnew10\MinecraftLauncher.exe --workDir C:\MCnew10
it found my files but not forge - not sure how it all ties together -very bad of mojang to do this.
Please reply if you find anything - thanks
(have since reload from backup and launch with a disconnected ethernet cable)
Thanks for the response. I'll be sure to doattoad. I'm looking into alternative launchers as well at this time.
Hey. Any news as of now? Whatcha got...?
I'd really like my launcher to pick up on my many different profiles I had configured for servers and singleplayer games. None of those profiles show up, and I've got my .minecraft where I think it belongs, in the Program folder. Used to work just fine, but... y'know.
Nothing as of yet. I'm essentially having to play either on machines that have the Forge versions I need for the mods I'm playing loaded already or install them on the PC directly. It almost appears that regardless of whether my batch file sets the data file to my USB, the MC launcher wants to redirect to the C:\user profile.
Not sure about the rest of the community, but I find myself travelling quite a bit. I can't really load MC program data on every computer I use just so I can enjoy my down time a little more. I hope a solution is in the works.
I've figured out, as of now, that you don't seem to need to have a batch file start the launcher anymore.
You basically just have the shortcut to the launcher with an added variable behind, a little something like this:
And that reads something like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Minecraft\MinecraftLauncher.exe" --workDir "C:\Program Files (x86)\Minecraft\Data"
You basically add the part starting with "--workDir" and state the folder it's supposed to use instead of AppData.
Now, I'm still trying to figure this out, because after applying this method it finally picked up on those profiles I had before, but when trying to start it just quit on me. Starting the launcher again, and attempting to hit play, it now pops up a message about some version error stuff. Turns out it kinda decided to delete my pre-existing profiles forge files, and now can't find the file anymore when looking to download it or, whatever.
If I had to guess here, it attempts to look up that "forge v somethingsomething" for download, but can't find it in the vanilla repository [of course] and thus comes up empty. It deleted it for the same reason, because it found it was x.xx MB in size on my harddrive, when the thing it found online [still "nothing"] came up with being 0.00 MB in size. Thus, my version must have been corrupted and it decided to download it again. And crashed.
Just a very wild guess here. I'll be trying to reinstall forge now, and launch again - or launch vanilla and see where it decides to put stuff and what else might have changed if that doesn't work out. I'd be pretty stoked about not having to use BAT files to start MC anymore if it takes the launch parameter instead from now on, but ma forge's gotta work, man. You just don't take away a mans forge like that and get away with it.
I came here for the same issue. Since the launcher was updatedmy son cannot open the version we use, we wee running 1.7.2 Forge and all the mods are that version, it was working fine and he loves it. Now we can only open the newest version with no Forge, we can't add mods, I have tried running the old version, adding Forge for the newest version, taking out all the mods and just running Forge, I just get errors....it loads the 1.7.2 version with Forge for like a second, but after it opens the first jar file, it immediately gives me a crash error.
This is very frustrating, we were playing it a few night ago and my son loves the mods he has. We should at least have the option to use the old launcher in situations like this. Any help or advice hugely appreciated.
*Addendum to my post above:
Huh. Would you look at that. It decided to work on me.
I've reinstalled forge, but probably didn't even have to, questionmark...?
I edited my existing profiles and selected the now listed forge install as version to be used.
The "trick" seems to be to use the "--workDir" parameter in the shortcut path. No more .BATs needed, or you could add the parameter in the .BAT when executing the launcher with it, if you feel particularly fancy. For USB installs, for example, to dynamically adapt to possibly changing drive letters.
The first box with a link, "Ziel" here, "Target" on english systems.
Using the workDir parameter, point it the the exact location the "old" game files are in, a folder called .minecraft, so in my example it would be something along these lines:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Minecraft\MinecraftLauncher.exe" --workDir "C:\Program Files (x86)\Minecraft\.minecraft"
^ Here's whatever the shortcut already says, mine is this. After that comes the path of the formerly used ".minecraft" folder.
Starting up the launcher, click the menu button next to the Minecraft logo to reveal the row with further clickable categories.
In profiles, it should now list all the existing old profiles again, make sure it states the correct version [forge etc] in the corresponding field. Should be listed at the very bottom.
If it isn't selectable, you most likely gave the wrong folder in the --workDir parameter, or might have to simply re-install the forge version to the correct folder [the same you specified in the --workDir parameter]. If done correctly, it should show up without needing a reinstall, though. I think. Didn't check before, but I only reinstalled one of my versions and all of them were listed when looking into that list after the fact.
Also, in "settings" there's a clicker to disable Mojang data collection. Just sayin'.
END OF LINE;
_________________
Full and complete props to you Black Sun!!
I followed all of your instructions and everything worked perfectly!! No longer using the batch file but rather the newly created shortcut and I have all the profiles back on my flash drive and it doesn't want to look at my harddisk user profile anymore and unnecessarily install the programs.
What I still can't understand though is why the command line batch file didn't do the proper redirects. I'm not going to dwell on it though.
Thanks so much!!
Seems to me as if the launcher's handling directory variables from the system differently, at least.
Also, I've noticed some flakey bahavior...
If the lancher misbehaves, it helps to open taskmanager and check if it's still running in the background, I've had it close when launching Minecraft and nothing happened. I waited, as it does take some time, but nothing accessed the hard drive anymore. Killing the processes of the launcher [there were 2] finally "unlocked" the activity of the Minecraft-Java process and it continued to load properly.
I think it has to do with the "close when launching" setting. If active, it closes the window, but hangs the process and needs to be terminated manually. If the setting's inactive, the launcher still closes, but doesn't hang in the process and Minecraft loads up fine.
Just my experiences here, happened at least 3 times.
All in all, I like the easier way to interface with the launcher. No more .BATs, just the correct shortcut, with a parameter. Communication could have been better though. Many people had quite a lot of frustration thanks to this update.